USU’s Jon M. Huntsman School Wins Top National Entrepreneurship Award
University’s Small Enterprise Education and Development Program (SEED) Helps Budding Entrepreneurs in Developing Countries
LOGAN, UTAH, January 29, 2018 -- The United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship awarded first place to Utah State University’s Jon M. Huntsman School of Business for Excellence in Co-Curricular Innovation for its Small Enterprise Education and Development program, known as SEED. The SEED program sends student interns to Ghana, the Philippines, Peru, and the Dominican Republic to teach local entrepreneurs professional skills and help them grow their small businesses.
“With 53 universities competing for four national USASBE awards, we’re thrilled that our entrepreneurship program has been singled out for its innovation,” said Dan Holland, an associate professor of entrepreneurship at the USU Huntsman School. “It is a real credit to the team of student interns, in-country business owners, faculty mentors, generous donors, and strategic partners that have built SEED into such an impactful learning opportunity. It is educational innovation at its best.”
Students who intern with SEED study entrepreneurship, micro-finance, and small business consulting for one semester, and then visit a country for three months. They help individuals write business plans, launch new ventures, set goals, create budgets, develop accounting practices, and organize inventory management systems. The students are mentored and then solidify their learning by mentoring others through the new venture creation process.
“These are brilliant students, from a variety of majors, who could have chosen to intern with large companies,” said Mike Glauser, executive director of USU Huntsman’s Center for Entrepreneurship. “Instead, they have decided to become immersed in these international communities and the everyday lives and businesses of the people they help. They get to see first-hand how business can change lives and impact a family’s future.”
USASBE, one of the nation’s premier entrepreneurship associations, focuses on advancing entrepreneurship education and is led by professors from the top entrepreneurship programs across North America. The 2019 USASBE Conference was held in St. Pete Beach, FL.
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Governor names new USTAR acting executive director
Governor Gary R. Herbert has named Barbara Araneo, Ph.D., to be the new acting executive director for the Utah Science and Technology Research initiative (USTAR). Araneo assumed the role as of Jan. 25.
"Barbara Araneo's expertise and insight in the worlds of science and technology will be instrumental in her service in this new role,” said Gov. Herbert. “I'm grateful for her leadership, and look forward to working with her."
Araneo has been serving as the senior director of scientific affairs and emerging technologies for USTAR. While at USTAR, Araneo has overseen the direction and development of programming around the agency’s industry clusters, which currently include aerospace and defense, automation and robotics, big data and cybersytems, energy and clean tech, and life sciences.
“Barbara brings extensive experience in technology commercialization to further support USTAR’s core mission of promoting the growth of Utah’s deep technology and science clusters,” said Susan Opp, chair of the USTAR Governing Authority. “Additionally, her familiarity with USTAR programs will help build on the success of our outstanding performance metrics.”
Prior to USTAR, Araneo served Novo Nordisk, Inc. as a director of external innovation sourcing for the company’s Global Research Unit. She also served as the vice president of development at StemCells Inc., where she was responsible for directing the effort to bring the company’s neural cell-based product candidate from the exploratory and preclinical proof of principle stages into clinical development under the FDA regulatory process. Prior to joining StemCells, Araneo was a scientific co-founder and senior vice President of research and development at Pharmadigm, a privately held biopharmaceutical company with several products discovered at the company and developed for various stages of clinical development for inflammatory conditions.
In addition to her impressive technology commercialization career, Araneo has served on the faculty of the University of Utah’s Department of Pathology as Associate Professor. She obtained her doctorate in Cellular Immunology from the University of Rochester and completed postdoctoral training at Washington University School of Medicine and the Department of Microbiology at UCLA. In addition to a doctorate degree, Araneo holds certification in U.S. Regulatory Affairs.
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About USTAR
The Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative (USTAR) is the state’s technology-based economic development agency. USTAR serves as a catalyst to develop ideas and research into marketable products and successful companies through its competitive grant and entrepreneur support programs. USTAR propels Utah’s economy forward by supporting innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly in the non-IT science and deep technology clusters. USTAR facilitates the diversification of the state’s tech economy, increases private follow-on investments, and ensures more companies successfully launch and survive the initial technology development and incubation stages, or the so-called "Valley of Death." In doing so, USTAR helps create a rich innovation ecosystem that grows the state’s economy, tax revenue, and workforce
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Transforming the Dream into Reality
by Robert F. Dodge, M.D.
707 words
This past week witnessed two significant and connected events. We remembered and celebrated the visionary champion of civil rights, social and economic justice and nuclear disarmament, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr at the outset and finished the week with the unveiling of the Nuclear Doomsday Clock. Dr. King realized the interconnectedness of these issues and that you could not have one without each of the others.
This week our government is reopening as our Progressive Caucus prepares to do the people’s work proposing a “Green New Deal,” building a carbon-free economy while providing social and economic justice to workers in this new economy. Yet, as Dr. King acknowledged in 1959, “What will be the ultimate value of having established social justice in a context where all people, Negro and white, are merely free to face destruction by strontium 90 or atomic war?” There is no racial, social, economic or environmental justice as long as this threat exists.
And yet today, the world faces an even greater threat of nuclear war fueled by Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, threatened withdrawal from the INF Treaty and by the new arms race initiated by the United States plan to spend over $1 trillion in the next three decades to rebuild and enhance our entire nuclear arsenal. This plan has been duplicated by every other nuclear nation, not wanting to fall behind in the mythological idea of “nuclear deterrence.”
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists unveiled their nuclear Doomsday Clock last week, leaving the setting at two minutes till midnight with midnight being nuclear apocalypse. This “new abnormal” declared by the group emphasized the increasing existential threats to our planet of climate change and nuclear war. Climate change continues to march ahead increasing scarcity of natural resources and thus increasing global conflict and mass human migration as witnessed in our first climate war in Syria.
Recognizing the connection between climate change and nuclear war and the failure of global leaders to take the necessary immediate and appropriate action, the Clock remained steady at two minutes till midnight, the closest it has been since the height of the Cold War and its inception in 1947. In their announcement they highlighted that citizens can make a difference by demanding efforts to stop our addiction to fossil fuels and simultaneously demanding nuclear weapons abolition. Working with movements like 350.org and Back from the Brink, each of us can support the necessary actions to realize these aims.
Seemingly oblivious to current science about the dangers of even a limited regional nuclear war threatening the entire planet outlined in the Nuclear Famine Report, our elected officials blindingly move forward in this arms race. From this point forward, any politician who invokes the potential use of nuclear weapons or the statement “all options are on the table” must be looked at as a “nuclear dinosaur,” truly ignorant of, uninformed about, or in denial of the consequences of any nuclear war.
Speaking at the conference, the Bulletin’s executive chair, former California Governor Jerry Brown said, “The blindness and stupidity of the politicians and their consultants is truly shocking in the face of nuclear catastrophe and danger. The probability is mounting that there will be some kind of nuclear incident that will kill millions, if not initiating a nuclear exchange that will kill billions. It’s late and it’s getting later, and we have to wake people up.”
Ultimately, there is no greater social, economic, health or environmental threat to our communities, all children and the world than the constant real and present threat of nuclear war either by intent, miscalculation or accident. This threat is heightened today by the vulnerability induced by cyber terrorism. It is not possible to have a “Green New Deal” in a nuclear-threatened world. We must demand our leaders take the immediate and necessary action necessary to prevent further climate change and abolish nuclear weapons. This remains the only option to protect our future and that of future generations.
The Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives is positioned to take the lead on these issues and realize the connection--if only they will. We the people must inform and support them as we help build the political will transforming the dream into a reality for a just, environmentally sustainable and peaceful nuclear-free tomorrow.
–end–
Robert Dodge writes for PeaceVoice, is a family physician practicing in Ventura, California, is the Co-Chair of the Nuclear Weapons Abolition Committee of National Physicians for Social Responsibility. PSR received the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize
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Gov. Herbert to deliver 2019 State of the State address
What: Gov. Gary R. Herbert will outline key public policy priorities for the upcoming legislative session during his 2019 State of the State address.
When: Wednesday, Jan. 30 at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Utah State Capitol, House Chamber
Notes: A pool video feed will be provided through KTVX. Pool photography will be provided by the Deseret News. Seating is available for capitol-credentialed reporters in the media section of the House gallery on a first-come, first-served basis.
Embargoed hard copies of the remarks will be available to capitol-credentialed reporters in the Governor’s Office (Utah State Capitol, Suite 200) on Wed., Jan. 30 beginning at 5:00 p.m. The remarks are embargoed until 7:00 p.m.
The full text of the address will be released at https://governor.utah.gov/ at 7:00 p.m.
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