M&T Supports Quinnipiac Entrepreneurship Academy

Quinnipiac University’s Community Entrepreneurship Academy and Clinic will continue this fall thanks to M&T Bank.  

M&T Bank awarded Quinnipiac a $125,000 grant to secure a partnership program between the academy and the Connecticut Community Outreach Revitalization Program in New Haven.  

Based out of the Lab at ConnCORP, the academy’s entrepreneurial incubator initially launched thanks to a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration. 

When the grant expired in August of 2024, ConnCORP worked with SBA to receive a grant which supplemented this year’s cohort. 

The grant from M&T will support the 20 entrepreneurs enrolled in the academy this fall.  

Partnership 

“Now, going into the next two years, the M&T Bank grant is going to be helping the program to be sustainable,” said Tuvana Rua, an associate professor of management at Quinnipiac University and director of the ConnCORP Community Entrepreneurship Academy and Clinic.  

“The grant is really important, because we would not have continued without it. We feel very privileged to be recognized by M&T Bank.” 

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime partnership we have with them.”

Quinnipiac’s Tuvana Rua

Since opening in 2022, the ConnCORP Quinnipiac partnership has supported 55 area entrepreneurs to date, with a specific focus on supporting minority-owned or women-owned small business. 

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime partnership we have with them, and we’re so grateful to have it,” said Rua.   

“[ConnCORP] are phenomenal in terms of their reach, their network, and the support that they provide not only to the businesses that are in the program but any student from Quinnipiac that takes part in the program.” 

Resources

In addition to funding, M&T supports the program’s curriculum by speaking to the small business owners involved about funding resources and helping them open accounts.  

Quinnipiac students also provide important resources to entrepreneurs who participate. 

M&T supports the program’s curriculum by speaking to small business owners about funding resources.

Cybersecurity students run audits of online business activity to identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities and recommend low-cost or no-cost solutions.  

School of business MBA program project management students help produce project management charters for businesses with time-limited projects.  

In addition, school of communications public relations students have helped program participants audit their social media and online presence, and TV and film students put together commercial video ads for the businesses to use moving forward.