{"id":69730,"date":"2012-12-05T12:46:51","date_gmt":"2012-12-05T17:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=69730"},"modified":"2015-09-23T14:11:55","modified_gmt":"2015-09-23T18:11:55","slug":"uconns-entrepreneurship-bootcamp-for-veterans-receives-grant-from-nbc-connecticut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/12\/uconns-entrepreneurship-bootcamp-for-veterans-receives-grant-from-nbc-connecticut\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn\u2019s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans Receives Grant from NBC Connecticut"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Army<\/a><\/p>\n

UConn\u2019s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) has received a $50,000 grant from NBC Connecticut.<\/p>\n

The grant will be used to expand the program, which equips veterans with the knowledge, skills, and support to start and grow their own businesses and attain economic independence.<\/p>\n

EBV includes an online course to bring veterans up to speed on business ideas; a week-long immersion workshop on campus for veterans to learn from UConn business faculty and successful local entrepreneurs, and an ongoing mentoring program to support the veterans as they implement their business concepts. There is no cost to participants for the program, which is supported by private donations. UConn\u2019s School of Business became part of the national consortium of business schools offering the program in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause we are privately funded and receive no taxpayer money, the support of corporation foundations is crucial,\u201d says Michael Zacchea ’12 MBA, a disabled vet who is director of veterans\u2019 outreach and support for the School of Business and director of the EBV program. \u201cWe believe helping disabled veterans start businesses in the long run realizes a return on investment that ultimately brings down the cost of long-term care.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program also demonstrates the power of entrepreneurship in our communities, according to John Elliott, dean of the business school. \u201cIt is an essential route for job creation and economic vitality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UConn program currently serves 24 people, and the goal is to expand it over time to serve 50. \u201cThere is a real need for programs that give disabled veterans the tools they need to successfully transition into civilian life,\u201d says Zacchea.<\/p>\n

Since UConn joined the initiative, it has provided training to 37 veterans. Of those, 24 have launched businesses, one has taken a full-time job related to his entrepreneurial interest, four have returned to school, and eight are preparing to launch their businesses. Nationally, the program has had more than 500 participants, and 300 have successfully launched their own business.<\/p>\n

The entrepreneurial boot camp for veterans is one of three non-profit programs in Connecticut to receive funding from NBCUniversal Foundation through the 21st Century Solutions Grant challenge to support high-impact, progressive programs. Charter Oak Cultural Center\u2019s vegetable gardening and newspaper initiative to provide employment and opportunity for the homeless and the Connecticut Pre-engineering Program\u2019s cyber-gaming math challenge to close the achievement gap among urban students received grants of $25,000 each.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe winning programs showcase innovative and creative ways to impact our state. NBC Connecticut is proud to recognize the organizations and provide resources to move their projects forward to benefit our community,\u201d says David Doebler, NBC Connecticut president and general manager. NBC Connecticut featured profiles of each of the winning programs during newscasts on-air and on NBCConnecticut.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The grant will be used to expand the program, which equips veterans to start and grow their own businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":69750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1731,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[132],"class_list":["post-69730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entrepreneurship","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 09:43:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69730"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104687,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69730\/revisions\/104687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/69750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69730"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=69730"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=69730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}