Entrepreneurship is crucial to the development of new ideas, inventions, and businesses that will form the landscape of tomorrow, and thanks to the New York State Technology Enterprise Corporation, entrepreneurship initiatives at SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s College of Business Management will be able to help even more innovative ideas benefit the institution and the surrounding community after the organization provided SUNY Poly with a gift of $25,000.

Per the acceptance of the gift, the funds will be used only for initiatives that directly benefit the local Utica area and Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council’s economic development goals.

The College of Business Management’s Innovation Challenge New York (ICNY) will receive $15,000. ICNY is an annual student competition that provides students with entrepreneurial capabilities and civic engagement through a structured process that enables the generation of novel ideas for improving quality of life in New York State communities. The ICNY process combines business modeling and innovation with collaborative design methodologies developed and used by architects, designers, and urban planners.

For Spring 2018, the College of Business Management anticipates focusing on the challenge topic related to addressing the revitalization of Old Forge, NY. The $15,000 in funding from NYSTEC will be used for a variety of student-related needs such as housing, food, transportation, materials, etc.

Recently, the College of Business Management and SUNY Poly’s Communication and Humanities department received a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to establish a new minor in Creativity and Ethical Venturing. The $10,000 in funding from NYSTEC will be used for required dissemination activities as well as allowing the College of Business Management to more robustly support the annual conference with a keynote speaker, student materials, transportation and food, as well as enhancing the scholarly journal.

“I am deeply thankful for this generosity and commitment to improving the entrepreneurial landscape and economic vitality of our greater Utica region,” said Dr. Robert Edgell, Interim Dean of the College of Business Management.