School joins entreprenuership effort for veterans

“Helping the veterans with disabilities of this millennium understand how to start their own businesses and become entrepreneurs is a noble calling for any business school.”
— Krannert Dean Rick Cosier

KRANNERT IS ONE OF FIVE business schools nationwide participating in a consortium aimed at helping veterans start their own businesses.

Created at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management, the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) offers cutting-edge, experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management to soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines disabled as a result of their service supporting operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

The intent of the EBV is to open the door to entrepreneurial opportunity and small business ownership by developing veterans’ competencies in the many steps and activities associated with creating and sustaining an entrepreneurial venture.

“We’re honored to be part of the EBV consortium,” says Krannert Dean Rick Cosier. “Helping the veterans with disabilities of this millennium understand how to start their own businesses and become entrepreneurs is a noble calling for any business school.”

Since 2001, more than 30,000 American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines have been wounded as a result of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. For many of these veterans, traditional employment may represent a lifelong challenge.

Along with Syracuse’s Whitman School, other participants in the program include the University of California, Los Angeles’ Anderson School of Management, the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, and Florida State University’s College of Business.

The curriculum is standardized at all five universities to ensure that all participants receive a consistent and high-quality experience. The bootcamp integrates faculty, entrepreneurs, disability experts, and business professionals in an educational program focused on training veterans in small business ownership.

The program is conducted in three phases: a self-study session in which the veterans complete courses through online discussions moderated by university faculty; a nine-day residency where veterans learn to develop their own business concepts and understand the basic elements of small business management; and a 12-month mentorship with faculty experts at the participating universities.

“With the addition of Purdue, we will again increase the opportunities for small business ownership for the men and women who gave so much for our country,” says Melvin T. Stith, dean of the Whitman School and a former U.S. Army captain. “We are thrilled that the consortium is growing and able to reach out to more veterans. The need is validated by the many successes of our EBV graduates and by the many supporters who have rallied around the program since its inception.”

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and admissions are fi rst-come, first-served. The program is free to the participating veteran. The bootcamp is off ered in collaboration with the Burton Blatt Institute, which seeks to advance the civic, economic, and social participation of people with disabilities. Interested veterans can visit www.whitman.syr.edu/ ebv for more information.