Queensborough Community College Blackstone LaunchPad Students and Alumni Highlighted at the Venture Well OPEN conference, the Premier Innovation and Entrepreneurship Experience for Higher Education
Queensborough Community College Blackstone LaunchPad students and alumni participated in the Venture Well OPEN conference on March 21-23, in Alexandria, V.A.
The Venture Well OPEN conference brings together faculty, administrators, staff, and students from the STEM fields to share innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) experiences and research, learn best practices, and forge dynamic new relationships. This year, OPEN fostered in-person discussions on the tools, trends, and new strategies that will collectively move I&E education forward and prepare early-stage entrepreneurs for an ever-changing world.
Participants in QCC’s Blackstone LaunchPad program focus on problem identification. Queensborough’s six-week cohorts center on developing an entrepreneurial mindset, which begins with customer discovery. Students attend problem-identification workshops and uncover community-based issues. From there, they work with mentors to define and better understand the problem. Blackstone LaunchPad Innovation Ambassadors, QCC alumni, serve as program mentors for student participants. The skillset development and engagement, reports faculty mentor Mooney, has been overwhelming. “The peer-to-peer networking and cross collaboration is remarkable.”
The panel discussion entitled: One Student Entrepreneur at a Time, featured Máteo Saenz, ’19, who received an A.S. in Biotechnology. While a student at Queensborough, Máteo participated in the CUNY and Capital One Community College Innovation Challenge. He developed his business hypothesis, Eagle-I, an autonomous robot designed to help emergency responders by using biotechnology sensors and artificial intelligence to find survivors and save lives. Eagle-I was one of the winning pitches presented at the fall 2017 CUNY and Capital One Community College Innovation Challenge. Mateo was also the recipient of a $50,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps program and has participated in both national and international business competitions. Saenz completed his B.A. at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Currently he is working at Stony Brook University Medicine as an Emergency Medical Responder and is pursuing further development of their minimum viable product for Eagle-I.
Makheni Jean-Pierre, ’17, who received an A.S. in Biological Sciences, was a member of the Eagle-I team. Makheni immigrated to the United States with his family in 2015 from Haiti as refugees. In the Fall of 2016, he enrolled in the Queensborough College Language Immersion Program (CLIP) to learn English. He graduated from Stony Brook University in 2020 with a bachelor's degree in molecular biology. Makheni was the recipient of a prestigious fellowship through the National Institutes of Health Undergraduate Scholarship Program. He just completed a two-year undergraduate research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health and is presently enrolled in a doctoral program at Georgetown University. Both Mateo and Makheni serve as Blackstone LaunchPad Innovation Ambassadors for current QCC Blackstone LaunchPad Innovation Challenge cohorts.
Sharon Whinston, who originally participated in the program last year as a non-matriculated student, is now in a matriculated Art degree program at QCC as a result of the Innovation Challenge and her mentors. She has been accepted to the Cleveland Institute of Art for veterinary design imagery.
Blackstone LaunchPad IDEAS Competition winner, Solomon Narcisse recognized for his work around social and technological change, and Keli Iraeta, for outstanding efforts as a Latina female founder also served as panel members.
And Valerie Muse, co-founder of the Long Island Knights, member of the Queensborough Class of 2023, a Blackstone Innovation participant, is also on the women’s volleyball and track team. She was named a CUNYAC/HSS Scholar-Athlete of the Month in 2022, and 3-time USTFCCCA Outdoor Track & Field All-American in the heptathlon, 4x400m Relay, and 4x800m Relay.
The QCC Blackstone LaunchPad program is run by Christine Mooney, along with faculty co-directors, Mark Ulrich and Wilfredo Moran of the Business department, all three also presented at the OPEN conference.
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Contact:
Alice Doyle
