Ben Stewart, a college senior from Gresham, was among 20 Gonzaga University entrepreneurship students who spent a day in Omaha, Neb., learning about business, ethics and life from billionaire Warren Buffett, one of the world's foremost business authorities.

During the trip Nov. 10-12, the Gonzaga students toured subsidiaries of Berkshire Hathaway, took part in a question-and-answer session with Buffett and had lunch with and personally meet the financial guru.

Buffett is chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, an Omaha-based conglomerate of more than 70 companies with nearly a quarter-million employees.

Buffett invites a select number of universities to Omaha every year.

Todd Finkle, who teaches at Gonzaga, assigned a creative and innovative project to Gonzaga's entrepreneurship students. Their objective was to create a new product to catch Buffett's attention to get him to invite the students to Omaha.

Finkle's class sent three products to Buffett: the design for a Warren Buffett pinball machine; a parody of the game Clue, which focuses on Gonzaga and Buffett; and a DVD about Gonzaga.

Within five days, Buffett responded and said he liked all of the projects. He invited the students to visit him.