Mayor Cory A. Booker inaugurates new glassblowing studio serving inner-city youth

NEWARK, NJ – Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker cut the ribbon at Cristal Caliente: GlassRoots Turns Up the Heat, a celebration in honor of the official opening of the new GlassRoots glassblowing studio — known as a “hotshop” — at 10 Bleeker Street in Newark on May 15. The party featured glassblowing demonstrations in the new facility, along with live Latin music, salsa dancing, and the introduction of the new GlassRoots merchandise line.

GlassRoots provides dynamic workshops in glassmaking and entrepreneurship to underserved, inner-city youth, attracting students with the excitement of fire and molten glass. The new hotshop serves as the only studio of its kind designed for youth use in the New York metropolitan area, and was constructed specifically for the needs of the GlassRoots program.

Says GlassRoots executive director Patricia Kettenring, “The studio provides safe, entertaining, and enriching activities as a viable alternative to the harmful and negative recreation of the city streets, inspiring their participants to set goals, overcome challenges, and ultimately succeed in their endeavors.” In addition to flameworking, kilnformed glassmaking and glass blowing, the program includes business skills training through the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) curriculum. From its founding in 2000, more than 3,000 Newark area youth have been actively engaged in the program.

From its inception, GlassRoots has partnered with MBA students from Rutgers Business School as an integral part of the school’s Business & the Arts program, a special concentration within the MBA program. Founded and directed by Patricia Kettenring, Business & the Arts has provided training in fundraising, marketing, and financial accounting for arts non-profits, as well as internships with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and other area arts organizations.

Through the linking of GlassRoots with the Rutgers Business & the Arts program, students developed the organization’s first business plan and its first marketing plan. Numerous Rutgers Business School students have done fundraising research as well as drafted proposals, thus allowing the development of the organization to become a virtual case to be used in the classroom. Three Rutgers MBAs and one Rutgers Business School faculty member have served on the GlassRoots Board this past year, and several former students continue to be intimately involved in its development as advisors and donors.

GlassRoots is a registered 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to providing opportunities for achievement to at-risk youth by engaging them in the creation of glass art and the development of entrepreneurial and life skills. To learn more visit the website at www.glassroots.org.

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About Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick:

About Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick is an integral part of one of the nation’s oldest, largest, and most distinguished institutions of higher learning: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Founded in 1929, it has been accredited since 1941 by AACSB International–the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business — a distinction that represents the hallmark of excellence in management education. Today, Rutgers Business School is educating more than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students at two main campuses in New Jersey as well as six satellite locations in New Jersey, China, and Singapore. Steeped in academic excellence, with a distinguished faculty and a corps of over 27,000 successful alumni, Rutgers Business School is highly ranked by the Financial Times, U.S. News & World Report, Business Week, and The Wall Street Journal. It is recognized as among the top three business schools in the New York City metropolitan area, and ranked #10 nationwide for “Most Competitive Students” by The Princeton Review. For additional information, visit www.business.rutgers.edu.