Support will be used to expand entrepreneurial education opportunities for non-business faculty and students
BUFFALO, NY ― Canisius University Associate Professor and Director of Entrepreneurship Ji-Hee Kim, PhD, is the recipient of a one-year $25,000 Faculty Entrepreneurship Fellows Program grant from the Coleman Foundation. Kim will use the grant, effective for the 2016-17 academic year, to expand entrepreneurial education opportunities for non-business faculty and students.
Specifically, Kim will use the grant to appoint an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Canisius University. She will also name three Canisius University faculty members to serve as Coleman Faculty Fellows. Under her guidance, these fellows will develop courses in their respective subject areas to inspire students to gain self-employment skills and experiences. The 2016-17 Faculty Entrepreneurship Fellows are:
- Erin E. Robinson, PhD, associate professor of sociology, will build on various entrepreneurial concepts and skills by integrating these ideas into qualitative research methods and then an applied course in social movements, and environment and society, respectively. Students will engage entrepreneurship in a range of methodological skills such as in-depth interviewing, participant observation and proposal writing. In spring 2017, students will apply these skills in social entrepreneurial ventures by way of experiential learning experiences as they pertain to community-based organizations in social movements, innovation, sustainability and environmental justice issues in environment and society.
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Christy Hoffman, PhD, assistant professor of animal behavior, ecology and conservation (ABEC), is adding entrepreneurial components to ABEC 363: Canine Evolution, Behavior and Cognition. Students will identify ways their knowledge of animal behavior could be harnessed to impact the companion animal industry in innovative ways. As part of the class, students will design products or services to improve the human-dog relationship. The course will include activities associated with recognizing entrepreneurial opportunities within the companion animal industry, developing a business model, and generating seed money and revenue.
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Jamie O’Neil, associate professor of digital media arts and co-director of The Video Institute, is a veteran fellow coordinating a team that is developing the college’s intellectual property and copyright ownership policies. He is also continuing his research to commercialize his Electroskip project. As part of this research, O’Neil is attending two conferences in the coming year and giving a TEDx presentation. He is teaching DMA 215: Digital Culture and DMA 201: Intro to Digital Media. In DMA 215: Digital Culture, he is discussing entrepreneurial topics such as the Start-Up NY initiative and the $750 million New York State support for the Solar City plant. In O’Neil’s DMA 201: Intro to Digital Media course, he is teaching and discussing disruptive innovations and technologies, the idea of convergence in tech product development, the relationship between creativity and innovation, and intellectual property and copyright issues for creative entrepreneurs.
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Stuart Angert will serve as the Coleman Entrepreneur-in-Residence. He is co-founder of Remarketing Services of America (RSA), a provider of lease portfolio services for the automotive finance industry, and was president and CEO of the organization from 1991-2006. RSA was purchased by Daimler-Benz, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz. Stuart was later appointed Commissioner for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation by Governor Andrew Cuomo. He is an experienced entrepreneur who will serve as a mentor and coach for fellows and students providing real business experiences and networks. He is also co-teaching with Kim in her New Venture Creation Capstone course.
This is the fifth year that Kim received a grant from the Coleman Foundation Faculty Entrepreneurship Fellows Program. To date, 17 members of the Canisius faculty have used the grant to apply entrepreneurial knowledge and approaches in their professional fields and classes.
Canisius University is among 20 colleges and universities across the United States who received Coleman Foundation Grants in the 2016-17 academic year. Including new and returning fellows, the Coleman Foundation has committed more than $50 million to promote the option of self-employment, improve the quality of entrepreneurship education and help create a new generation of business owners.
One of 28 Jesuit universities in the nation, Canisius is the premier private university in Western New York.
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