Inspiring Minds FEDERAL AWARD ALLOWS DEVELOPMENT OF NEW ‘INANA PROGRAM

It takes a village. More precisely, it took a consortium of Chaminade professors to win part of a $1.75 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA). The architects behind the winning proposal included Drs. Helen Turner—the Principal Investigator— Bill Rhey, Roy Panzarella, Janet Davidson and Gail Grabowsky, and Brother Ed Brink. The federal monies are part of an expanded pilot program to support entrepreneurship for undergraduate students.

Submitted to the MBDA’s Minority Colleges and Universities Grant Competition, the award will allow Chaminade to develop the “'Inana Sustainability Entrepreneurship Program,” which aims to spark minority entrepreneurial innovation among Hawai'i-Pacific undergraduates.

“The 'Inana program is highly collaborative and builds off firm foundations laid by Chaminade University’s more than 20-year history of promoting business and entrepreneurship,” Turner explains. “The program builds on the fact that Chaminade already has the region’s pre-eminent student entrepreneurship program (Hogan, led by Dr. Panzeralla), and that our School of Business and

Communication, under Dean Bill Rhey, has innovated to create a new Entrepreneurship minor.”

The goals of the program are: 1) To develop and implement programs for the education and training of undergraduate students in subjects directly relating to successful entrepreneurship; and 2) To support minority business enterprises (MBEs), including building a diverse entrepreneurial pipeline to grow the number of MBEs.

The Minority Colleges and Universities pilot program will help fund the development of curricula, pilot courses, seminars, and replicable products and tools that address inclusive innovation, entrepreneurship and general economic development. The award is worth $300,711, funded annually over a two-year span.

“As a Native Hawaiian Serving Institution, Chaminade University of Honolulu's proposal demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of the mission and goals of MBDA, and the requirements of the Federal Funding Opportunity Announcement,” says Donald R. Cravins, Jr., Under Secretary of Commerce for Minority Business Development, in a prepared statement. “In addition, their application presented evidence of the expertise and community resources necessary to meet these goals.”

The focus of the 'Inana program is to nurture sustainability entrepreneurs in Hawai'i, who will develop businesses that diversify and grow our economy while attending to the health of the planet. This, of course, totally aligns with Chaminade’s United Nations CIFAL Center, which is focused on supporting progress toward the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Hawai'i and the Pacific region.

Three of the 17 SDGs in particular are addressed within the program: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all; build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation; and Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.

“We’ll develop and implement new Sustainability Entrepreneurship (SE) courses and a UN Certificate program in SE,” Turner asserts. “We plan to enhance participation in SE through an intentional recruitment pathway focused on students who are under-represented in business and entrepreneurship, and promote participation in business plan competitions and global innovation networks.”

This MBDA grant marks another national recognition for Chaminade professors, preceded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) groundbreaking $10 million, five-year grant to create new leadership pathways into data science careers for students and working professionals across Hawai'i and the Pacific region.

“This marks another proud achievement and win for our faculty members,” says Chaminade University president Dr. Lynn Babington. “Dr. Turner and a supportive leadership team shepherded this grant through a rigorous vetting process, and deserve all the recognition for bringing this nationally competitive award to the university.”