IVMF executive director attends presidential announcement regarding nation’s veterans

Mike Haynie, executive director of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University, was an invited guest of the White House at a public appearance held earlier today, Feb. 3, announcing new entrepreneurship training programs for the nation’s veterans. The president’s announcement took place in the Northern Virginia community of Arlington, at Arlington Fire Station Number 5.

Haynie’s invitation came as a result of the longstanding commitment that the IVMF and Syracuse University has built and continues to steadily grow on behalf of the nation’s veterans and military families. In his announcement, the president proposed an expansion of entrepreneurship training opportunities for separating service members and veterans. The administration will develop a two-day entrepreneurship program as part of the Transition Assistance program that will be available to all service members. Additionally, more in-depth entrepreneurial training will be available to veterans through an eight-week online training program that will teach the fundamentals of small business ownership to more than 10,000 veterans annually, as well as an expansion of the existing suite of programs and public-private partnerships supporting entrepreneurship and small business development opportunities for veterans and veterans’ families, including an intensive entrepreneurship bootcamp—not unlike the SU and U.S. Small Business Administration-sponsored Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV), founded at SU’s Whitman School of Management in 2007. This program is now offered through a national consortium of eight leading universities.

“It is truly an honor to have President Obama recognize the role that entrepreneurship can play as a transition strategy for a service member. We, at Syracuse University and the Institute for Veterans and Military Families, have been training veteran entrepreneurs for almost six years and have seen overwhelming success in the outcomes,” says Haynie. “Through entrepreneurship and small business training, we are leveraging the resources available in higher education to provide the necessary education, vocational training and support to allow and assist veterans and their families as they look for a path forward, to help navigate a successful and meaningful transition back to civilian life.”

“Syracuse University could not be more proud of its tradition of leadership in supporting veterans and their families, which is sharply reflected in these new White House initiatives,” says SU Chancellor and President Nancy Cantor. “The phenomenal work that Professor Mike Haynie leads in throwing open wide the doors to opportunity for vets through entrepreneurship dramatically enhances the vibrant pattern woven throughout the fabric of SU’s history and enduring in our campus culture today. We always have and always will stand by our vets of all eras and abilities.”