Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities Expands
COLLEGE STATION, Nov. 11, 2009 - Leaders of the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) today announced three major initiatives that they say will significantly expand the program's reach and impact to assist in rebuilding the lives and economic potentials of U.S. veterans with disabilities.
The U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Veterans Business Development awarded EBV a three-year, $450,000 grant to help expand the program nationwide and maximize the availability, applicability and usability of small business programs for veterans, service-disabled veterans, reserve component members, and their dependents or survivors.
The launch of the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans' Families, a pilot program, will offer training in small-business creation and management for select caregivers of veterans with disabilities.
The University of Connecticut School of Business has joined the EBV Consortium, which also includes the Mays Business School at Texas A&M, Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Florida State University's College of Business and the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University.
"Since 2001, wounded U.S. soldiers have returned from Afghanistan and Iraq with fewer opportunities in the workplace; this unfortunate reality has been compounded in the last year by the recession," says Melvin T. Stith, dean of the Whitman School of Management and a Vietnam War-era Army captain.
"The Whitman School launched the EBV in 2007 as a step towards providing these veterans with the skills and knowledge to create their own opportunities, support their families and to re-engage the economic engines of their communities," he adds. "The three initiatives announced today greatly enhance the abilities of the EBV Consortium to give back to veterans and military families who have given so much in service to our country."
Texas A&M is one of the EBV Consortium's six schools that each annually host up to 25 veterans with disabilities for cutting-edge training in entrepreneurship and small business management with the ultimate goal of small business creation and growth by the veteran. The veterans, who have all served post-9/11 in Afghanistan or Iraq, learn a range of business skills, including accounting, human resources, supply chain, operations and strategy from world-class faculty, entrepreneurs, disability experts and business professionals. The program is entirely free, including travel and accommodations.
The EBV program is offered in three phases. The first is a self-study session in which the veterans complete courses through online discussions moderated by university faculty. The second is an on-campus immersion where the veterans learn to develop their own business concepts. The third is 12 months of ongoing support and mentorship provided to the veterans from the faculty experts at the EBV universities.
Throughout the EBV experience, students engage in experimental workshops to write business plans, raise capital, attract customers and develop a marketing strategy that is most effective for their business model.
To create disability-related curriculum and assist participants in understanding and leveraging programs at the intersection of disability and entrepreneurship, the EBV is offered in collaboration with SU's Burton Blatt Institute, which seeks to advance the civic, economic and social participation of persons with disabilities.
Since 2008, Texas A&M's Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship has hosted the EBV program in the Mays Business School.
"This initiative represents a broad-based team of faculty, students, alumni and the broader community toward individuals that deserve our respect, admiration and assistance," said Richard Lester, program director for EBV. "Our boot camp for veterans with disabilities is reflective of all the core values that those of us associated with Texas A&M University have come to expect."
Source: Texas A&M Newswire
<< Back to Small Business News & Resources
