News
Release
For Immediate Release
15 February 201
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Connecticut Community Colleges Support National Entrepreneurship Week
The CCCs prepare future business owners with diverse
entrepreneurship programs
The Connecticut Community Colleges (CCCs) are supporting National Entrepreneurship
Week on February 19-26, with special activities offered in partnership
with Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, Inc. (CCAT). This
is the fifth year of the annual National Entrepreneurship Week, which
encourages support for the growth of entrepreneurship education as
a lifelong process. The Week is promoted by The Consortium
for Entrepreneurship Education, whose mission is to incorporate entrepreneurship
education within all disciplines, to encourage the entrepreneurial
mindset, and support its members in working together to create educational
opportunities to meet the demands of a global economy. The
CCCs are members of the national Consortium. (For up-to-date information
on entrepreneurship activities, visit http://www.entre-ed.org <https://www.mail.commnet.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.entre-ed.org> .)
In his proclamation declaring the special week in the State of Connecticut,
Governor Dannel P. Malloy emphasizes that
entrepreneurship is vital to Connecticut’s growth and prosperity,
and that encouraging Connecticut’s youth and adults to be successful
entrepreneurs is crucial to the long-term growth of local communities,
the state and the nation.
“With unemployment in Connecticut at nine percent, entrepreneurship
education provides an alternative for individuals to create their own jobs,” said
Theresa Janeczek, associate professor of entrepreneurship and business at Manchester
Community College. “Entrepreneurship education is vital to today's
economic situation.”
Pamela Pirog, associate professor of accounting at Housatonic Community
College, agrees. “Our students listen to small business owners
with excitement and ask questions that get to the heart of how small businesses
survive and succeed,” she said. “This annual event is another
great chance for our students to get the knowledge they need to be successful
entrepreneurs.”
Young people continue to be enthusiastic about one day becoming entrepreneurs,
according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, citing an August
2010 Harris Interactive® online poll of 5,077 young people
conducted on its behalf. “Forty percent of youth ages eight to
24 would like to start a business at some future point, or already
have done so,” the Foundation reports.
The Connecticut Community Colleges educate new entrepreneurs through
both credit and non-credit programs and courses, ranging from Associate
Degree and Certificate Programs in Entrepreneurial Studies to specialized
programs, such as Arts Entrepreneur, a credit certificate program offered
by Quinebaug Valley Community College (QVCC). Emerging artists at QVCC
promote their future career growth through learning useful business
management skills in a pragmatic and flexible interdisciplinary curriculum.
Numerous workshops and seminars in business planning, marketing, and
small business finance are also offered by the CCCs throughout the
state.
Other Connecticut Community Colleges are developing similar Small Business
Centers.
The Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education in its announcement of
National Entrepreneurship Week 2011 wrote: “Entrepreneurship
is a driving force of the U.S. economy. During the past 15 years, businesses
less than five years old have accounted for about 70 percent of the
net job creation in the United States. However...there are clear signs
of massive economic competition from abroad. More Americans in the
future will need to be generating more ideas and better innovations
if the United States is to stay ahead of the large populations of educated
citizens in emerging and globally savvy economies.”
For more information on business and entrepreneurship programs at the
Connecticut Community Colleges, visit www.commnet.edu <http://www.commnet.edu> .
National Entrepreneurship Week events at the Connecticut Community Colleges:
The Connecticut Community Colleges invite the public to celebrate
National Entrepreneurship Week through various free events they are offering
throughout the State: Events at Housatonic Community College are as follows:
In the “Lessons in Excellence” events presented
by the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology, Inc. (CCAT), with the Connecticut
Community Colleges, the panelists, who are Business Owners and Budding
Entrepreneurs, will share their success stories and answer questions. The
panel events are also free and open to the public:
February
22, 2011 (Tuesday), 11:00am-12:30pm
Housatonic
Community College (Bridgeport)
Location:
Beacon Hall Events Center, 900 Lafayette Blvd., Bridgeport
Moderator:
Pamela Pirog, associate professor of accounting, Housatonic CC
Panelists:
Manish Chowdhary is the founder & CEO of GoECart. Since its inception in 2000, GoECart has become a worldwide
leader in on-demand ecommerce solutions. The company empowers retailers of all sizes with innovative, ecommerce
solutions that address the needs of the ever-changing web.
Clodomiro Falcon is president and CEO of La Guia Spanish Yellow Pages and Falcon Advertising, both
businesses he co-founded with his wife Aida in 1997. The small businesses that were started in the basement of
his home in Trumbull now operate from a corporate office building in Stratford, CT with a combined staff of
14. Since its beginning, La Guia has emerged as the Leading Spanish Yellow Pages in Connecticut and
Westchester County, NY. Today, the company prints three directories with a combined circulation of over
130,000 copies and has a customer base of more than 1,000 clients.
Dr. Jennifer Lynne is a chiropractor and businesswoman whose practice is located in Bridgeport, CT.
Following her graduation from the University of Bridgeport, Dr. Lynne joined the downtown community with
the opening of her practice and Gift Boutique in 2000. Today, she employs several licensed massage therapists
and the Backstroke Boutique is one of the pillars of the new downtown retail scene in Bridgeport.
February
23, 2011 (Wednesday) 6:30pm-7:50pm
Housatonic
Community College (Bridgeport)
Location:
Room 365, 900 Lafeyette Boulevard, Bridgeport
Event: “How
to Start a Business”
Presenter:
Sandra D. Carmichael, owner, Sandie's Sweet Success
Reservations
required: Call 203.332.5124
For
more information: Pamela Pirog, associate professor of accounting, 203.332.5124
Anson C. Smith, Public Relations Coordinator
Housatonic Community College
900 Lafayette Blvd.
Bridgeport, CT 06604
Tel: 203-332-5229, Fax: 203-332-5247
E-mail: asmith@hcc.commnet.edu