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Building a Better World

Innovation

When a professor concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic called on Binghamton’s Innovation Scholars to create a working ventilator over a weekend this past March, Jacob Goodman ’21 rose to the challenge. He built a prototype in his residence hall room, mainly from repurposed parts he bought at Walmart.

Goodman is part of the first cohort of Innovation Scholars, a three-year interdisciplinary program of academics, experiential learning, networking and mentorship that was launched in 2018. Each year, the donor-supported program brings together at least 25 sophomores from across the University to design human-centered solutions to real-world problems.

“We are taught to put ourselves in another person’s shoes and empathize, and then use that to design a better product or idea or system or service to help,” Goodman said.

“We want to prepare students for the 21st century economy, where there will be more emphasis on solving large, unstructured problems,” said School of Management Dean Upinder Dhillon, who manages the program with Vice Provost for Online and Innovative Education James Pitarresi. 

Dhillon said he hopes to have a few marquee projects under development within the next couple of years, including some that may graduate to the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator in Binghamton. A new Innovation Lab is also expected to be up and running by fall 2021, and located with the Zurack Family High-Technology Collaboration Center in the Glenn G. Bartle Library.

From Concept to Market

In 2019, Jacob Kumpon ’22 co-founded KLAW Industries, currently among about 40 companies at the donor-enhanced and ������Ƶ Foundation-supported Koffman Southern Tier Incubator. Now, KLAW is using a $50,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to further develop its customer base. And its owners are searching for a local site to open a pilot plant in summer 2021. 

KLAW, an acronym formed from the last names of its founders, aims to repurpose glass destined for the landfill and turn it into a core component for a higher-performing concrete that’s stronger and more chemically resistant

“The Koffman Incubator has been critical for us to move quickly,” Kumpon said. “It has enabled us to have a space to meet, call and communicate with customers in a professional way. The mentors at the Koffman Incubator have guided us through starting a business and have connected us with key local partners so we can expand.”

Citizenship

The University’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) has built a robust voter engagement program that has seen consistent increases in student voting rates, thanks to The Andrew Goodman Foundation (AGF) and its continued support. 

With AGF funding and expertise, CCE was able to implement best practices including voter registration during new student orientation and in classes, voter registration forms pre-populated with campus address information, streamlined processes at the campus polling place and more, CCE Associate Director Alison Twang said. AGF support also makes it possible for CCE to host Vote Everywhere Ambassadors who receive stipends and access to training and learning opportunities with peers across a national network of campuses.

"Receiving this ambassadorship has been life changing as it has brought me a vast amount of opportunity,” Shelli Cohen ’21 said. “I ran numerous voter registration presentations at student organization meetings and in classes of hundreds of students. The lead-up to Election Day was exhausting, but one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had.

“I wanted to help my fellow students, the future leaders of our country, in creating a foundation for a life of civic engagement. In addition, I wanted to empower them to use their voices to make change they wanted to see.”

Social Justice

With support from the Bloom Family Summer Internship in Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention:

Benjamin Peterfreund

Benjamin Peterfreund ’21 interned directly with the founder of Together We Remember.

“The support I received has given me the financial freedom to pursue this internship and will give me the financial ability to pursue a couple months of unpaid internships after college,” he said.

Matthew Rozansky

Matthew Rozansky ’21, MPA ’22, completed a Simon Wiesenthal Government Advocacy Internship.

“The internship I had and the support I received allowed me to have this incredible learning opportunity where I not only gained important skills, but also forged many important connections for my future career paths,” he said.

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The generous gift made by Ellyn Kaschak ’65 to create the Kaschak Institute has put ������Ƶ on the map as a hub for path-breaking research on social justice for women and girls. It has created excitement and sparked important projects each year by faculty and students.

Susan Strehle, founding director of the institute

Among the funded fellows of the Ellyn Uram Kaschak Institute for Social Justice for Women and Girls (academic year 2019-20):

Suzy Lee

Suzy Lee, assistant professor of human development and program director of the master’s program in human rights, is developing a better dataset on human trafficking in the United States. Her project, in the pilot phase, includes creating a codebook and protocol for coding T-visa applications. T-visa is the category of visa available to trafficking survivors.

“If successful, the project will code over 20,000 separate applications, and then continue to update an additional 1,000 applications each year,” she said. “A lot of the policy and activism around human trafficking has been built on anecdotal information or on broad estimates. This dataset will allow policymakers and researchers to ask and answer a broader range of questions, with greater confidence, than has been possible thus far.”

Maggie Parker

Doctoral student Maggie Parker ’17, MS ’19, examined perceptions of sexual consent in a college-student population to better understand and inform future policy related to affirmative consent mandates on college campuses.

“I am deeply grateful for the support of the Kaschak fellowship and believe it has been a wonderful opportunity,” she said. “Without the support, I would have been unable to conduct this project.”