Oklahoma State offers entrepreneurship program for disabled vets

From The Daily Oklahoman:

Disabled veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars with aims to create their own businesses are eligible for a free in-residence entrepreneurship program Jan. 30-Feb. 6 at Oklahoma State University.

The program is intense, rigorous and challenging, like a military boot camp, said Michael Morris, professor and head of the department of entrepreneurship at OSU’s Spears School of Business. Faculty from top programs nationwide will lead a series of interactive training modules designed to assist veterans in creating and growing businesses that can be profitable, he said. Morris was involved in a similar program at Syracuse University, before joining OSU in January.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have resulted in more disabled veterans than ever, Morris said.

"Field medicine is so much better that a lot of guys who would have died in earlier wars are coming back disabled. They not only have to adjust to a disability, which can be devastating, but also to civilian life,” he said. "Many struggle mightily.”

The entrepreneurship program empowers vets who are passionate about creating their own ventures, Morris said. It’s preceded by an online self-study precourse Dec. 1-Jan. 20 and followed by 10 months of mentoring provided by OSU entrepreneurship experts.

The veterans’ program can accommodate 30; 10 have been accepted, including Thomas Perry of Tulsa and Eric Vargo of Manhattan, Kan.

A former Army major, Perry, 38, served 15 years in the service before his discharge in September 2006. While in combat in Afghanistan, he injured a disk in his lower back, leaving him with sciatic nerve pain and general movement problems. "It feels like I have a permanent jammed thumb, only it’s my back,” he said.

Perry, who’d planned a career in the service, called his separation from the Army gut-wrenching. Today, he’s directing a school for commercial drivers in Tulsa and planning a vet-friendly startup called "Boozy Bees” to ship bees worldwide and strategically locate beehives.

Perry conceived his idea after watching "The Bee Movie” with his wife and two young daughters. He learned, through viewing it and a subsequent documentary, bees have died off and without their pollination of flowers, plant life will begin dying off with the food chain close behind.

A former Army sergeant, Vargo, 25, started his power washing business in 2007, after separating from the service the previous year. A car bomb explosion in Iraq left him with shrapnel in his left arm and peroneal nerve damage in his left leg.

Vargo hopes to grow and expand his business.

"I’m looking forward to learning how to better market it, and the chance to seek advice from others with common goals.”