Brown Launches Zane Venture Fund’s AccessU
NEC member Brown University has become the first school to adopt AccessU, a virtual program for college students interested in entrepreneurship. The program will include a conference hosted by Brown and is intended to provide diverse student entrepreneurs with a roadmap to success.
The ultimate goal of the program is to expand to universities across the country and allow innovative ventures to flourish by providing access to mentors and resources. Brown University Professor Banu Ozkazanc-Pan, who is also director of the Venture Capital Inclusion Lab, came up with the idea after meeting with Nila Nieves Burney, managing partner of the Atlanta-based Zane Venture Fund, which is dedicated to supporting the next generation of diverse entrepreneurs.
“It’s an entrepreneurial support program intended to supplement any existing university entrepreneur program,” Professor Ozkazanc-Pan said. “But the design of it is to provide access to information and capital to diverse student founders, so there is a real intentionality around focal student founders that would be benefiting from it.”
The New England Council congratulates Brown University on launching this innovative program to bolster student entrepreneurship. Read more from Rhode Island Inno.