M A R K I N G 10 Y E A R S O F
Information T Design, and S
“Why aren’t students building things?” STEVE SARTORI SUSAN KAHN
From top: Mike D’Eredita, John Liddy, and Bruce Kingma. All three had a hand in building the iSchool’s program in Information Technology, Design, and Startups in 2009.
DAVID BRODA
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his is the question iSchool adjunct faculty member Mike D’Eredita asked himself more than 10 years ago — a question which would lead to a program that would inspire hundreds of Syracuse University students to think differently and take risks. “I always viewed demonstration and building as the ultimate learning experience, for anybody,” D’Eredita said. “You learn your limits, you learn what you can do. You can sit in class and learn Java, but have you built anything? What have you done?” D’Eredita still remembers the pitch he made to the iSchool’s Board of Advisors to launch an innovation class. iSchool faculty member Bruce Kingma, who was serving as Provost for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the time, had already been in talks with Dean Liz Liddy about using money from the Kauffman Campus Initiative and from a Chancellor’s Leadership Project grant to start an entrepre neurship program, so it was easy for D’Eredita to garner support. Dean Liddy gave D’Eredita a few minutes to speak at an iSchool board meeting and he remembers a buzz when he was done. He said a few student entrepreneurs were also at the meeting and when the board saw how dedicated the students were, they were eager to back the vision. According to D’Eredita, universities often accidentally lead students to believe there is only one path after graduation — make a resume, get hired, and work. He said he doesn’t believe every student needs to be an entrepreneur but they at least need to be shown it is an option. As a rowing coach for years, D’Eredita had an idea to curate a similar student-athlete type environment around student entrepreneurs. He envisioned teams, coaches and practice time — basically a small community. With the backing of Kingma, the iSchool board, and Dean Liddy, a program staff began to form. It consisted of many people from across campus as well as from across the city (all of whom are included in the sidebar on page 23.) “It was really thanks to a combination of a supportive administration like Liz Liddy and Bruce Kigma among others, fused with supportive community members,” D’Eredita recalled. “It was important we had all of these champions of this program and that it spanned across not only the University but also the city.” Together, this team was able to launch a trial run of a course in fall of 2008. It was a single class called Technology Entrepreneurship and it was co-taught by
THE iSCHOOL @ SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
