The Gabelli School of Business and Fordham’s School of Law will have new opportunities for collaboration in the upcoming year thanks to a $1 million grant from Nasdaq Educational Foundation.
The funding will allow the two schools to develop courses and workshops at the intersection of business and law—fields that are inextricably connected in the real world. It will also expand the Fordham Foundry—Fordham’s small business incubator—to the Lincoln Center campus.
“The world is multidisciplinary—education cannot happen in silos,” said Donna Rapaccioli, PhD, dean of the business school. “To be successful in just about any career, you have to be able to consider things from multiple angles. Our hope with this grant is that both business and law students can take advantage of these resources and networks.”
The Foundry’s new Manhattan location will generate internships, Rapaccioli said, and help students at both schools to understand the legal and entrepreneurial aspects of launching a business.
“We are delighted that the Nasdaq grant will support the collaborative efforts of the law school and Gabelli School,” said Matthew Diller, dean of the Fordham School of Law. “It will provide important, practical opportunities for law and business students to learn about entrepreneurship—and how the tools of entrepreneurship can advance social justice.”
The grant marks another milestone in an ongoing relationship between Nasdaq and the Gabelli School, Rapaccioli said. This spring, Nasdaq’s educational exchange program brought Fordham students to its entrepreneurship center in San Francisco for 10 days of workshops, Silicon Valley corporate site visits, and networking.
The business school received a second grant early this summer. Coordinated by Greer Jason-DiBartolo, PhD, senior assistant dean for undergraduate studies, and Carey Weiss, director of sustainability initiatives, the $480,000 grant from Verizon Corporate Resources Group funded an on-campus entrepreneurial experience for high school students from under-resourced neighborhoods around the United States.
In the three-week-long program, students lived in Rose Hill campus dorms and attended workshops with Gabelli School faculty and visiting professionals. They also traveled into Manhattan for on-site visits at companies.
“The program offers a window into not only what the business world is like, but also what college life is like,” Rapaccioli said. “Some of these high school students would be first-generation college graduates, and the idea of the program is to inspire them to want to go to college. It’s allows us at the Gabelli School to play a small role in potentially transforming these young people’s lives.”
