Page 24 - RE-NJ

22 JANUARY 2024
SPECIAL EDITOR’S NOTE
A PROUD MOMENT AS NJIT’S
NEWARK STARTUP STUDIO GRADUATES 45 MINORITY ENTREPRENEURS
Ihope you’ll indulge me as I highlight a proud moment for all of us at Real Estate NJ. It came at the
Newark Summit on Dec. 4, where New Jersey Institute of Technology President Teik Lim addressed the hundreds that were assembled in downtown Newark.
Lim was one of the event’s first speakers, touting not only one of the nation’s top polytechnic research universities, but a list of exciting new ventures at the school including a free entrepreneurial workshop for Newark residents led by real estate investor Paul Profeta and the Profeta
Real Estate Technology, Design and Innovation Center.
“These innovative and impactful efforts, as well as many other partnerships with the city ... make NJIT part of the fabric of its home city of Newark,” Lim said. “So we recognize that, for NJIT to prosper, Newark and New Jersey must prosper, too.”
Profeta, of course, is our publisher and the one who first made it possible for us to bring you Real Estate NJ. He’s also responsible for the single-largest donation in NJIT’s
history and, as proud as we were to hear him recognized at the Newark Summit, he was undoubtedly prouder one day later when the workshop, the Newark Startup Studio, graduated its first-ever class of aspiring entrepreneurs.
Held at the Profeta Center on the university’s campus, the Dec. 5 event celebrated 45 minority residents who completed the program. The free workshop started right after Labor Day with 60 students and met Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon, providing a blend of academic business education combined
with real-world suggestions from Profeta and hands-on advice and experience from successful minority entrepreneurs, with a slate of instructors that included Real Estate NJ’s Karen Pisciotta.
More importantly, 14 members
of the class either launched or expanded the startup businesses they own. The event also included a speech by Profeta, who celebrated their achievements and expressed his pride for how hard they worked and what they accomplished.
He was most impressed with
Paul Profeta, publisher of Real Estate NJ and founding donor of the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Profeta Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, addressed students on Dec. 5 at a graduation ceremony for the center’s first-ever Newark Startup Studio.
All photos by Aaron Houston for Real Estate NJ