The Martin J. Whitman School of Management’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities expanded to a seventh university. 

Syracuse University announced the expansion to E.J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University. SU also received $2.6 million from the U.S. Small Business Administration to Whitman to fund new entrepreneurship programs for women veterans and guard and reserve families last week, said Ray Toenniessen, national managing director of the EBV program.

The LSU program received its funding Monday for the first two years of operation.

The EBV program, founded at SU in 2007, offers programs and training in entrepreneurship and small business management to members of the military who became disabled while serving in operations Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Iraqi Freedom. The program is provided without any cost to veterans.

One of the new programs at SU, Operation Endure and Grow, will be an eight-week online training program for National Guard and Reserve members, their families and business partners. Toenniessen said it would be important for families to know how to run a family business should they need to step up in a veteran’s place.

The second new program, Women Veterans Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship, will be a three-day conference to provide online training and support for post-military women to become successful entrepreneurs. The conference will be held in seven different U.S. cities over 18 months beginning in May.

EBV programs are also running at University of California Los Angeles’ Anderson School of Management, Florida State University’s College of Business, Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School, Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management and the University of Connecticut’s School of Business.

When a school is interested in joining the EBV program, it must participate in a yearlong process, Toenniessen said. LSU will plan events during the winter, when other EBV programs are not currently offered.

‘The most important aspect is trying to do the right thing for the veterans,’ Toenniessen said. ‘Sure, it’s great that they are a top notch business school, but they have to be doing it for the right reasons.’

SU hopes to expand the program to three or four more schools in the next two years, Toenniessen said. The university is already in talks with universities interested in joining, he said.

When Carol Carter, an associate director of the LSU Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute, heard about EBV, she said it was something she knew LSU had to be a part of. She met with Mike Haynie, EBV founder and Whitman entrepreneurship professor, about a year ago at an EBV event to discuss joining.

‘I said, ‘We’ve just got to do this. It’s just the most fabulous thing I’ve ever seen,” said Carter, who has been selected to lead the LSU program.

The program is a way to give veterans who are mentally or physically disabled a chance to get back to their lives and thrive, she said. The program is a perfect fit for LSU, she said, because the school has a long history of being involved with military service. Several former generals lead campus foundations.

The LSU EBV program finalized its funding Monday with a $150,000 gift from alumni Espy and Scotty Moran.

‘They are Louisiana natives and very patriotic folks,’ she said. ‘They just wanted to make sure the program had the funding needed for the first two years.’

The LSU program will hopefully begin in February 2012, Carter said. Faculty members are already planning. The first session will be offered to 15 veterans, and subsequent sessions will expand to 25 veterans.

dkmcbrid@syr.edu

Published on November 15, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride