By employing student research assistants from the College of Business and Center of Entrepreneurial Finance (CEF), the Stony Brook Small Business Development Center (SBDC) developed a small business recovery and resiliency webinar series to provide tools to assist small- and medium-sized businesses recover from the devastating ongoing pandemic and unprecedented economic disruption. Sponsored by BNB Bank, the student research assistants gained hands-on experience for their future endeavors.

Funded by the State and Federal Government, the SBDC provides free and confidential, one-on-one business counseling to business owners. Statistics compiled by the SBA indicate that between March and September, those virtual counseling sessions assisted more than 900 small businesses in processing more than $35 million in Economic Injury Disaster and Paycheck Protection Program Loans, thereby helping those Suffolk County businesses save more than 1,450 jobs.

“The students have done an outstanding job in providing research for the three hardest-hit industries — restaurant, retail, and construction — and now understand the devastating economic effect of COVID-19 as it adversely affected and shut down small businesses throughout the country,” said SBDC Administrator Martha Stansbury.

Jacob Rueb ’21, a business management major, specializing in finance and operations management, said that during his research, he learned that many businesses were not ready for the restrictions brought by the pandemic because they did not have an online presence that allowed for revenue generation while their physical locations were restricted or shut down. He added that those who implemented online ordering or curbside pickup achieved a measure of success.

“We did make recommendations,” Rueb said. “Those recommendations included where to cut costs depending upon the industry and adjusting their digital marketing strategy.”

• Learn more about SBDC

Read the full story: SBDC, Business Students Team Up to Help Local Firms Cope with Pandemic 

“The impact of the events of 2020 on filmmaking will be monumental,” said Karen Offitzer, director of the undergraduate minor in filmmaking at Stony Brook and one of three co-directors of the Social Impact Filmmaking program. “It will bring changes in the way we make movies, changes in the way we see them, and changes in the very stories we want to tell.”

“Social media gives us all a powerful platform to get our content seen and interact with audiences,” added Simone Pero, another co-director of the program. “From a social impact perspective, what has fundamentally changed is that we believe filmmakers must evolve with what’s happening around us by leveraging the art form for positive change because the issues are now impossible to ignore.”

Despite the enormous capabilities individuals now have in their hands, Offitzer said filmmaking is still an art form with its own rules and language that must be learned and practiced to meet its potential as a change agent. And that is the mantra that serves as the backbone of Stony Brook’s Social Impact Filmmaking program.

“The students in our inaugural class are currently sharing stories and developing solutions on a wide range of issues including immigration reform, climate change, racism, LGBTQ rights, prison reform, women’s rights, and hunger,” she said. “All these students will be trained as creative, effective filmmakers by understanding and practicing the fundamentals and learning the more advanced techniques of visual language and story designed to motivate and inspire.”

“This program offers similar opportunities for transformation,” she said. “It provides filmmaking tools and support to anyone with a cell phone, a story, and a passion to make a difference.”

Read the full story: https://news.stonybrook.edu/facultystaff/social-impact-filmmaking-program-teaches-passion-to-make-a-difference/ 

For the all-student Stony Brook Volunteer Ambulance Corps (SBVAC), it began with a Volkswagen bus and a Cadillac.

Before SBVAC was created, the Setauket Ambulance Service and Stony Brook Fire Department serviced Stony Brook, taking between 15 and 20 minutes to arrive. The SBVAC changed all that: Today’s standard response time is seven to 10 minutes.

To launch SBVAC, the students made use of a donated VW bus and a 1959 Cadillac ambulance. The VW was used as a transportation vehicle while the Cadillac was the first ambulance and thus a full-time emergency service — the first such student-run operation in the country — was born.

Leo DeBobes, SBVAC’s longtime faculty advisor since 1993, addressed the emergency service’s early years.

“They operated with an old Cadillac Ghostbusters-style ambulance, later shifted to the Type II vans, and then to the modern Type III modular rigs.”

Larry Starr, SBVAC’s founder and president from 1972 to 1974, noted that the original Cadillac was built from a hearse because “hearses were the only vehicles back then that could carry a patient in a reclining position.”

In the long run, the vehicles’ strange appearance didn’t matter because “we were at the vanguard,” Starr said. The service was effective and efficient, and it had the distinction of being the first student-run operations in the country.

In 2002, SBVAC won the Suffolk Regional EMS Council Agency of the Year Award, then went on to win the New York State EMS Agency of the Year Award — a remarkable feat considering that the collegiate EMS agency competed against all community and locally funded EMS agencies in New York State.

In 2013, SBVAC won the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation Collegiate EMS Agency of the Year Award.

Read the full story: https://news.stonybrook.edu/featuredpost/volunteer-ambulance-corps-marks-a-half-century-of-community-service/