As author Alexander Eliot once put it: “Life is a fatal adventure. It can only have one end. So why not make it as far-ranging and free as possible?”

University Adventures, a new action-oriented student club, is here to help with the far-ranging part.

“The point of University Adventures is to save students from boredom,” said Jose Vasquez, the club’s chief executive officer and a senior majoring in business administration.

They do that by hosting a variety of events and activities for students that go beyond run-of-the-mill social experiences, serving as a catalyst for activities ranging from salsa dancing to white-water rafting.

But this is not your typical start-up club: As you might have noticed from Vasquez’s title, it’s also a company, and all the funds raised go back to the Michael G. Foster School of Business’ Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Vasquez and his fellow club founders are enrolled in “Creating a Company,” a two-part course on entrepreneurship offered by the Business School in winter and spring quarters. Working in teams, students create a business plan, pitch their idea to a panel of professional investors who serve as judges and get several thousand dollars in seed money.

Any capital they manage to raise is put back into the fund for next year’s class.

“They are running real businesses,” said John Castle, the class’s instructor. “This is not a game or a simulation at all. Everything they do is run by the standards of a business. They are out there competing in the real business world.”

The students’ ventures are going toe-to-toe with area businesses, he said, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll even turn a profit, let alone be successful in marketing what it is they’re selling.

Castle, who’s been teaching the class for eight years, said he’s heard pretty much every sort of business plan imaginable from his students, but he’s always surprised by the level of ingenuity and innovation on display.

But now that the groups, including University Adventures, are in their “operating quarters,” those ideas are being put to the test.

While the livelihoods of families may not be on the line, and the class is supposed to simulate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship in a low-risk, learning environment, “when things aren’t going well, it doesn’t feel like it’s low risk,” Castle said.

How the groups respond to economic adversity and the daily challenges of running a small, fledging business is the key to not just their grades, but also their survival in a real-world business laboratory.

The “biggest component [of the grades] is based on how they respond to the unexpected things that happen,” Castle said.

Already, University Adventures has faced its own challenges.

The club has struggled to attract the attention of its client base — students — during a busy spring quarter, said Desiree Seghetti, a senior majoring in business administration and the company-club’s chief operations officer.

But it is off to a good start, she said, having hosted salsa lessons at the end of April with help from the Latin Student Union. The club is also in the process of selling reduced-price tickets for a trip to the Wild Waves water-theme park in Federal Way next month. Other activities on the horizon include a party for graduating seniors at the Twist Lounge in Belltown and, a little more exotically, belly dancing.

These ideas sure beat delivering food or selling T-shirts, said Vasquez.

His group started out with a seemingly simple question: What would we like to do that we’d enjoy doing for its own sake?

They all wanted to have fun, of course, but it can sometimes be hard to make money and do that at the same time.

“When we all gathered together to figure out what kind of company we wanted to start for … class, we brainstormed a lot of different options,” Seghetti said.

The reoccurring theme that came from those brainstorming sessions, Seghetti explained, is that more fun and exciting things need to be available to students to do.

“We know the university offers a lot of different clubs,” she said. “But felt that there was not enough variety or things beyond just the college campus.”

Their solution: selling tickets to events of their own creation. Open to students and their friends, the club wants to continue its activities into the summer, if possible, after evaluating how things have gone this quarter.

“We will either let the business stop, pass it on to other interested parties or, if things go really well, continue running it ourselves,” said Katie Gripp, a senior majoring in business administration and the club-company’s chief marketing officer.

“If we do run it ourselves, we would love to start doing more promotion at other colleges in Seattle and have a much bigger variety of events,” she said.

Some of their tentatively scheduled summer outings including kayaking and whitewater rafting, but for the latest information on what the group has planned, including where to go to get tickets, visit their Web site at universityadventures.com.

In the meantime, Gripp said, “We just hope students can come and enjoy what we have to offer … and hopefully have a great time. I think we have a little something for everyone.”

Reach reporter Will Mari at features@dailyuw.com.