April 10, 1997 Contact Pauline Austin (541) 346-3129 EUGENE--Business school graduates who think and act like entrepreneurs will be first in line for the plum jobs of the future, according to Mark Lange, director of the University of Oregon's Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship. Now, UO undergraduates with a major or a minor in business also can pick up $2,100 in prize money for developing new entrepreneurial ideas. The Lundquist Center is sponsor of the New Business Concept Challenge on Friday, May 30. The first-place entry will receive $1,000. Second-place is worth $500, third gets $350, fourth earns $150 and $100 goes to the fifth-place finisher. Lange says today's businesses want to hire people who can recognize entrepreneurial opportunities and pursue them. The New Business Concept Challenge was designed to encourage undergraduate students to develop those skills. UO students who enter the competition will develop original business ideas based on 10 hot trends for new product ideas identified by "Entrepreneurial Edge Magazine." Those trends include the aging of the population, the home as nest and fortress, sports and recreation, road warriors--people who are using cars as offices on wheels, kids who are home alone, fitness, the shrinking home--how to organize our mountains of stuff, and the information superhighway. A committee of business tutors, program advisers, master of business administration students and faculty will announce five finalists on Tuesday, May 20. Finalists will present their ideas on Friday, May 30. To enter the contest and for more information, call the Lundquist Center, (541) 346-3420. -30 #P-6065/Local,SBUS