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The Zahn Center @Marshak will host the TEDx CUNY Salon: “Startups” on Tuesday, April 21st from 12pm-3pm. Join us for an event celebrating entrepreneurship with Zahn alumni guest speakers. Register now, there are a limited number of seats available.
With the rising popularity and momentum of start-ups in NYC, City Colleges Zahn Innovation Center has paralleled this growth, producing multiple success stories and student winners. We are hoping to maintain this CCNY momentum, further spreading and aiding our Harlem community. Along with technological start-ups, the Zahn Center has recently dedicated itself to expanding its vision to social entrepreneurship and to marking the importance of women entrepreneurs. With this in mind, we hope that these TEDxCUNYSalon talks will encourage City students to tackle issues that they see in our campus neighborhood, encourage women and minority students to take ownership of their passion for change, and not fear societal forces that may be oppressing them.
Speakers include:
Weeks Mensah (Enza Academy) €“ As Co-Founder of the award winning social lemonade stand, Weeks mission is to change the face of innovation by equipping underrepresented students with tools such as design-thinking, coding, and entrepreneurship to empower themselves, and successfully navigate their surrounding ecosystems. A serial entrepreneur, Weeks is a graduate from the Colin Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership at the City College of New York. A Weston and Peter Zahn fellow, he has a degree in Business Administration and Management and Public Policy.
Marquise Stillwell (Openbox) €“ Marquise is the Founder and Principal of Openbox. As a business designer and developer for more than two decades, he grounds the Openbox vision in strategic planning from the fields of investing, product development, and technology. Marquise also works in creative leadership, teaching with the KaosPilots in Denmark and South Africa to help students learn by doing. Marquise is passionate about the power of design, and has a boundless curiosity for life.
Teona Lazashivili and Amali Nesseridine (Laddine) €“ Laddine came about after founders, Amali and Teona, had a frustrating experience shopping online for a gift for Teonas niece. They were troubled by the difficulty of finding innovative toys that were more than just time fillers. There was little resource to help them determine exactly how a toy would benefit children. Through this experience Amali and Teona were determined to change the status quo with a toy specialist platform that would streamline and simplify the task of finding the right toys that add value to playtime for all our children.
Sean Petterson from StrongArm €“ StrongArm was founded by Sean Petterson and Justin Hillery, two men that grew up with fathers whose bodies endured enormous physical strain at their blue collar jobs. Workers are not afforded the benefit of athletic equipment to prevent injuries and maximize their performance. As a result, StrongArm is inventing new devices and methods to bridge the gap between performance and safety.