A student-run seminar is held every spring semester in an effort to increase the number of Binghamton University graduates who continue to live in the area to 20 percent by the year 2020.

CIC2020 (Catalysts for Intellectual Capital) started as a student organization and is now listed and offered under human development as a four-credit class called Proseminar in Civic Entrepreneurship.

Although Diane Crews is the faculty adviser for the organization, executive director Jodi Epstein, a senior human development major, teaches the course.

A board of students who were previously enrolled in the class assists Epstein.

For the course, students must produce a research project analyzing the disconnect between the University and the local community and how this contributes to the area’s economic downturn.

“We have class at the Downtown Center and different focus group discussions about why young people aren’t staying in the area and how we can recruit and engage these young professionals,” Epstein said.

The class visits local politicians or corporations every Friday to foster partnerships between recruiters and the University.

The course also collaborates with social networking organizations like Southern Tier Young Professionals and recruiters such as IBM’s New Blue and Lockheed Martin’s New Hire Club.

“These organizations are the poster child for what we’re trying to do,” Epstein said. “We want companies to come here and recruit, while engaging students and making them a part of the community.”

At the end of the semester, students present their research projects to business leaders in the community, local government officials and BU faculty.

“We focus a lot on entrepreneurship,” Epstein said. “We focus on our economy changing from an industrial-based economy to a knowledge economy that is more proactive and innovative.”

Two years ago, CIC2020 sponsored the first Binghamton Blowout Block Party on Court Street. The festival attracted local business professionals and BU students with food vendors, music, dance groups and information sessions on CIC2020.

“Students got to go Downtown to see what was going on as opposed to just going to State Street,” said Epstein. “It made students more aware of Binghamton as a city and what businesses and job opportunities are available here.”

According to Epstein, CIC2020 will host “Leading from the Confluence,” a conference on May 7 and 8, 2010, to bring young professionals, students, professors and people with entrepreneurial mindsets together. The conference will partner with First Fridays.

Ankesh Arora, a graduate student in industrial systems engineering and a member of CIC2020’s directorate, thinks more students will stay in Binghamton once it is economically developed.

“I know a lot of people on campus that want to start their own business but don’t think the community offers enough resources to do that, but it really does,” Arora said.

Arora said that CIC2020’s overarching goal is community development through entrepreneurship.

“For people looking for jobs, [CIC2020] is a great way for students to build connections with business professionals,” he said. “It’s not just what you know, it’s who you know.”

Interested undergraduate and graduate students must fill out an application from CIC2020.org and be interviewed before registration is finalized. Applications for the spring 2010 class are due Nov. 25 at 11:59 p.m.

“We want people from all disciplines, but someone who wants to make a change in the community for economic development,” Epstein said. “Someone who’s entrepreneurial.”