VCU news

By Brian McNeill

To celebrate the service of Virginia Commonwealth University student veterans and to support the goals of many VCU student veterans to launch their own companies, VCU’s da Vinci Center will host a Veterans Day Innovators and Entrepreneurs Celebration on Friday, Nov. 11.

"Innovation is often born out of unique experiences and deep skillsets, both of which are found in members of our veteran community,” said Garret Westlake, Ph.D., executive director of the da Vinci Center, a collaboration of VCU’s Schools of the Arts, Business and Engineering, and the College of Humanities and Sciences, that aims to advances innovation and entrepreneurship at VCU through cross-disciplinary collaboration. 

“Investing in student veterans is one example of the da Vinci Center’s commitment to supporting all VCU students in entrepreneurial and innovative thinking as part of developing a 21st-century workforce,” Westlake said.

In the morning, the event will feature a breakfast and panel discussion highlighting veteran innovators and Virginia entrepreneurs, as well as VCU services offered to support entrepreneurship and innovation.

In the afternoon, it will feature a Veterans Day pitch competition in which VCU student veterans with a new or existing business venture can deliver a two-minute pitch about their idea for a chance to win prize money.

“Our focus is innovation and entrepreneurship, so we hope to be able to tie that connection to the mission of da Vinci — which is to be able to say, when someone comes to us, regardless of their background, that we can support them, and veterans are part of that as well,” said event organizer Somiah Lattimore, director of VCU Innovate, a living-learning program of the da Vinci Center. “We have veterans in our master’s program, we have alumni who are veterans who have come back and asked for help with their startups. This gives us the ability to say, ‘This is something special just for you guys, in addition to all the other resources in our ecosystem.’”

The Veterans Day Innovators and Entrepreneurs Celebration will be free and open to the public. To register, visit: https://davinciveteransday2016.eventbrite.com.

The full schedule of the event includes:

Breakfast and Panel Discussion
VCU Innovate, Grace and Broad Residence Center, 1010 W. Grace St., Room 1231

VCU da Vinci Center, in sponsorship with VFW Post 6364, OrderUp and VCU Innovate, is hosting a breakfast and panels highlighting veteran innovators, entrepreneurs and services offered to support their endeavors.

8:45 a.m. Registration and catered breakfast begin 

9:30 a.m. “Veteran Innovators and Entrepreneurs” panel, featuring:

• Art Espey, co-founder and CEO of Rivata Health LLC, and vice president and board member, Lighthouse Labs
• Blue Crump, GlassSmith CEO and VCU da Vinci masters of product innovation graduate student
• Angelo Burstion, CEO of Solenipro
• Elijah Brown, president of Solenipro
• Blake Johnson, founder, Island House Restaurant and Marina 
  
  

10 a.m. Services panel supporting veteran innovators and entrepreneurs 

• Sharon Kelley, VeteranCrowd president and COO and VCU alumna
• Mike Coleman, military relations liaison to the Virginia Secretary of Veterans and Defense Affairs
• Charles W. McCaffrey, director, Veterans Business Outreach Center – National Capital Region 
  
  

10:30-11:30 a.m. Networking and service organization tabling

Pitch Competition and BBQ

11:45 a.m. — BBQ between Commons and Harris Hall presented by VCU Military Student Services, VCU Student Veterans Association and VFW Post 6364

Noon — VCU Student Veterans’ Pitch competition at Founder's Corner in University Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave.

This fall, VCU has roughly 400 students who have identified as veterans, along with an additional 600 dependents, including children and spouses, who are attending VCU on Department of Veterans Affairs benefits. 

Stephen Ross, director of Military Student Services at VCU, said veterans are often interested in launching their own ideas and businesses.

“They’re young, they’re strong, they’ve got good ideas and they’ve achieved a lot, so they want to work for themselves and they want to make a difference,” Ross said. “If a place like VCU can give fuel to that fire, if it can give life to [their] dream by educating them in a way that they can implement their goals and their ambitions, then it’s a win-win.”

VCU’s student veterans, he added, will be interested to find out more about the ways VCU is able to help support their entrepreneurship.

“We have a lot of very good students. A lot of very hardworking and dedicated students. And I think when they see what a place like VCU has to offer in the way of entrepreneurship and innovation, it’s just a natural draw,” he said.

It's a great way for VCU’s entrepreneurial community to honor our veterans.

Lattimore said she hopes the Veterans Day Innovators and Entrepreneurs Celebration will become a staple event at VCU for years to come.

“I hope that it’s something that encourages the student veterans, the population that we have on campus, and any faculty, staff, anyone at VCU who has a veteran affiliation, whether it’s by them having served or someone in their family, that they know that VCU is doing something to celebrate that,” she said. 

Nicole Monk, director of VCU Innovation Economy in the Office of Research and Innovation, said she is excited that the da Vinci Center has launched a new tradition to celebrate veteran and entrepreneurship. 

“It's a great way for VCU’s entrepreneurial community to honor our veterans,” she said.