CUNY IVE Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Program (SmartPitch.org)
Program Social Networking Page: http://cunyive.ning.com
Since its inception, the Institute for Virtual Enterprise (IVE) has been fostering student engagement in social entrepreneurship and community related projects/businesses through its annual CUNY IVE Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Program. The program teaches students how to run, manage, and measure the performance of a real company by going through the process of identifying an entrepreneurial opportunity to actual implementation of their idea.
The CUNY IVE Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Program meets an important need by recognizing that the acquisition of knowledge is insufficient in today's competitive economy. To succeed, you must be able to identify problems, ask pertinent questions, develop solutions, and implement those solutions. Over the past 10 years, the CUNY IVE Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Program has offered more than 900 CUNY students an invaluable opportunity to develop their potential as future leaders and entrepreneurs. The program brings together student leaders and entrepreneurs, and helps them to articulate their passions and interests into dynamic, applied solutions to real world problems.
Student entrepreneurs from all over CUNY have been supported and mentored through the CUNY IVE Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Program and worked on a vast range of project/business ideas, proposals and implementations, ranging from student leadership, to health and urban environmentalism, and IT solutions.
2012 Program Design
This year the program is run under the umbrella of smartpitch.org, where the best 15 teams will be invited to present their concepts at the SmartPitch Finals on June 6, 2012.
One of the top 5 finalists will be able to participate in a Virtual Business Incubator, which will help launch his or her business in the real world and includes:
- Entrepreneurship Boot Camp in Vermont
- Incubator Space at Sunshine Bronx (more info)
- Mentorship from Experts at IBM
- Access to the entrepreneurship network in virtual and real space
- Access to stipends and angel investors.
In addition, winners will present their new businesses in the fall of 2012.
SmartPitch 2012 Timeline
| Feb 3 | Kick-off Event and Sign-up: ongoing registration at CUNYIVE Ning |
| Feb 4–Jun 6 | Continuing business development, consultation and mentorship on CUNYIVE Ning |
| tbd | IBM Event |
| Apr 23 | Milestone Two Due: Post an Executive Summary to the Ning Site |
| tbd | Sunshine Bronx Event |
| May 20 | Milestone Three Due: Post a 10-Slide Deck to your Ning Page |
| Jun 6 | SmartPitch Event Competition |
| Jun 15-Jun 17 | Entrepreneurship Boot Camp in Vermont |
| Jun 18-Sep 6 | Virtual Business Incubator at Sunshine Bronx, IBM, Institute for Virtual Enterprise and Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship |
| Oct 12 | Business Launch Celebration and Initiation of IVE Fellows |
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