Kristen’s Kitchen
How to plan a springtime picnic
p. 7
Photo by Cristiana Caruso ’16
April 20, 2016
The Student Newspaper of Saint Joseph’s University | Volume XCV | Est. 1929 | www.hawkhillnews.com
Image create d by Krista Ja worski ’1
7
Graduation tickets in demand Pomp, seating, and circumstance MADELINE MORR ’16 Hawk Staff
“Graduation Tickets Wanted!” “Need an extra graduation ticket!” Right now, graduation tickets are a deseprately sought-after commodity on campus. The NestList has been flooded with requests for extra tickets since the Graduation Salute on March 18 and 19, the two-day period in which graduating students were able to pick up commencement ceremony tickets, gowns and class rings. Posts have also popped up in the Class of 2016 Facebook group: students looking for tickets for their family members who want to attend commencement. But just like the coveted golden tickets to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, extra
crimson tickets to the Saint Joseph’s University commencement ceremonies are rare finds. All graduating students are given a pack of five tickets: two crimson tickets and three white tickets. Crimson tickets allow guests to sit under the main tent. The white tickets allow access to the secondary tent directly behind the main tent. Additional seating behind the tents is available for guests who do not have a ticket. The ceremony is also livestreamed in other campus locations like the Cardinal John P. Foley Center and Merion Hall. The problem is, some seniors don’t think five is enough.
Tyler Morris, ’16, is expecting 16 members of her family to attend commencement. “My family is very close, and we attend all family milestones: birthdays, communions, even small family dinners,” Morris said. “They wouldn’t miss my graduation for anything, and regardless of how many tickets I have, they’re coming.” Scott Spencer will be conducting his first graduation as University Registrar, and has graduation experience outside of St. Joe’s. It’s his job to determine the number of tickets each student will receive for the ceremony. Spencer inherited the five-ticket limit. “I don’t know if five is enough tickets,”
Spencer said. “At my previous institution, which was a smaller school, we only gave out four. Everyone knew there were only going to be four tickets at graduation, and that was just the way it was.” Spencer advised students not to worry. For one, he said additional tickets will be available on graduation day. “Will we be able to accommodate everyone’s extended family, I’m not sure,” he said. “But there will definitely be additional seating available.”
Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities comes to St. Joe’s Post-9/11 veterans bring business plans to campus MOLLY GRAB ’17 Editor in Chief Saint Joseph’s University held its first Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) this semester. The class of 19 participants, including 18 post-9/11 veterans and one spouse, graduated from St. Joe’s EBV program on April 16. The veterans came from as far as California, Oregon, and Nebraska to take part in the entrepreneurship bootcamp. The original EBV program was established in 2007 as part of Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families. With the graduation of the EBV Class of 2016, St. Joe’s joins 10 other schools in a consortium of universities now offering the program on their campuses. Ralph Galati, ’70, director of Veterans Services at St. Joe’s and veteran of the United States Air Force, explained that a donor brought the program to the attention of St. Joe’s after seeing it featured on an episode of “Sixty Minutes.” “So we went to Syracuse,” Galati said. “And long story short, we went up and we liked it, they liked us, they liked St. Joe’s reputation, they liked our geography in the Mid-Atlantic area, they liked our business school. So we got added to the consortium.” A group of veterans with varied business plans were attracted to the program.
From an innovative nail salon to a global database of hospitals, each entrepreneur came into the program with a unique goal. Keith Howards-Streicher, an EBV participant originally from Chicago, had a plan to provide aid to minorities in the military. “I had a concept, an idea to help disabled veterans, minority veterans,” Howards-Streicher said. “Minorities of all kinds: women veterans, LGBT veterans, African American veterans, Hispanic veterans, veterans that live in a rural area, all the minority veterans that make up a majority of the veteran population. I had an idea to help them and I didn’t know where to look. So a friend of mine recommended that I look into the EBV program, and I did just that.” The EBV program is structured in three parts. Participants began the online portion of the curriculum in March and arrived at St. Joe’s for part two on April 9. “The first phase was online, it was about three weeks,” Karina Wallace, EBV participant, explained. “It was textbook stuff, learning about business, the history of it. The second phase is here at St. Joe’s, and it’s just speaker after speaker, hitting every area, answering our questions. And the third phase is a continuing mentorship and free services for a year.” Howards-Streicher emphasized the importance of phase two for entrepreneurial success.
“Resources and services are poured into us every day, from eight [a.m.] to eight [p.m.], and it’s been phenomenal,” Howards-Streicher said. “We’ve learned so much, I’ve learned so much; I’ve learned about marketing, about human resources—who I should hire, who I shouldn’t hire, the process to hiring and how that works—scalable markets, feasibility. The panels have been amazing.” As part of phase two, each veteran perfected his or her venture pitch and competed against each other for a spot in the final “Shark Tank”-style round of competition. “They all competed against three other individuals; we had four concurrent sessions going on,” Galati said. “And we picked the top one from each of the four groups, and that’s who’s competing now [in the Shark Tank competition], the top four finalists. We have four prizes that we’ll give out tonight: $5,000, $2,500, $1,000, and $500.” Nick Nowatney was the first-place winner of the EBV competition. He received $5,000 to use toward his business plan, a high-end nail salon that he will run with his wife in Omaha, Nebraska. While four veteran entrepreneurs received a cash prize, Galati explained that all of the participants will have access to various business resources over the course of the next 12 months. “They’ll have suite of about 15 services
that they can take advantage of that Syracuse has negotiated,” Galati said. “They have x amount of hours of free legal, free tax and accounting, free website building and hosting, mentorship, and several others that are also either free or reduced charges. And the design there is just to give them a jump start.” Wallace plans on taking advantage of these opportunities to continue to grow her business, Young Parent Hope. “We support young parents with a newborn gift basket, and we just want to empower them and educate them throughout the whole journey of parenthood,” Wallace said. “This business is growing so much, and I just want to make a big impact in our community and just empower teen parents instead of bashing them.” On the day of the EBV graduation ceremony, Galati was proud not only of the work of the veteran entrepreneurs, but of the community that fostered such a program. “The university has embraced us and the veterans’ cause to be more veteran-friendly,” Galati said. “The Haub School of Business has been very supportive in terms of giving us more support and facilities, and we’ve had the generosity of donors, both alum and otherwise…Seeing that kind of passion around veterans and helping them become entrepreneurs has been really rewarding.”