Celes Buffard ’27 has been working for years to blend her passion for helping people with her knack for entrepreneurship.

That work is coming to fruition in her business, , an app that aims to provide users with a safe space to holistically build financial literacy and wealth, while helping them heal their relationship to money.

Buffard, a student in the majoring in information management and technology, has spent more than a year reworking the concept of her business through repeated rounds of customer discovery, mentorship and pitch competitions. She won first place and $10,000 in the Learn, Work and Live category of the in April for her venture, then called SecondWave. It’s since been rebranded as Franchette and shifted from an initial focus on real estate investment access to broader financial well-being and emotional health.

Buffard says the April win gave her a boost of confidence about the path she is on. From her own family’s experiences, she knows that emotions and mental health are tied closely to the way people interact with money.

“I want a platform that actually helps people at the root of it, instead of putting a band aid over the problem,” she says.

From Real Estate Investing to Financial Well-Being

Buffard’s path to Franchette started long before she arrived at Syracuse. In high school, she helped her father in real estate during difficult times, work that brought her into contact with people in financial distress.

“I understood what it means to deal with people that are under financial stress and financial panic,” she says.

She developed several ventures at Syracuse, including a robotics program designed to bring STEM education to underfunded high schools, before landing on her current focus. Another was an entrepreneurship program for at-risk high schoolers.

Working on customer discovery for the concepts taught her the same lesson: a good idea only matters if the market wants it.

Her inspiration for Franchette came during an extended hospital stay last fall, when Buffard was sidelined for much of the semester. She began sketching out an idea to give everyday people access to real estate investing, which became SecondWave.

But as she pushed the concept through multiple rounds of customer discovery, Buffard found that a recurring theme kept surfacing. The pressing issue for most wasn’t a lack of investment opportunities. Instead, they were held back by a financial literacy gap, and beneath that, an emotional relationship to managing their money.

“I was initially more focused on financial literacy and getting people access to capital through alternate investments and other ways to build and grow wealth through passive income,” Buffard says. “But I found the emotional piece is probably the biggest part of it all, and that emotions are so tied to people’s financial behaviors.”

That insight reshaped SecondWave into what Buffard calls a “learn, practice, act” framework with Franchette. Users first learn the financial concepts relevant to their goals, then practice with real numbers, then take action. The idea is to direct them to partnerships and support from vetted, non-predatory community organizations. The goal is walking alongside someone from a shaky weekly budget to eventual access to wealth-building tools or steps, like buying a home.

The Meaning Behind ‘Franchette’

The name Franchette comes from Buffard’s grandmother. “Franchette” loosely translates to “free,” but Buffard says the name’s meaning is just one reason why she chose it for her app. It also reflects who her grandmother has been in her life: a steady, judgment-free presence who is always honest with her.

“I built Franchette to be the digital embodiment of my Nana’s love, grace and honesty,” she says.

Buffard says the goal is for Franchette to avoid shame-based alerts or lectures about spending. Instead, it will give users clear, unbiased financial information, without adding to the stress that often causes people to avoid their finances altogether.

Her family’s own struggles shaped her view that financial stress is as much an emotional issue as a question of having access to the right tools.

“I’ve seen what financial stress can do to people on the worst end of it,” she says. “Our education gap is only going to widen over time, our wealth gap is only going to widen over time, and I personally don’t feel like we’re doing enough to tackle those issues.”

She credits her iSchool coursework, particularly a database class, with giving her enough technical background to work confidently with engineers for her business, even though coding isn’t her strength.

Buffard is aiming to launch her MVP—minimum viable project—for Franchette by the end of summer, a milestone that will bring the app from pitch deck to something people can use.

Her advice to fellow students sitting on an idea is to do the customer discovery work, even when it’s uncomfortable and take honest feedback from mentors willing to say when something isn’t working.

“Just because the idea doesn’t work now doesn’t mean that it will never work,” she says. “But if you really want it, you have to do the customer discovery to get to that point.”

The has been ranked No. 11 in the nation among the best online MBA programs for 2027 by —the highest ranking the program has ever received from the publication—further cementing its standing among the country’s top online business education offerings.

The recognition comes at a pivotal moment for the Whitman online MBA. The program is in the midst of a comprehensive reimagining, with significant changes already in effect for the fall 2026 session and additional updates planned for spring 2027. Beginning this fall, the program moves from 54 to 45 credits, can be completed 100% online without required residencies and will allow eligible students to apply up to six prior learning credits toward the degree—reducing total credits to as few as 39 for some students. At a moderate pace, students can complete the program in as little as 15 months.

“This recognition from The Princeton Review reflects what our online MBA students tell us again and again: that the experience is personal, rigorous and genuinely transformative,” says Whitman Interim Dean Alex McKelvie. “At Whitman, we believe an online MBA should feel like our school: live sessions with faculty who know your name, small class sizes, real relationships and support at every stage. That commitment to a high-touch, student-first experience is what sets us apart, and it is what we will continue to build on as we make this program even more flexible and accessible.”

The Princeton Review ranking evaluates programs across a range of factors including academic rigor, career outcomes, faculty quality and student experience—an area where the Whitman online MBA consistently stands out. Unlike many online MBA programs that rely primarily on asynchronous, pre-recorded content, the Whitman online MBA is built around live weekly sessions in small sections of approximately 20 students, taught by full-time Whitman faculty. That personalized, interactive model mirrors the high-touch approach that defines the Whitman undergraduate experience and has become a defining differentiator in the online learning space.

The No. 11 online MBA ranking adds to a strong year of recognition for Whitman’s MBA portfolio. Earlier in 2026, the school’s full-time MBA broke into the Fortune Top 50 nationally for the first time, climbing to No. 47. Together, these rankings reflect the school’s broader momentum as it advances toward its Transformation 2030 goal of becoming a Top 25 undergraduate business school by 2030.

Applications for the fall 2026 online MBA session are due Aug. 13. For more information and to apply, visit .

Are you a Syracuse University alumnus who turned your entrepreneurial drive into your own business or nonprofit?

If so, you’re encouraged to apply for the University’s fourth annual , which celebrate 50 of the fastest-growing global businesses and nonprofit ventures owned or led by Orange alumni.

In the first three years of the ’CUSE50 Alumni Entrepreneur Awards, honorees have included the heads of global investment and advertising firms; the co-founder of a market leader in sustainability impact measurement; the president and CEO of a national nonprofit that advances evidence-aligned reading instruction; an inventor who created smiley-faced sponges for a worldwide cleaning product company; the managing partner of global operations for a leading distributor of high-quality, fresh flowers; and many others.

Applications for the  are being accepted through July 27.

Alumni of any school or college, graduates of the University’s executive education programs and alumni of entrepreneurship programs operated by the  are eligible to apply.

“The ‘CUSE50 Awards have become one of my favorite Syracuse traditions, and this fourth year feels more exciting than ever,” says Lauren Villanueva, vice president of .��“These awards celebrate the innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of alumni who honed their talents at Syracuse and are eager to come back and share what they’ve learned with the next generation of Orange innovators. Watching that ‘full-circle moment’ unfold on campus never gets old. It’s inspiring for our students, and it’s a powerful reminder of just how far a Syracuse education can take you.”

The ’CUSE50 Alumni Entrepreneur Awards ceremony will occur on campus on Thursday, Nov. 12, in the National Veterans Resource Center at the Daniel and Gayle D’Aniello Building. Earlier in the day, during the ’CUSE50 Student Summit, honorees will share insights with current students as part of a series of campus engagement sessions held at the Whitman School.

“What makes the ’CUSE50 celebration so special is what happens in the room before the awards are handed out,” says , interim dean and professor of entrepreneurship in the . “Our students get to sit down with alumni entrepreneurs and hear about what goes into building a successful business. That kind of access is one reason why so many of our students leave the summit already thinking differently about what’s possible for them.”

Ready to Join the Fourth Annual Class of ’CUSE50 Awardees?

Review the  for the ’CUSE50 Awards.

The deadline to apply for recognition is Monday, July 27. To learn more about the ’CUSE50 Awards and nominate your company for recognition, visit  or send an email to cuse50@syr.edu. Past ’CUSE50 applicants, including previous winners, are encouraged to apply again.

Sam Kurland ’26 spent more than five years in and out of hospitals to treat chronic brain inflammation when she was 10 years old. Kurland’s doctors eventually diagnosed her with autoimmune encephalopathy, caused by an infection.

The PET scan that displayed widespread inflammation in her brain became the inspiration for Kurland’s business venture: a line of high-end fashion garments featuring blown-up imagery of brain scans, cancer cell slides and histology printed onto clothing and accessories.

“I want to turn something scary into something beautiful,” says Kurland, who earned a graphic design major from the and a minor in fashion design from the . “You wouldn’t even know you were looking at medical imagery when you’re looking at the pieces.”

Kurland arrived at the without a business plan, a legal entity or a clear sense of what came next.

On her first visit, Sarah Schreiber ’26 sat down and produced a document highlighting Kurland’s business goals—including her dream of one day dressing celebrities for the Met Gala—that served as the foundation for a business plan.

“She got the ideas in my head and turned them into something concrete,” Kurland says. “That was the moment when I thought, okay, I can actually do this. We’re all going through this totally new experience of starting our businesses together.”

Turning a Concept Into a Product

Kurland hopes to launch her clothing line—featuring dresses, blouses, handbags, ties and pocket squares—for presale by the end of the month.

A scan of Kurland’s brain tumor adorns the front of a tank top, while imagery of her sister’s rare thoracic injury inspired another of Kurland’s fashion pieces.

Twenty percent of proceeds will go directly to the specific medical research initiatives depicted in each piece. Kurland has been in contact with medical research facilities to secure additional imaging.

“What we wear matters. I’m trying to bring meaning back to clothing. There is emotional resonance and value that goes beyond something looking cute,” Kurland says.

Kurland plans to launch on Coveted, a mobile fashion marketplace founded by fellow LaunchPad member Naheem Cadiz III ’28.

That kind of peer-driven support defines the LaunchPad experience for many student entrepreneurs.

Finding His Place, Then Paying It Forward

Shahaan Khan had just started working at the LaunchPad when he overheard a student entrepreneur, Haley Greene, discussing the difficulty of finding a reliable backend developer for her mental health app, Miirror.

Khan, who is pursuing a master’s degree in applied human-centered AI from the , helped Greene better understand behavioral patterns of Miirror’s app users, including how and where users were engaging with the platform. Just as important, Khan showed where users were abandoning the app.

Last semester, Khan held weekly AI office hours at the LaunchPad for students seeking guidance on AI tools to advance their ideas.

“When I’m in the LaunchPad, I just think of it as all my friends,” Khan says. “It’s a warm environment, an open-concept space where everybody cares about helping solve the problems we’re all working on.”

Competitors Who Coach Each Other

After Kurland and Greene competed for Hult Prize funding, Greene approached Kurland with a suggestion for improving her pitch.

As she listened to Kurland’s pitch, Greene noticed that Kurland’s personal story—her years spent in the hospital and the medical journey that inspired the brand—wasn’t featured prominently enough in the presentation. Greene pulled up Kurland’s slide deck and started rearranging it.

“Haley said, ‘Your story is your product,’” Kurland says. “‘That’s so much more powerful.’ And she’s right. It’s not like anyone can just make this. It’s because of my passion for helping fund medical research that makes it what it is.”

Kurland incorporated the feedback, restructuring her pitch deck to lead with the more personal narrative rather than the product itself.

“That’s just the kind of supportive environment we have among entrepreneurs on campus,” Kurland says. “Students don’t view each other as competitors. Everyone is willing to offer advice and feedback to help you improve your idea.”

Learning Together, Growing Together

When entrepreneur Jacob Kaplan ’27 expressed interest in wearing one of Kurland’s pieces at a LaunchPad pitch event, she decided to branch out into menswear.

“I almost turned a blind eye to that possibility, but thankfully, I was able to connect with the right people who opened my eyes to a whole new audience,” Kurland says.

For Kurland and countless student entrepreneurs, the LaunchPad doesn’t simply offer access to resources; it provides a community where students can bounce ideas off each other.

“I don’t have a team,” Kurland says. “But it feels like I’m not doing it alone. If I’m stressed or I don’t know what the next move is, I can go, and there are people there who are willing to help. That collaborative space is truly special.”

University researchers with groundbreaking ideas in semiconductors, microelectronics or advanced materials are invited to apply for an entrepreneurship-focused hybrid course offered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program through Syracuse University this fall. The virtual course, which runs through September and October, includes an opportunity for an in-person immersion experience at SEMICON West, North America’s premier microelectronics conference, in San Francisco in October.

Interested working individual researchers and innovators .

The course provides hands-on entrepreneurship training and one-on-one coaching tailored to researchers working in far-reaching sectors that are critical to the next generation of semiconductor innovation. Successful applicants will be researchers working on solutions to enhance the performance and efficiency of electronic devices with applications to semiconductors across industries including big chip fabrication projects, consumer electronics, automotive, telecommunications, healthcare, artificial intelligence hardware and high-power materials.

Applications might range from 3D integrated circuits, system-on-chip integration and computing chips for tasks like pattern recognition, learning and sensory processing. Big data and machine learning innovations are also of interest, as well as conventional semiconductor design and manufacturing applications. The course benefits anyone interested in being part of the research, design, commercialization and supply chain associated with these industries.

Offered jointly by Syracuse University and Cornell University as part of the Interior Northeast I-Corps Hub (IN I-Corps), this NSF-sponsored course is open to faculty, postdocs, Ph.D. and master’s students, undergraduates and community-based startups working on semiconductor-related technologies with commercial potential.

Syracuse’s NSF I-Corps program is a partnership between and . The Syracuse Center of Excellence () serves as tech scout for the program.

The course opens for pre-course work on Monday, Sept. 21, and will follow this schedule:

Virtual:

Session 1: Monday, Sept. 28, from 10 a.m. to noon

Session 2a: Wednesday, Sept. 30 (individual mentoring sessions)

Session 2b: Friday, Oct. 2, from 10 a.m. to noon

Session 3: Wednesday, Oct. 5, from 10 a.m. to noon

Session 4: Wednesday, Oct. 7 (individual mentoring sessions)

In-person at SEMICON West in San Francisco:  

Tuesday, Oct. 13, through Thursday, Oct. 15

Virtual wrap-up:

Session 6: Wednesday, Oct. 21, from 10 a.m. to noon

Teams selected to participate may receive up to $5,000 in travel reimbursement, enabling participants to conduct in-person customer discovery interviews and attend specialized workshops during SEMICON West. Participation in this conference provides unmatched exposure to global industry leaders, cutting-edge technologies and potential collaborators or customers. Conference attendees include executives, engineers, startups and policy leaders shaping the future of chips.

Participants who complete regional courses may be eligible to receive lineage and a letter of recommendation for the  which includes a $50K grant).��Learn more about courses here: and .

For questions about this SEMICON course, contact Linda Dickerson Hartsock, advisor for strategic initiatives for Syracuse University Libraries, at ldhart01@syr.edu

The recently announced the of as chair of the Department of Finance. Weinbaum, who is professor of finance and Harris Fellow at Whitman, has served as department chair since 2023 and will continue in the role for an additional term.

Under Weinbaum’s leadership, the finance department has seen significant growth and momentum. During his tenure, the department launched 12 new courses, including a financial literacy course available to students across the University. Three new faculty members have joined the department, the master of science in finance and master of science in real estate programs have been revised and strengthened and the department’s doctoral program has grown to seven students in residence.

“David’s leadership of the finance department has been transformative,” says Whitman Interim Dean Alex McKelvie. “The growth and innovation we have seen in our faculty, our educational programming and our Ph.D. program reflect his vision and his commitment to excellence. He has done an outstanding job in this role and in collaborating with the faculty. We are fortunate to have David continue as department chair.”

Weinbaum’s research focuses on empirical asset pricing and derivatives, with work published in leading academic journals in finance, economics and accounting. His research has been featured in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and U.S. News and World Report. He teaches investments at the undergraduate level and has taught managerial finance and valuation in the online MBA program. He also teaches a finance course at the Ph.D. level.

Before joining Whitman, Weinbaum was a member of the faculty at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, where he received the Globe Award for excellence in teaching. He previously worked as a swap trader at BNP Paribas and earned his Ph.D. at New York University’s Stern School of Business. In 2016, he received the Whitman School faculty teaching award.

Two students whose ventures focus on accessible design and student well-being have been awarded Spring 2026 Intelligence++ Venture Grants through Syracuse University’s initiative, administered through .

The competitive funding program supports student innovators developing products, services and creative ventures that improve accessibility and quality of life for people with intellectual disabilities and neurodivergent communities.

This year’s recipients are Rudransh Rajput ’28 () and Cassia Soodak ’26 (). Both ventures emerged from the interdisciplinary Intelligence++ program, which combines accessible entrepreneurship, disability-centered design and innovation.

Rajput earned funding to advance development of RUDY AI, an AI-powered platform designed to help neurodivergent and socially vulnerable students build meaningful social connections and improve campus belonging.

A student in the and an 1870 Scholar, Rajput developed the idea after observing the growing problem of student isolation and disengagement on college campuses. The platform focuses on students who may struggle to navigate traditional social environments, including students with ADHD, autism, anxiety and related challenges.

“This grant means we can move from scrappy mode to building a prototype for discovery and validation,” Rajput says. “We know the problem is real because we’ve seen it firsthand on campus. This gives us the runway to get in front of more universities, refine the product with real student feedback and prove that you can measurably move the needle on retention and loneliness at the same time.”

Rajput will work closely with the Intelligence++ program and during the fall semester, focusing on user-centered product development and testing.

The second grant recipient, Soodak, is building a venture at the intersection of adaptive fashion, disability studies and nightlife culture. Her company, Ms. Spellled, creates sensory-friendly ravewear and club clothing designed specifically for neurodivergent individuals. The garments feature tactile and fidget-friendly elements intended to support sensory regulation while maintaining bold, expressive aesthetics.

Soodak, who previously served as an InclusiveU peer mentor and event planner, says the venture was inspired by her own experiences with ADHD, autism, dyslexia and sensory processing differences.

“Neurodivergent people shape rave culture, yet remain largely invisible within it,” Soodak says. “Ms. Spellled aims to redefine adaptive design as expressive, culturally relevant and empowering.”

The venture combines adaptive design with alternative fashion aesthetics through upcycled garments, tactile fabric manipulations, custom graphics and handmade pieces.

Soodak has already tested prototypes with neurodivergent users and models in both fashion-show and real-world rave settings, receiving strong feedback on both the sensory functionality and visual appeal of the designs. “With this funding, I will be able to transition Ms. Spellled from a thesis-based project into an actively developing fashion brand and business,” Soodak says.

She plans to use the grant to produce an initial collection of sensory-friendly garments, expand prototype testing and launch the brand through pop-up events and independent retail partnerships in New York City.

Soodak is a graduate of the Intelligence++ program and previously won a top student prize at the annual Intelligence++ Innovation Showcase, where student inventions are evaluated by industry experts and educators. Her work has also earned recognition within the University’s fashion program, including selection for a New York City design showcase and the Joan Rysitzky Prize for Excellence in Surface Design.

Her senior thesis collection, “DanceFloor Freaks,” explored Brooklyn techno clubs as safe spaces for neurodivergent and queer communities and became the creative foundation for Ms. Spellled. She has also participated in adaptive fashion networking events and developed relationships with organizations including Runway of Dreams and ARISE.

Edouard Agbor has spent years building a solution to a problem he knows intimately.

Growing up in Cameroon, he watched talented students lose access to life-changing educational opportunities—not because they weren’t qualified, but because the system designed to help them was broken, expensive and often predatory.

A first-generation student, Agbor’s parents did not attend university. He was unprepared to navigate a complex education system alone and, like so many promising students, fell victim to scam.

“I lost over $800,” says Agbor. “That money took me over a year and a half to save.”

Inspired by his experience, Agbor, a graduate student in applied human-centered AI in the , founded , an AI platform that connects African students with verified academic and funding opportunities across the continent and the world.

“I started building the system for two reasons: so that nobody would have to be in my shoes, and to collect information that will permit the continent to get ahead,” says Agbor. “Instead of just mapping to academic excellence, what about the talents that these people have? Can it open the door? We increase their chances of getting a scholarship, fellowship and getting access to those funds without being scammed.”

A Platform Built on Personal Experience

GritGateway’s matching engine uses a psychometric model called GritScore that measures resilience, resourcefulness and experience rather than GPA alone. The platform hasn’t formally launched or spent any marketing dollars and has already attracted 1,000 student users across more than 25 African countries.

Agbor is confident the technology works because he used it to advance his own education. It was the GritGateway tool that suggested Syracuse University would be a good fit for him, given his interests in AI and entrepreneurship and such resources as the at . He’s been a regular at the LaunchPad since he arrived on campus in January. That’s where he connected with teammate Souleymane Bah ’26, a then-senior in the . Bah believed in his venture and helped him share, pitch and grow the idea, freeing Agbor to continue to develop and test features.

“I’ve been so impressed with how this team has refined their business development plan, but even more impressed with the tremendous amount of work they’ve put into the service and how they’ve leveraged AI tools,” says Traci Geisler, director of the LaunchPad. “This venture has identified and addressed not only a gap in service but a true need. The interest in this product has been amazing and just continues to grow.”

Putting It to the Test

Agbor and Bah are not the only ones who believe in this idea. The team won several entrepreneurship competitions this past spring, including the Lerner Center Social Impact Pitch Competition, where GritGateway took home the top prize of $5,000.

The competition, now in its second year, is hosted by the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health in partnership with the LaunchPad. This year’s theme—Building Healthier Communities Through Innovation—drew 12 undergraduate teams from eight of the University’s schools and colleges, competing in a two-round format evaluated on problem-solving, viability, research and development, and social impact.

Other winners of the Lerner competition include rising senior Ava Ray Lubkemann ֶ’27, an environmental engineering student, in second place. Lubkemann won $3,000 for a mobile thrift model built around a converted bus that collects donated clothing and redistributes it to underserved communities.

Taking home third place and $1,000 was Haley Greene ’26, who graduated in May with a degree in advertising and applied communication from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, for a digital platform called Miirror that reimagines eating disorder recovery.

Vicente Cuevas, the Lerner Center’s undergraduate student engagement manager, says this year’s competition showcased exactly the kind of thinking it was designed to encourage. He says, “This competition is an opportunity for students to move from idea to action, and to see themselves as changemakers capable of building healthier communities through innovation.”

What Comes Next

All three teams are reinvesting their prize money in their ventures to support continued growth. Agbor and Bah plan to bring GritGateway to scale through new partnerships, while Bah will remain at Syracuse to pursue an M.P.A. at the Maxwell School.

Later this month, the system will launch a dedicated environment for African universities, high schools and nongovernmental organizations to support their students on the platform. Agbor projects 10,000 users by September, and plans are in development to open access to U.S. universities interested in recruiting African talent.

When arrived at Syracuse University’s in the fall of 2006 as an assistant professor, he had recently transitioned out of the Air Force as an officer after 14 years of service. He arrived in Syracuse with no particular intention of staying more than a few years. “My brain was sort of wired,” he told students at a recent fireside chat to celebrate Whitman Day. “I was used to staying in a place for a couple years.”

Nearly two decades later, on March 3, 2026, the Syracuse University Board of Trustees appointed him the institution’s 13th chancellor and president. The arc from his arrival to the University’s highest office is a story of scholarship put to use and of research that charted a new course.

The Scholar Behind the Work

Haynie completed a doctoral degree in entrepreneurship and business strategy at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His scholarship has been published in the world’s leading business and entrepreneurship journals, and his body of work has now been cited approximately 9,000 times.

That number places him, as Whitman Interim Dean Alex McKelvie said as he introduced Haynie at the fireside chat, “among the most influential entrepreneurship scholars in the world.” At Syracuse, he was recognized for his work by earning the Barnes Professorship and, in 2018, was named University Professor, the University’s highest faculty distinction.

“What makes Mike’s scholarly record so remarkable is not just the volume or the impact—it’s the context,” says McKelvie. “He has 21 journal publications with more than 100 citations each, including five with more than 500 citations each, while simultaneously building programs, leading institutions and taking on the University’s most pressing challenges. Most scholars of his caliber are doing research full time. Mike was doing it as a fraction of his job. That is what separates him.”

Much of Haynie’s work focused on entrepreneurial cognition: how successful founders think, decide and act under uncertainty. His findings pointed repeatedly toward military veterans—a population largely absent from entrepreneurship discourse, yet shaped by training that produces exactly the traits research links to high-performing entrepreneurs: quick consequential decisions, leadership under pressure and persistence through unpredictable environments. What was missing was a program to help them translate those skills into building a business.

An Entrepreneurship Program for Veterans

About six months into his Whitman appointment, Haynie hit upon what a program could look like. His idea was to bring seriously wounded post-9/11 veterans to campus and help them become small business owners. “Here I am, an entrepreneurship professor,” he said. “I’m a veteran myself. It’s something I could do.”

He proposed the program to then-Whitman Dean Melvin Stith, a Vietnam veteran, and set one condition that the program would be free. Stith’s response: “Sure. Go raise the money.”

Haynie had never raised money before. Two months before the first program was set to launch, he had raised roughly $20,000 of the $120,000 he needed. It was at that time that he first met Martin J. Whitman, a University benefactor and the school’s namesake.

Whitman, a World War II veteran, wrote a check and covered the gap. “He made a point to me that has stuck with me now for 20 years,” Haynie said, “that this is an institution that gives people a chance when others would not.”

That first program, launched in 2007, became the : a three-phase curriculum combining 30 days of online business instruction, a nine-day residential at Whitman, and a year of mentorship.

More than 2,400 veterans have now graduated from EBV. Approximately 79% have started or continued to grow their own businesses, and 92% of those businesses remain in operation. The program expanded into a national consortium headquartered at Syracuse.

Inc. magazine named EBV one of the country’s 10 best entrepreneurship programs in 2011, the Department of the Army recognized it as a national best practice and in May 2013 CBS News’ “60 Minutes” spent nearly a month on campus following the work.

From Program to Institute

As EBV’s profile grew, letters from World War II veterans led Haynie to Syracuse’s own history. GIs who accepted Chancellor William Pearson Tolley’s 1944 open invitation had transformed the school from a 4,100-student regional college into a research university of nearly 18,000. Fast forward decades later, Haynie saw that no center in American higher education was systematically studying veterans’ and military families’ concerns.

�մǻ岹��’s is a national hub offering career, entrepreneurship and transition programs alongside research, policy analysis and community partnerships for service members, veterans and their families.

With initial funding he secured from JPMorgan Chase, the IVMF became the nation’s first interdisciplinary academic institute chartered to advance the policy, economic and wellness concerns of America’s veterans and military-connected families. Through partnerships with corporations, government agencies and nonprofits, it built new pathways for veterans transitioning to civilian life. More than 230,000 service members, veterans and military family members have participated in its programs.

Haynie served as the University’s vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation for more than a decade. He went on to chair the U.S. Secretary of Labor’s Advisory Committee on Veterans’ Employment, Training and Employer Outreach and to help lead long-term reform at Veterans Affairs. Time magazine named him one of 16 individuals working toward a more equal America in 2020, the same year he led the University’s COVID-19 response, which earned him the 2021 Chancellor’s Medal.

A Scholar and Teacher at Heart

Twenty years after he first arrived on campus, Haynie’s dedication to the Whitman School remains as strong as ever. In 2023, he was named the school’s executive dean. In that role, he provided strategic direction for Whitman’s Transformation 2030 plan, under which the school has risen in national rankings, strengthened its research profile and expanded experiential learning opportunities. Under his leadership, Whitman recently launched the in partnership with the .

“I’ve had the rare opportunity to see Mike Haynie in action across nearly every layer of the University’s innovation ecosystem. What stands out is how deeply personal his commitment to entrepreneurship really is. Mike doesn’t just lead programs. He lives the work,” says Linda Dickerson Hartsock, founder and retired executive director of the University’s Blackstone Launchpad. “He understands the creative energy of startup ventures because he embodies those qualities himself.”

Hartsock says Haynie’s connection to students really defines him. “As a mentor, he has been instrumental to some of our most promising student and alumni startups,” she says. “He has a way of pushing founders to think bigger while grounding them in disciplined execution.”

A Chancellor Formed by His Work

Haynie’s appointment as Syracuse’s 13th chancellor was the natural extension of what his scholarship had always done: identify a problem, build something real in response and grow it.

At the fireside chat, Haynie was asked what excites him most about what lies ahead for the University. His answer was characteristically direct: the same conditions that challenge higher education—declining enrollment, eroding public trust and the disruption brought by AI—are also the conditions that create the most opportunity for institutions willing to respond with speed and imagination.

“If we do that well and do that quickly,” he said, “we can thrive relative to our peers.”

Three Syracuse University Libraries’ LaunchPad student start-up teams won prizes in the finals of the , powered by Upstate Capital Association of NY, held in Albany on April 22.

Celes Buffard ’27 (School of Information Studies), founder of SecondWave, won the $10,000 first prize in the learn, work and live category. SecondWave combines financial literacy education with fractional real estate investing, starting with fix-and-flip properties and community development.

Nathan Brekke ’26 (College of Engineering and Computer Science), co-founder of Phloat LLC, won the $2,000 second prize in the products and hardware category. Phloat is a phone case that has an ultra-compact, deployable flotation feature that triggers in the event of a phone falling and sinking into deep water.

Frederick Zindell G’27 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management), founder of Renewed Roots, won a $500 best concept stage award in the health and wellbeing category. Renewed Roots is a sustainable alternative to traditional burial options.

The NYBPC attracts some of New York state’s best student entrepreneurs. The competition promotes entrepreneurial opportunities for college students from across the state who pitch their business plans to seasoned investors. Students also get to engage with mentors and judges from the business community.

The finals event connects students with business professionals, provides experiential learning opportunities through competitions, introduces entrepreneurs to available resources through the Entrepreneurship Expo and awards up to $100,000 in cash prizes to help seed new ventures.

This year 60 finalist teams from across the state participated in the competition.