B-CU Schools Awarded U.S. Small Business Administration Grant
Office of Public Relations
Meredith Rodriguez
Associate Director, Communications & Marketing
rodriguezm@cookman.edu
386-481-2991
386-481-2973
B-CU's School of Business and the School Science, Engineering and Math joined with Raytheon Company as partners and submitted a proposal that was funded in the amount of $499,000.00 by the Small Business Jobs Act.
The project is called "The Small Business Teaming Pilot Program," through which grants are awarded to organizations for training, counseling, and mentoring to help small businesses enter into teaming relationships and compete for larger federal contracts. Teaming may take the form of joint ventures and mentor-protege relationships. Eleven grantees were selected from hundreds of applications submitted nationwide.
The organizations in the pilot programs will help small businesses find other firms interested in teaming, form teaming arrangements, and find and bid on larger contracts.
Bethune-Cookman's role will be to assist those small businesses with training and technological assistance as needed in order to leverage their existing resources and collaborate with SBA District Offices, Raytheon, and other federal, state, local and tribal government small business development programs. The success of these programs are crucial to growing the economy both locally and nationally.
B-CU's strong relationship with Raytheon, the technology company specializing in defense and homeland security, began several years ago through the U.S. Department of Defense Mentor-Protege program. B-CU has engaged in multiple partnership projects with Raytheon through the School of Science, Engineering and Mathematics.
Founded in 1904 by Mary McLeod Bethune, Bethune-Cookman University (B-CU) today sustains her legacy of faith, scholarship and service through its relationship with the United Methodist Church and its commitment to academic excellence and civic engagement. B-CU offers baccalaureate degrees in 37 majors through six academic schools – Arts & Humanities; Business; Education; Nursing; Science, Engineering and Mathematics; and Social Sciences – and maintains intercollegiate athletic programs and instrumental and choral groups that have achieved national recognition. Under the direction of President Trudie Kibbe Reed, the school achieved University status in 2007with the launch of a master’s degree program in transformative leadership. Located in Daytona Beach, B-CU is one of three private historically black colleges in the state of Florida. The institution boasts a diverse and international faculty and student body of more than 3,400.
