LONG ISLAND CITY — LaGuardia Community College is expanding its educational program for small business owners, with plans to open a dedicated center for entrepreneurs on its campus next year, officials announced Tuesday.
The new 10,000-square-foot facility will serve as the epicenter for the school's 10,000 Small Businesses program, a partnership with Goldman Sachs that launched there in 2010 and offers classes and support services for business owners.
The program — which operates at 30 other locations in the country and the U.K. in addition to LaGuardia — provides participants with training on how to grow their company and get access to loans, and offers mentorships with other business leaders.
"Our College is devoted to making a positive impact on New York City by promoting workforce development," the school's President Gail O. Mellow said in a statement. "To help people get out of poverty and to safeguard the middle class."
The business center is expected to open in 2017, and is being funded with a $5 million award from Gov. Andrew Cuomo's CUNY 2020 program, which gives out grants to CUNY schools.
It will be located on the seventh floor of the school's C Building at 29-10 Thomson Ave. and will include nine offices and seven meeting rooms, officials said.
It will share the floor with NYDesigns, the school's design and technology incubator, which often rents space and resources — like its 3D printer — to students in the 10,000 Businesses program.
More than 600 businesses have received training through the program since it launched at LaGuardia six years ago, according to the school.
Participants include Nadira El Khang, a Queens resident who started her own line of handmade leather bags, NadiraBag, which is now being sold at the new Made in Queens pop-up store in Queens Plaza.
"10,000 Small Businesses helped unlock my fears about expanding my business, and gave me the confidence to broaden my leather goods store," El Khang said in a statement.
The program is now accepting applications for its next cohort, which will start at the end of July. For more information, visit LaGuardia's website.
