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The University of Hawaiʻi Community Colleges (UHCC) system announced that it is working with Impact Hub Honolulu to create and grow an entrepreneurship program to engage enterprising students (and eventually faculty and staff) across UH’s seven-campus community college system. The program is being funded with $100,000 from a $10-million Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant to the UHCCs from the U.S. Department of Labor.

“This grant will help provide a direct portal to real-world start-up activities, as well as business planning, budgeting, patenting and more,” said UH Community Colleges Associate Vice President Peter Quigley. “Bringing products and businesses into existence is the goal of the entrepreneurial initiative.”

Impact Hub Honolulu is part of the local startup ecosystem, Startup Paradise, as well as a global network of 85 Impact Hubs and 16,000 connected entrepreneurs. These partnerships with Hawaiʻi-based and global networks will be leveraged to connect UHCC entrepreneurs to mentorship, follow-on programs, incubators, accelerators and scaling opportunities. The six-week UHCC entrepreneurial program will host its first cohort July 11-August 12, 2016.

“We see this as an incredible opportunity to create a path for the innovative students across the UHCCs to actualize their ideas, create jobs for themselves and others and diversify economic development for Hawaiʻi,” added Shanah Trevenna, director of Impact Hub Honolulu.

The partners are asking any faculty, students, staff or community members who would like to contribute ideas, suggest a collaboration, participate as an advisor or mentor, or join the program to please email Shanah Trevenna or George Yarbrough.

Entrepreneurship roundtables at UHCC campuses

Impact Hub Honolulu will also be conducting roundtable discussions to be held at each of UH’s community college campuses and UH Hilo. XLR8UH, UH’s accelerator program to educate, mentor and invest in the University of Hawaiʻi’s research and talent, will also participate in these roundtables.

Roundtable dates

—By Kelli Trifonovitch

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