Silicon Falls: Buffalo Startup Week 2023 Unveils New Collaboration Involving Cornell University and Stanford University

“Buffalo Startup Week provided the perfect platform to introduce the new ‘Silicon Falls’ collaboration with Stanford University,” said Jodi Anderson Jr., director of technological development at Cornell ILR’s Criminal Justice and Employment Initiative (CJEI).

Buffalo Startup Week 2023 in November celebrated entrepreneurship’s rise in the Western New York region and brought together thousands of change-makers.

Priscilla Fiden, associate vice provost and chief of staff at Stanford University Digital Education, presented a new collaborative initiative involving Cornell University’s outreach divisions, the National Education Equity Lab and the PipeDreamers Foundation.

"The Rise of Silicon Falls" initiative seeks to integrate CJEI’s criminal justice resources with ILR Buffalo Co-Lab's community partnerships. “The goal is to upskill justice-impacted households and integrate them into the regional economy,” said panelist Dante Richardson, strategic innovation advisor at CJEI.
 

“Our focus is on providing online training and resources to empower justice-impacted families in Western New York,” said Anderson Jr. “We understand the challenges and opportunities involved in fostering an inclusive startup ecosystem. We want to create pathways to opportunity for communities that have been historically excluded.”

More information about the collaboration is to come.