New York Post- Last year, Army Reserves veteran Dr. Stephannie L. Addo-Zuniga was knee-deep in the trenches on a daily basis from 8 a.m. to midnight, relying on her tenacity and perseverance to pull her through.
This wasn’t army bootcamp, but an intense learning initiative offered through Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities at the University of Connecticut.
Record-Journal- Since returning from a two-year tour of duty in Iraq a decade ago, Rafael Castro has been trying to piece his life back together. Not long after his return, Castro, of Meriden, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. In April, he was laid off from his job at a car dealership.
Hartford Business Journal – Q&A talks about Accelerate UConn, a new entrepreneurship program at the University of Connecticut, with Michelle Cote, managing director of UConn’s Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and UConn business professor Timothy B. Folta.
WHPX-TV – Michael Zacchea ’12 MBA, discusses UConn’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities in an interview with Shawn Murphy on ‘For The Record.’ Airing July 14.
Milwaukee Community Journal – Is the solution to joblessness among veterans, entrepreneurship? Career experts think so. According to the Small Business Administration, military veterans are almost twice as likely as non-veterans to start their own business, but their unemployment rate stands at 6.7 percent as of February, and has been consistently higher than the national average.
UConn Launches Program to Help Students, Faculty Transform Ideas for Technology into Commercialized Products
New Haven Register – The University of Connecticut is launching a program to help students and faculty transform ideas for technology into commercialized products. The school kicked of its Accelerate UConn program with a ceremony Tuesday in Storrs. The program, which builds upon UConn’s existing technology transfer, incubation and commercialization infrastructure, is being funded by a three-year, $300,000 grant by the national science foundation.
Hartford Business Journal – Backed by $300,000 in National Science Foundation funding, UConn said it will kick off its new tech entrepreneurship program on Tuesday.
CNBC – For a variety of reasons, the solution to joblessness among veterans may be to prod more of them toward entrepreneurship. “This gap is a nut that’s hard to crack, but I actually truly believe that veteran-owned businesses are going to be the thing that heals our country in the next 15 years,” said Michael Zacchea, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and director of the University of Connecticut’s Entrepreneurial Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities.
Hartford Business Journal – The National Science Foundation has awarded UConn $300,000 to become an I-Corps Site and create the Accelerate UConn program, fostering entrepreneurship and creating businesses out of technology developed at the school.
Providence Journal – “It was amazing,” says Steven D’Amico, referring to UConn’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV).
“You’re there for nine days, 18 hours a day, on your business. At the end of the time, you have to do a pitch.” D’Amico was one of 25 disabled veterans who attended the UConn EBV program (one of 8 nationwide) last October. He plans to use his business to help other injured veterans.