Startup Spotlight: Trulaske partners with program to help veterans establish businesses
The Trulaske College of Business at MU joined with the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilites, also known as EBV, a national entrepreneurial and small business program.
According to its website, the EBV is designed to provide the skills, resources and infrastructure of higher education to offer training in entrepreneurship and small business management to the post–9/11 veterans and their families. The program provides economic opportunity for veterans through creating and maintaining an entrepreneurship business goal.
Founded in 2007 at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, The EBV Program is operated by the Institute for Veterans and Military Families, also at Syracuse. The IVMF is the first interdisciplinary national institute in higher education committed to the social, economic, education and policy issues impacting veterans and their families post-service.
The EBV Consortium, formed in 2008, works to help veterans with disabilities make the transition to self-employment, develop professional networks and ultimately start and grow sustainable businesses. The consortium is composed of eight universities, including Florida State, UCLA, Texas A&M and Purdue.
The MU business school took interest in the EBV Program because of its nationally recognized work in preparing disabled veterans for launching startups, said Stephen Ferris, interim dean.
“We knew we were a good fit for the consortium because we house the Entrepreneurship Alliance in the Trulaske College of Business,” Ferris said. “This highly successful, cross campus initiative prepares students interested in new business development to gain the skills necessary to get a startup off the ground. This is an additional tool that supports both our entrepreneurship programming and our commitment to service.”
Adam James Florkowski, the EBV national program director at Syracuse, oversees the EBV Consortium of Schools. As an MU alumnus, he’s proud to announce the inclusion of the Trulaske College of Business.
“The EBV Program does not solicit schools,” Florkowski said. “The Trulaske College of Business reached out to the EBV, and the process of being added to the consortium is lengthy. It takes one to two years. The other schools in the consortium handle the voting process, and these schools made the decision to add the Trulaske College of Business.”
A $450,000 donation from the employees of Veterans United, through the Veterans United Foundation, will fund the MU program, which is free of charge for any accepted veteran.
The EBV Consortium will have 10 programs across the country next year, Florkowski said. They hope to fill the program with at least 25 veterans at each school, for a total of 250 veterans in pursuit of their entrepreneurial and business dreams.
Photo is by AdamProcter and is licensed CC by 3.0.
We love hearing about news from our startup community. If you know someone worthy of the Startup Spotlight, let us know at [email protected].