On Sept. 19, 2017, two former and one current College of Charleston student will travel to New York City to participate in United Nations Week.
Veronique Hut ‘17, Riley Clermont ’17 and Abby Grand ’19, are the founders of VVise — a company that empowers women by giving them a platform to make an income by sharing their wisdom with others. VVise came to fruition when the trio joined forces during a year-long impact entrepreneurship program in the School of Business called the Interdisciplinary Center for Applied Technology, or ICAT.
The ICAT alumni were invited to speak to the General Assembly on the benefits of impact entrepreneurship programs in universities and how those programs support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
ICAT provides business, computer science and liberal arts students at the College with opportunities and resources to create, manage and execute their own impact-focused startups. More than just an incubator, ICAT is an official six-credit business and applied technology course that challenges students to use their varying areas of expertise and shared passions to help solve some of today’s most pressing issues.
According to CofC Impact Entrepreneur-in-Residence and ICAT advisor Stuart Williams, in order to innovate wide-scale solutions for humanity and the planet it is essential to launch programs that engage younger generations.
“We’re interested in teaching college students how to think, not what to think,” says Williams, who will co-present with the ICAT alumni at the UN. “ICAT fundamentally prepares students to not only identify and embrace the UN Sustainable Development goals, but equips them with the knowledge to tackle them head on.”
Williams’ goal for the presentation: inspire world leaders and their representatives to go home and create programs that mimic the impact entrepreneurship model of ICAT.
