More than a dozen Sacred Heart University (SHU) students in Fairfield, Connecticut, have been gaining valuable real-world experience helping a safety startup company prepare for an upcoming product launch.
Since last fall, WeSkreech, a tech startup company offering a pioneering personal safety deterrent, has been working with SHU students on marketing, sales and operations. Founded by Shana Moore, WeSkreech offers a powerful personal safety alarm that uses patent-pending sonic technology to disorient and deter a threat.
Since the company’s inception, Moore and Larry Lopata, chief technical officer, have spent time on SHU’s West Campus, collaborating and providing an immersive learning experience for interested students.
In addition to the practical business experience, the partnership gives students a chance to contribute to a cause that is important to the university: community safety. SHU students often work with the Center for Family Justice in Bridgeport, which provides services to victims of domestic violence and abuse and offers education to prevent violence and promote safety.
“Our mission is profit with a purpose,” Lopata said. “We’ve been lucky to work with such great students who are so passionate about keeping their community safe.”
Moore shares Lopata’s appreciation for the partnership with SHU students. “As two professionals from a different generation, we’ve learned just as many lessons as the students have since we began working together,” Moore said. “It’s truly a great experience being able to work with so many talented young professionals.”
As for the students involved, they’ve been able to partner with a company that provides tangible experience in the fields they’re hoping to break into.
As the second-largest Catholic university in New England and one of the fastest-growing private doctoral institutions in the U.S., Sacred Heart University is a national leader in shaping higher education for the 21st century. The contemporary Catholic university is rooted in the rich Catholic intellectual tradition and the liberal arts, and at the same time cultivates students to be forward thinkers who enact change — in their own lives, professions and in their communities.
