An Iraq War veteran has stood tall in the face of danger for 18 years. But when it came to planting civilian roots, Sgt. Jorge Ditren needed some help.
This summer, mentors participating in the Rider Veterans Entrepreneur Program, gave assistance to Ditren and thirteen other Veterans to help them put aside their fears in pursuit of their entrepreneurial dreams. Ditren’s goal was to launch a graphic design company. He and the other veterans from New Jersey and Pennsylvania received both classroom training and personal mentoring to help- launch their startup.
Mark Wolters, the president of New Jersey’s Grand Bank, was key in establishing this program, setting up a partnership with Rider University to develop and implement the program. Rider was able to provide the Veteran Entrepreneurial Program free of charge with a $50,000 grant from the bank.
The program started in June and lasted seven weeks. The veterans took classes and workshops on a range of business topics that included accounting, planning and marketing research. Most importantly, each veteran was partnered with a business mentor based on a number of factors established by Dr. Ron Cook, entrepreneurship professor and director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Rider University. One on one time between the mentor and their assigned Veteran gave an extra dimension to the program that the Veterans appreciated.
Going forward, the veterans and mentors, drawn from the Center’s network in the business community, will continue to meet to discuss business strategy and progress. In addition, mentors such as Wolters sat in on classes in order to familiarize themselves with their veterans’ business models and track their progress as they moved through the program. The ventures ranged from a health food cart, a brew pub, a real estate investment company and others; and matched mentors could tailor their input based on the industry.
Wolters described his experience as a mentor to two veterans as emotionally provoking. “I have to say that when I heard from the veterans how important the program and the mentoring sessions were to them, it almost brought tears to my eyes,” Wolters said. Wolters gained a real sense of the impact that the veteran entrepreneurial program was having and the opportunities being created for the aspiring entrepreneurs.
Lee Zane, one of the instructors in the program and an entrepreneurship professor at Rider, shared how the veterans were far from ready to leave after class time had expired. Professor Zane said he appreciated seeing the “veterans’ intensity about learning how to build their businesses making use of every opportunity to receive advice from the seasoned business people serving as mentors.” He also felt the connection that Wolters described.
Sgt. Ditren said he now feels he has the skills he needs to execute the primary focus of the program and implement a business plan. “You don’t know what you know,” Ditren said in an interview for a recent local Lawrenceville Ledger article[A1]. “You come here and the professors break it down for you. It’s not as difficult or scary as I thought it was at first.”
Though the class portion of the program is over, each Veteran will continue to have mentoring for one full year following graduation from the program that occurred in August. There is a waiting list for next summer’s programeven though the program has not been officially announced.
[A1]The article where this quote appeared is in the Lawrenceville Ledger, 8/21/2014. Vol 47, #34; “Hooah: Vets graduate from Rider program.”(page A1) Reporter’s name is Lea Kahn
