Syracuse, NY - Kevin Blanchard had to learn how to walk with a prosthetic leg after he was nearly killed in a roadside bomb explosion five years ago while serving as a Marine combat engineer in Iraq. This week, the 27-year-old Baltimore resident is learning about accounting, marketing strategy and other aspects of small business at Syracuse University’s Whitman...
Kevin Blanchard, of Baltimore, Md., who served in the Marine Corp for 4 1/2 years and was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005, talks with Bill Elmore, of Washington, D.C., far right, an associate administrator for veterans business development at the Small Business Administration, during Syracuse University's Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities at the Whitman School of Business on Sunday. In the middle is Jesse Canella, of Ridgewood, NJ, who served with the Marines in Iraq. This week, the 27-year-old Baltimore resident is learning about accounting, marketing strategy and other aspects of small business at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management. He’s one of 23 veterans participating in a nine-day entrepreneurship boot camp for veterans with disabilities that began Saturday.
Blanchard’s dream is to start his own green roof business, providing roofs covered with vegetation that reduce storm water run-off, cut energy usage and look nice.
“I’ve always had the drive and ambition, but I don’t have all the tools and knowledge,” Blanchard said. “Being able to access that here is just incredible.”
SU started the program in 2007. Since then it has spread to five other schools — UCLA, Texas A&M University, Florida State University and University of Connecticut. Another four schools are expected to join the partnership. SU handles the administration, marketing and recruiting for the program nationwide. The family of Steve Barnes, a 1982 SU grad and managing director of the private investment firm Bain Capital, endowed the program at SU with a $1.5 million gift. Pepsico also has donated $1.5 million.
Mike Haynie, an assistant professor of entrepreneurship and an Air Force veteran, started the boot camp. “We started this program with the idea it was the right thing to do and it resonated with a lot of people,” Haynie said. “All of these other schools took notice and said, ‘How can we be part of this?’”
Many veterans with disabilities have difficulty finding traditional jobs. “We saw entrepreneurship and self employment as a way for them to craft a job that might provide more flexible work hours and be more consistent with their limitations,” Haynie said.
To qualify for the program, veterans must have served in the military since 2001 and have a service connected disability. They also must demonstrate they are passionate and committed about starting their own businesses.
More than 300 veterans have participated in the program at the six campuses, about 100 of them at SU. Four veterans from SU’s first class in 2007 have started businesses that now generate more than $1 million annually in revenue.
The program is free for the veterans, including transportation, hotel accommodations and food. “We want to inspire and motivate them by providing a world-class experience,” Haynie said.
Before they got to SU, the veterans had to complete courses through online discussions moderated by SU faculty. This week they will be immersed in the nuts and bolts of small business management. When they go home the vets will get 12 months of ongoing support from faculty experts.
Ward Halverson, a 39-year-old Army veteran from Dolgeville who served in Afghanistan, hopes to learn at this week’s boot camp how to sell a system he developed to help parents manage defiant children. Halverson is a child and family therapist. While in Afghanistan he lead a team that created a mental health system for about 700 Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees. Some of the same principles he used with them are part of the behavior management program he developed for youngsters. “I know the product, I know the market, but I don’t know how to market the product,” he said.
Daliana Rivera, 31, of Aberdeen, Md., wants to learn this week how to take the drive and work ethic she developed as an Army drill sergeant and use it to start a nonprofit that teaches middle school students about personal finance. She also wants to become a real estate investor and book publisher.
“This is just a blessing,” she said of the boot camp. “I know this is going to help me make my dreams come true one at a time.”
James T. Mulder can be reached at jmulder@syracuse.com or 470-2245.