Page 46 - 2023 Westchester County Economic Development Guide
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GUIDE
Cultivating and Advancing Talent Higher Education
Tapping Emerging Talent
An Iona University partnership with the Business Council of Westchester gives students real-world experience, while delivering innovative solutions
Addressing climate change and environmental justice in the urban neighborhoods of Yonkers was among the latest projects being tackled by students at Iona University’s Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, thanks to a partnership spearheaded by the Business Council of Westchester with the Yonkers Housing Authority.
to local businesses.
Intended to help bring relief to the city’s affordable housing residents who have suffered from extreme heat and flooding due to climate change, the partnership was the latest initiative of the BCW’s Westchester Innovation Network’s (WIN) City Labs project. WIN’s City Labs works to bring solutions to pressing urban problems.
Iona University students deliver business-support recommendations to Mount Vernon.
“We are grateful to the Business Council of Westchester and students at Iona University
for joining us in this important cause: addressing environmental justice and climate change. I believe we must do everything we can to ensure that communities like Southwest Yonkers that are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis become more sustainable and resilient to climate change,’’ said Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano. “Great things are happening in this city, and we must ensure everyone shares in our prosperity and enhanced quality of life.’’
Marsha Gordon, president and CEO of the Business Council of Westchester, said WIN’s goal is to harness the creativity of the county’s top innovators to boost economic development in Westchester. Part of that, she said, is making sure that Westchester’s urban areas are also thriving. City Labs focuses on bringing resources to
these cities.
“What better way to help our cities solve some of their most pressing problems than to bring the power of Design inking and students at the Hynes Institute to the problem,” said Gordon.
“e Hynes Institute empowers students to harness their creativity and solve real-world problems,” said Iona University President Seamus Carey, Ph.D. “We are thrilled to once again partner with the Business Council of Westchester, so that our students can help tackle the important issue of environmental justice in the City of Yonkers.”
Iona students worked with residents at housing authority properties to help refine a sustainability project being
undertaken by Groundwork Hudson Valley to address heat islands and flooding caused by past redlining practices. eir findings will add to the research being used by
Groundwork Hudson Valley to further other sustainability projects.
Supporting MWBEs
In addition, a partnership between the Iona students and the City of Mount Vernon was facilitated by the Business Council of Westchester’s WIN.
Students developed ideas on how the City of Mount Vernon could improve its support for minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MWBEs).
Students presented results from their design thinking innovation project in May of 2022, following a monthlong analysis of feedback they received from Mount Vernon business owners about the challenges of winning government contracts. e students’ recommendations to Mount Vernon officials included appointing a small- business ambassador; organizing more workshops on how to bid for government contracts; and creating a database of all MWBEs in the city.
“You’ve started something new in Mount Vernon,” Mayor Shawyn Patterson Howard told the students at the presentation. “In order to partner with someone who’s offering you a service, we really need to know and understand what we need, and you are helping us to answer those questions.”
© Iona University’s Hynes Institute for
Entrepreneurship & Innovation
