Luz Perez (‘20), a triple major in Entrepreneurship, Accounting, and Citizenship and Civic Engagement will be this spring’s Blackstone Launchpad Engagement Scholar at Syracuse University. The Engagement Scholar position was created as a part of the LaunchPad’s goal to increase social enterprise ventures across the campus.
Through her time at Syracuse, Perez has become interested in merging the campus community with the Syracuse city community in order to create impact and sustainability through social entrepreneurial efforts. Her involvement with different departments and organizations both on and off campus has inspired her to further look into assessing community needs and finding solutions through interdisciplinary thinking (or interconnectivity of different groups).
Volunteering and organizing events at community organizations such as The Worker’s Center of Central New York, La Casita, and The Spanish Action League, Perez has learned about the value that can be created when on and off campus groups join together in order to make a change for several years. Helping organize workshops and sales for several times, she has learned about the strengths and opportunities that reside not only on the university’s campus but outside in the city as well.
As this semester’s Blackstone LaunchPad Engagement Scholar, Perez will assist professional staff in programming with a focus on social entrepreneurship and civic ventures. The goal is to encourage more students to think about and get engaged in civic entrepreneurship.
She will be helping increase the participation and communication between students engaging in entrepreneurship across the campus and organizing and implementing programs including guest speakers, panels, workshops, and idea competitions.