RI Nexus Kicks Off the ‘RI Nexus College Tour’ at JWU
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September 24, 2008 | Print this page | Share This | Email this page
RI Nexus to visit Rhode Island colleges to raise awareness among students about internships, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities within the state's burgeoning info-tech and digital sector
RI Nexus, a program of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC) dedicated to information sharing and community building within the state’s information-technology and digital media (ITDM) sector, today announced that it will launch the RI Nexus College Tour at 11:30 a.m. on September 25 at Johnson & Wales University’s Westminster Technology Conference Center at 138 Mathewson St. in Providence, Rhode Island, followed by a stop at the University of Rhode Island on October 3 and stops at other colleges and universities in the state in subsequent months.
Through its College Tour, RI Nexus aims to forge deeper connections with Rhode Island’s college students. ITDM-minded students will be shown how to use the RI Nexus community to find internships, jobs, mentors, entrepreneurial opportunities, and other valuable resources in the state's burgeoning information technology and digital media sector. The College Tour will encourage students to remain in Rhode Island, and to take jobs and to start businesses here.
The stops will feature a presentation by RI Nexus program director Jack Templin, encouraging Rhode Island students to use the tools and resources offered through RINexus.com, the online portal for the RI Nexus program, and to encourage entrepreneurial activity within the sector, followed by an open discussion on the program.
“Through the online community RINexus.com has built, students can find info-tech and digital media (ITDM)-related internships while they are in school, job opportunities upon graduation, and other forms of support from the local ITDM community,” says Jack Templin, RI Nexus program director. “RI Nexus is a national model for a statewide program targeting its ITDM sector, and being a catalyst for helping individuals within this community to connect, communicate and collaborate. It’s time to get students involved and allow them the same access, tools and support programs available while they are in school.”
Last spring, RI Nexus hosted a discussion at Johnson & Wales University about job opportunities within the ITDM sector in Rhode Island. This pilot event was enthusiastically received by both students and faculty alike and was the impetus for a larger scale statewide college and university outreach effort.
“As a faculty member focusing on web applications, data modeling, and virtual worlds, I have found RI Nexus to be vitally important to both the faculty and student communities,” says Hilary Mason, adjunct professor, new media and computer science, Johnson & Wales University. “Sharing the information and insights on the latest trends and new business models, up-to-date news related to Rhode Island-based ITDM companies and individuals, an extensive events calendar along with internship and job opportunities makes this a one-of-a-kind tool nationally. We are pleased to be the host site for kicking off the state’s RI Nexus College Tour.”
RINexus.com provides a directory of Rhode Island ITDM companies, news, discussion forums, event calendar and boards for posting and browsing local ITDM-related jobs and internships. To date, RI NEXUS has approximately 1,500 registered users on its online portal representing 300 companies and organizations throughout Rhode Island. RINexus.com has become a catalyst for the ITDM community to collaborate, share new ideas and information, learn about trends, and find and post job opportunities. The RI Nexus College Tour will inform students of the opportunities Rhode Island’s ITDM industry has to offer them, including high paying jobs at exciting, newly formed companies.
“With significant job growth potential, the ITDM sector is an important high-wage target industry for the RIEDC business development team. The ITDM sector in Rhode Island employs more than 15,000 people and accounts for more than $1 billion in annual wages,” says RIEDC Executive Director Saul Kaplan. “RI Nexus has proven itself to be a powerful community-building tool and a platform for information sharing and job creation in the ITDM sector. Students attending our state’s colleges and universities are an extremely important piece of our workforce equation. As our economy continues to create more job opportunities within the ITDM sector, it will be important to have a highly-skilled and educated workforce to meet those demands. Students interested in this sector are being encouraged to actively participate in the RI Nexus program.”
The RI Nexus College Tour is just one of the community-building events RI Nexus has coordinated for students and working professionals. In its first year, RI Nexus held several events including a meet up with 37 Signals’ founder Jason Fried, and a discussion on next-generation working environments for the creative economy community with noted panelists such as Betahouse founder, Greg Gibson, FB Capitals’ Gary Brandeis and The Grant co-owner J Hogue.
Earlier this year, RI Nexus held a “meet and greet” session with the Rhode Island School of Design’s (RISD) incoming president, and former MIT Media Lab Associate Director, John Maeda. The event was a unique opportunity for Rhode Island’s information technology and digital media community and RISD’s president to meet in a casual intimate setting.
About RI Nexus
RI Nexus is a public-private initiative of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation to support and grow the state’s info-tech and digital media sector. RI Nexus aims to help transform the sector’s collection of organizations, individuals and initiatives into a highly interconnected statewide industry cluster by helping the sector’s stakeholders to connect, communicate and collaborate; nurturing a culture that recognizes and celebrates entrepreneurship and innovation; streamlining access to support resources relevant to entrepreneurs and innovators; and promoting Rhode Island’s dynamic info-tech and digital media sector beyond our borders. For more information on RI Nexus, please visit rinexus.com.
