Karthik Kumar was, like many of his peers, looking to build his résumé with real work experience when he received an e-mail from a student-run organization that connects students to short-term paid jobs in the Syracuse area.

“I needed something for my résumé, and there was a project that matched my skills,” said Kumar, a graduate student in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “I had all the requirements and heard back in a day or two to set up an interview.”

iVenture Upstate, the organization, set Kumar up as a paid Web site developer for a Syracuse University student-devised business, Rylaxing. The business makes ergonomic furniture, which SU has bought to put in some of its dormitories, Kumar said. Through the help of iVenture, Kumar has found a job he expects he’ll be a part of even after graduation, he said.

iVenture is a collaborative project between students and faculty that provides students with two major services: bringing student entrepreneurs together and connecting students looking for work experience with local jobs in their respective fields. It is in the process of expanding throughout New York state.

The idea for the online business began a few years ago with School of Information Studies professor Murali Nekatesh, who wanted students to start an online platform to bring in guest speakers, said John Liddy, an adviser to iVenture and SU entrepreneur-in-residence.

The project evolved to focus more on forging business relationships between SU students and the Syracuse community, Liddy said. By reaching outside the university, students can tap into business-building resources of Central New York, including professional mentors and coaches for student businesses, he said.

Because of its success, iVenture is in the process of expanding statewide, and it has already recruited a handful of colleges, including Le Moyne College, Onondaga Community College, Cayuga Community College, the State University of New York at Morrisville and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, said Mike D’Eredita, a faculty adviser to iVenture and an associate professor in the iSchool.

One of iVenture’s main goals is to connect budding student entrepreneurs with other students who have the right skills to make the business idea a reality, D’Eredita said.

For example, iVenture provided the platform for the students creating Rylaxing to find Kumar, who had the computer engineering skills to create a Web site, a necessary step in realizing the company.

By expanding the reach of iVenture to students at all the SU schools and area colleges, it will tap into more talent that student businesses can tap into, D’Eredita said.

“There are half a million students at all these universities,” D’Eredita said. ‘That’s a massive amount of student capital in one place.”

iVenture also provides an opportunity for students to gain work experience in their field at established businesses in the Syracuse area, said Ruchika Israni, the general manager of iVenture.

iVenture connected Amit Gupta, a graduate student in the iSchool, with the online business VRclips.com. The Web site offers virtual tours of houses that are for sale, Gupta said. Gupta was paid to develop and improve VRclip’s Web site for about three months last spring.

“Generally students work in dining halls or food courts. But iVenture works with students directly to connect them with projects like this,” Gupta said. ‘They know exactly what students are looking for, and they can search the community for the right kind of businesses.”

iVenture is currently working with 50 established business clients that it can connect to interested students, Israni said. There are three positions within iVenture that oversee the operation: the project scout who finds businesses that may be interested in student workers, the talent scout who sifts through student résumés to find which students fit each jobs the best and the general manager.

Because of the careful work iVenture does to match students with the right business for their skill set, companies have been generally happy with the students they hire through iVenture, said D’Eredita, one of iVenture’s faculty advisers.

One such employer is Karen McMahon, the president of Shop for Museums, an online company that raises money for museums, zoos and nonprofit research. McMahon has employed several SU students through iVenture and said she has been impressed by their enthusiasm.

“I was really excited to find out about iVenture,” McMahon said. ‘The students have an amazing amount of enthusiasm about applying their skills in the real world. iVenture has a lot of potential to help companies both locally and nationally. It’s all about connecting, and the Internet is a great platform for that.”

Published on March 8, 2010 at 12:00 pm