SHU, Verizon join to offer college students experiential training, leg up in job market

The coworking idea is persevering with apace, with such facilities reputedly commencing on a weekly basis. (Serendipity Labs announced a 2d Fairfield County location to sign up for its Stamford operation).
But the concept is getting a suggested twist on the campus of Sacred Heart University, where a partnership with Verizon will offer now not simply a room to innovate, but also the opportunity for college students to gain enjoy operating with place corporations.
“We desired to get both students and school out of the silos they are able to once in a while locate themselves in and work together and without of doors companies in an enterprise-centered, progressive hub,” said Tolga Kaya, director of engineering and associate professor of computer engineering on the Fairfield school. “And this isn’t designed best for business majors — we expect students in technology, health care, nursing, and others as properly.”
Opening in time for the autumn semester, the provisionally named SHU Innovation Hub on SHU’s West Campus — the previous General Electric headquarters at 3135 Easton Turnpike — may be the organization’s first Connecticut assignment and its first to be on a university campus. Other places consist of New York City; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Los Angeles; Palo Alto, California; Washington, D.C.; and Singapore.
Danny Klein, senior manager, New Business Incubation at Verizon, said the partnership is “a real win/win state of affairs. We’re able to offer college students with a flavor of what running in an actual-lifestyles paintings surroundings is like, and it displays Sacred Heart’s increasing focus on generation,” which he stated become partially exemplified by using it’s adding “Technology” to the call of the Jack Welch College of Business.
“As a generation organization ourselves,” Klein persisted, “we’re very inquisitive about how innovation works and by using partnering with SHU we’ve got the capacity to faucet into that talent.”
Klein stated, whilst Verizon’s efforts in the coworking area are largely altruistic, “We’re additionally trying to evangelize the Verizon logo, and we’re constantly interested by talent acquisition.”
The SHU space consists of four separate labs in two homes: an 8,000-rectangular-foot coworking area; an eleven,000-rectangular-foot maker space; and an augmented/virtual reality lab and synthetic intelligence lab, every measuring about 10,000 square feet.
The university will faucet college and body of workers to construct programming and curricula to attach the innovation community to SHU’s educational challenge, Kaya stated. A dedicated SHU task coordinator will help become aware of, set off and create engagement among the innovation community and SHU’s faculty, group of workers, management and student body.
SHU also will establish a student concierge carrier that members can use as a resource for making connections with diverse SHU packages, internships, recruiting, events, speaker sessions, workplace hours and mentoring. Members can even have fee-primarily based get admission to to the labs and centers.
While SHU students are predicted to make up the majority of these utilizing the regions, they won’t be the best ones, according to David Rothbard, vice president, Global Real Estate — Workplace Strategy and Experience at Verizon.
“Entrepreneurs and freelancers looking to use the space can practice for membership,” Rothbard said. “This is meant to be a blending together of reviews and skills — once we get it lively, it is going to be a very active space.”
Companies also can take gain of the Innovation Hub via supplying college students internships that overlap with the college 12 months, in preference to stand apart.
“This will open up a totally one of a kind global for our college students,” Kaya stated. “Maybe their internships would require 15 hours per week at a company rather than 40 hours.”
Rothbard said the final purpose is to bridge the space among startup and corporation with the aid of helping the community workspace build subsequent-level ecosystems for entrepreneurs.
Verizon is imparting the technology and offerings had to cultivate that boom as a part of the vision of Hans Vestberg, who became named CEO about a year in the past.
“He has a strong commitment to being closer to the educational surroundings,” Rothbard said.
Getting purchase-in from region companies is the next goal.