The Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) and the Whitman School of Management currently collaborate on a number of initiatives that support entrepreneurship training for people with disabilities, including “The Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Vets with Disabilities (EBV)” and “Start-UP NY” (one of the nation’s three US Department of Labor (DOL)/Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) -funded technical assistance centers on entrepreneurship for people with disabilities).

Consistent with Chancellor Cantor’s vision for an inclusive campus embodying the principles and practices of ‘scholarship in action’ and with the support of a grant through the Kauffman Foundation, BBI and Whitman enhanced an existing course Whitman 443/643 “Experiential Consulting” to include the principles and practices of Syracuse University’s “Inclusive Entrepreneurship” model.

Coursework combines the techniques and methods used in entrepreneurial consulting; opportunities to learn and practice consulting skills and business knowledge; and a theoretical and experiential framework for understanding and addressing the barriers and facilitators to entrepreneurship among people with disabilities.  Students form consulting teams and work closely throughout the semester with a Start-UP NY entrepreneur with a disability in creating deliverables that create value for the company/organization assigned.

Priorities are negotiated between the entrepreneur and the team and can include, but not be limited to help with bringing a product or service ‘to market’, securing micro-loans, human resource planning and actualizing individuals’ skills and strengths as a key component of their business plans.  The course is co-taught by BBI’s Managing Director for Program Development Gary Shaheen (MPA Maxwell ’86) and Whitman’s “Start-UP NY Program Coordinator, Mirza Tihic.