The Syracuse Student Accelerator is a unique collaboration between The Tech Garden, the region’s business community, and six area colleges (Syracuse University, Le Moyne College, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Onondaga Community College, Cayuga Community College, and SUNY Morrisville). The Accelerator has one aim: identify entrepreneurial individuals within the 50,000 students who attend these institutions and provide them with the opportunity to pursue their ventures in Syracuse with intensive mentoring from experienced entrepreneurs and local professional service providers. What began as a semester-long experiment with 10 student entrepreneurs in the Fall of 2008 has quickly grown into two linked courses drawing 100 students each (What’s the Big Idea? and Idea to Startup) and a summer seed accelerator program called the Syracuse Student Sandbox which last year attracted more than 50 applicant teams.
This week’s announcement that Syracuse University has received $1.7 million to create a fund for Sandbox teams is yet another indication that SU alumni are strongly supportive of such efforts and willing to put their money behind it. The benefits to both the university and the surrounding community are also becoming apparent. Student companies like Brand-Yourself and Enormo.us are beginning to breathe new life into downtown by launching fast-growing meetup groups and organizing events like the upcoming Emerging Talk conference. Alumni are more excited about engaging with them, and proudly telling others that if you get a degree from Syracuse, you won’t need a job because you will be in a position to create jobs.
The Accelerator serves just 10% of all the college students in Upstate NY. There seems to be plenty of room for similar collaborations across our region and the results could be truly transformational.
