IdeaHUb

Coronavirus May 28, 2020

A summer sans internships? No way, schools say

By GREGORY ZELLER // With canceled internships and rescinded job offers adding insult to injury for shortchanged U.S. college students, Long Island universities are working hard to keep their flocks working this summer. Longstanding career- and business-development programs at Adelphi University and Hofstra University have refocused their efforts through a pandemic-friendly lens, with a growing number of virtual internships and other remote-working (and remote-learning) opportunities now in play. The need for a Summer 2020 internship…

Entrepreneurs March 19, 2020

All things being unequal, Hofstra’s Challenge lives on

By GREGORY ZELLER // Health equity – a concept freshly redefined by our times – takes center stage in this year’s Healthcare Entrepreneurship Community Challenge. Hofstra University’s long-running entrepreneurship competition is offering $50,000-plus in cash and business-resource prizes to early-stage enterprises addressing socialized healthcare problems in underserved Long Island, New York City and Hudson Valley communities. This year’s “challenge topic” is “advancing health equity,” focused on innovative products and services that “improve the total health…

Awards and Events September 26, 2019

Innovation does well at 2019 Healthcare Challenge

By GREGORY ZELLER // Healthcare was the challenge and the entire community was the winner – though really, a cutting-edge app that helps users make more nutritious food selections was the actual winner. The in-development CATSCAN app captured first place at this year’s Healthcare Entrepreneurship Community Challenge, Hofstra University’s annual pitch contest designed to inspire market-based community-health solutions by downstate entrepreneurs. The competition, part of a larger 2019 Community Health Symposium held Tuesday at the…

Economic Development September 10, 2019

The ‘underserved’ aim high, via Ascend Long Island

By GREGORY ZELLER // The rubber meets the roads Thursday at Hofstra University, when the innovative Ascend Long Island program holds its first-ever “procurement conference.” Combining small Nassau County businesses and buyers from bigger regional corporations and government agencies, the conference is built to bolster Ascend Long Island’s primary mission: to provide essential business resources, primarily capital, to early stage enterprises in underserved Nassau communities. Specifically, what Hofstra calls “The Corridor:” the villages of Hempstead…

Economic Development May 31, 2019

Community wellness meets innovation at Hofstra camp

By GREGORY ZELLER // Healthcare met entrepreneurism this week at Hofstra University, where teams of wellness-focused innovators came together to learn the business ropes directly from seasoned insiders, including Northwest Health professionals. Hailing from around the Greater New York region and as far away as Massachusetts and Florida, 26 teams of aspiring wellness impresarios received entrepreneurship training to help promote healthcare innovations in underserved communities, the “challenge topic” of the 2019 Healthcare Entrepreneurship Community Challenge…

Awards and Events February 19, 2019

Community wellness wins in Hofstra’s 2019 ‘Challenge’

By GREGORY ZELLER // Roughly $60,000 in cash and prizes is up for grabs in an ambitious Hofstra University competition designed to improve health, wellness and socioeconomic conditions in underserved communities throughout Greater New York. The 2019 Healthcare Entrepreneurship Community Challenge is now accepting innovative proposals for “market-based products or services” that can improve wellness in communities stretching from Long Island to New York City to the Hudson Valley, according to Hofstra. The theme for…

Entrepreneurs October 15, 2018

Lesko leaves, so Hofstra Entrepreneurship Sikes up

By GREGORY ZELLER // The student has become the master at Hofstra University, where Stacey Sikes is the new executive dean of the Center for Entrepreneurship. Sikes succeeds former Executive Dean Mark Lesko, the first-ever head of the innovation-heavy business-development center, who has left the university to return to the field of law. Lesko, whose long résumé includes years as a federal prosecutor, said Monday he’ll be making an official announcement about his new gig…

Awards and Events March 30, 2018

Ten finalists to shoot for Hofstra-Digital Remedy gold

By GREGORY ZELLER // Ten finalists – including eight solo acts and two team efforts – will square off for three top slots (and more than $70,000 in prizes and working capital) when the 2018 Hofstra-Digital Remedy Venture Challenge hosts its final showdown April 20. The finalists were selected by a panel of esteemed judges during the semifinal round of the annual business plan pitch-a-thon, held this week at the Hofstra University Center for Entrepreneurship’s…