“Pushing the Frontier in the 21st Century — Conversation with Visionary Women” program to be held on Thursday, Oct. 26 at Rensselaer’s Troy campus

Troy, N.Y. — Rensselaer’s Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship at the Lally School of Management and Technology will host the annual Women of Diversity — Entrepreneurship Symposium on Thursday, Oct. 26. The symposium, “Pushing the Frontier in the 21st Century — A Conversation with Visionary Women,” features distinguished leaders who are making their marks on higher education, business, government, and the international landscape. The annual symposium is part of the Severino Center’s effort to spark the interest of young women to pursue entrepreneurial ventures and careers in science, engineering, and technology.

“The symposium provides an important networking opportunity for women entrepreneurs in the region and beyond,” said David Gautschi, dean of the Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer. “We believe hearing the personal experiences, challenges, and ideas about the ways that women entrepreneurs are shaping and redefining the workplace, business networks, institutions, and our culture can inspire others to pursue endeavors they never before imagined.”

The symposium will be held on Rensselaer’s Troy campus from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in the Russell Sage Dining Hall. The audience will include Rensselaer students, faculty, and staff, along with students and faculty and staff from area colleges and youth organizations. Area business leaders are also invited to attend.

The panelists include Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson; Kelly Carnes, president and CEO of TechVision 21; Aparna Mehrotra, Focal Point for Women in the United Nations; Lucinda Sanders, co-founder and CEO of the National Center for Women & Information Technology; and Sarah Xu, founder, chairman and president of the Shanghai Y & T Outdoor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Judith Barnes ’71, entrepreneur and national marketing, advertising, and communications consultant, will serve as the program moderator.

The program will culminate with a ceremony that will honor and celebrate 15 female high school seniors. The students will be the first recipients of the Rensselaer Paul and Kathleen Severino Future Leaders Award for their academic excellence in mathematics and science, and leadership, service, and devotion to their respective school and community. In addition, Rensselaer’s Office of Enrollment Management will award the students with a $5,000 per year merit scholarship that is guaranteed for four years (five years for the School of Architecture program) for each student who is accepted and chooses to enroll at Rensselaer. The students are drawn from the following states: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Launched in 2002, the Women of Diversity — Entrepreneurship Symposium was created by the Severino Center, with the goal of supporting diversity at Rensselaer in a number of areas that include: providing leadership on issues of diversity, support, and advocacy to female students, and the development of pipeline programs aimed at achieving greater diversity.  

For more information about the 2006 Women of Diversity — Entrepreneurship Symposium, go to:

http://www.lallyschool.rpi.edu/programs/index.cfm?p=5&c=2&inc=severino-program-detail&progID=15

About the Severino Center
Established in 1988, and centered in the Lally School, the Severino Center lies at the core of the school’s mission to educate future entrepreneurs in the conversion of technical ideas into new businesses, products, services, and solutions.  The center provides a broad-based platform for entrepreneurs to make the transition from concept to company and serves as an intellectual gathering point for the study, research, and exchange of ideas regarding critical issues in the field of entrepreneurship studies. The center is named in honor of Rensselaer trustee Paul J. Severino ’69 and his wife, Kathleen M. Severino.

About Rensselaer’s Lally School
Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management and Technology was founded in 1963 as an integral part of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the nation’s oldest degree-granting technological university. Building on Rensselaer’s heritage of more than 182 years of leadership in science and engineering, the Lally School is dedicated to advancing business through innovation. The Lally School’s curriculum is designed to produce leaders who combine creative passion with the ability to integrate technology across business functions. The faculty emphasizes the value of hands-on experience available through campus resources such as the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship and the nation’s first on-campus business incubator. Rensselaer’s Lally School offers graduate and undergraduate degree programs in management, doctoral programs in management and technology, an Executive MBA program, and a joint Sino-U.S. MBA for companies operating in China. For more information on the Lally School, go to www.lallyschool.rpi.edu.

Contact: Jessica Otitigbe
Phone: (518) 276-6050
E-mail: otitij@rpi.edu