New Venture & Innovation Center at St. John’s University to Foster Entrepreneurship across Campus and beyond

(QUEENS, NY) — St. John’s University has launched a new Venture and Innovation Center (VIC) to facilitate the development of faculty, staff, student, and community-based businesses and enhance the University’s already strong entrepreneurial culture.

This new business-development resource helps bring to life potentially transformative product ideas created by members of the St. John’s community and external partners. The VIC aims to be both a catalyst for inspiration and a tool for helping entrepreneurs needing funding, creative space, start-up guidance, and more.

“In today’s fast-moving world, there is an ever-increasing need for higher education institutions to provide both depth and breadth in their educational offerings,” said James Kinsley, M.B.A., Professor of Management, Entrepreneurship, Consulting, and Operations (MECO) at the University’s Peter J. Tobin College of Business and the VIC’s inaugural Director. “St. John’s provides a wide range of challenging degree courses, but also wants to foster independence, give its students experiential-learning opportunities, and help them develop universal skills such as problem-solving, project management, communications, and relationship building.”

Among the components of the VIC is a campuswide connections hub that promotes entrepreneurial collaboration across the University’s six Schools and Colleges, and a business incubator that identifies, manages, and helps to commercialize innovation ideas developed by members of the St. John’s community or its neighborhood partners.

According to the US Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, new business development represents an increasingly attractive path to financial success for members of minority communities. Minority businesses accounted for more than 50 percent of the two million new businesses started in the United States over the past 10 years. St. John’s location in Queens, NY, the most culturally diverse urban area in the United States, makes it a natural fit for a business incubator such as the VIC.

Students will be introduced to the VIC during the Spring semester through a range of speaker events, instructional and experiential activities, and student business-development competitions.

The VIC continues St. John’s University’s commitment to business development and experiential learning. Programs such as Pitch Johnny enable St. John’s students, as well as local high school entrepreneurs, to compete for business seed money. Students can likewise vie for as much as $5,000 in business aid in the annual James and Eileen Christmas Business Plan Competition and Pitch Event. Other initiatives include the Design Factory product inspiration center at The Lesley H. and William L. Collins College of Professional Studies and the Executive-in-Residence Program, which enables students to engage in business consulting with actual corporate and nonprofit organizations.

“As I’ve met with key faculty and staff members across the University, it is evident that the VIC is an idea that has been waiting to happen,” Mr. Kinsley said. “I can see that there is overwhelming support for what we are trying to do.”

Simon Geir Møller, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, University Distinguished Professor and Provost Endowed Chair, sees the new center as a visionary next step.

“It is our belief that the VIC will create tremendous new opportunities for our talented students and faculty through innovation and entrepreneurship,” Dr. Moller said.

Available for interviews

James Kinsley, M.B.A., Director, St. John’s University’s Venture and Innovation Center.

About St. John's University

St. John’s University is a private, coeducational, Roman Catholic University founded in 1870 by the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians), with its main campus located in Queens, NY. St. John’s University also has campuses and locations on Staten Island (until June 2024), in Manhattan, Rome, Italy, Paris, France, and Limerick, Ireland.

St. John’s University is comprised of six Schools and Colleges, including the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, The Lesley H. and William L. Collins College of Professional Studies, St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, The Peter J. Tobin College of Business (including the Maurice R. Greenberg School of Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science), The School of Education, and the School of Law.

As of Fall 2023, the University has more than 1,400 full-time and part-time faculty; almost 16,000 undergraduate students; and 3,992 graduate students from 44 states and 119 countries. St. John’s offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate programs, including 16 doctoral programs.