Hillel at Baruch, the TAMID group and College Entrepreneurship Organization came together to host a start-up technology fair for Baruch College students on Feb. 26.

The event began with guest speaker Dr. Alex Cahana, who discussed his journey from being in military to working in the tech world.

Cahana is currently a venture partner and a health care and MedTech adviser at CryptoOracle. During his presentation, Cahana emphasized the importance of blockchain technology in today’s fast-moving world.

His presentation was accompanied with a chance to network and gain employment opportunities with various start-ups.

Via, Kaltura, VR Wiz, Tunity and Taboola were some of the many companies that were present at the fair.

The room was crowded and bustling as students from various majors, backgrounds and clubs attended the event ready to network with the start-ups while members of the clubs signed the students in and encouraged them to get their headshots taken. 

Graduate student Michael Stevens who is now a full-time employee of Hillel at Baruch helped promote the event and was happy about the large turnout.

“I reached out to STARR Career Center and the Center for Entrepreneurship to make sure they were aware of the event,” Stevens said.

When asked about his position and about working at Baruch, Stevens shared the love he holds for his new job.

“I love my job. I grew close to many people during my time here and now I get to work with my best friends. I absolutely love it,” he said.

Justyn Makarewycz, associate director at the Graduate Center, said he wanted to ensure he was “building relations, especially for the graduate students who attend Baruch.”

“I thought it would be worthwhile for the graduate students to learn about start-ups and provide them with an opportunity to network with them,” Makarewycz said.

Besides networking opportunities, the event also offered raffle prizes and free LinkedIn headshots for Baruch students.

“We are a new club. We only began last spring and as the entrepreneurship club of Baruch, we want to make sure students have the opportunity to network with start-up and pursue jobs in the growing tech field,” Alex Ptacek, the chief communications officer of CEO, explained.

Ptacek also shared an exciting new event that CEO is currently working on.

“We have a Shark-Tank style event coming up soon where students will have the opportunity to pitch their ideas and potentially fund their projects,” he said.

TAMID President Jared Isaac said he hopes students “can learn valuable networking skills and see a different side, the tech side, of Israel.”