New York University Cannabis Team
Tosin Ajayi is a vibrant entrepreneur and NYU graduate student dedicated to breaking the negative stigma of cannabis. As co-founder of Holistic Remedies LLC, a cannabis brand specializing in the production of organic hemp-derived CBD products, Tosin has been recognized as a rising innovator in the space, emphasizing the therapeutic and healing effects of cannabis in her products to correct the public’s stigmatization of the plant.
Brandon Katz and Katrina Zheleznyak are the Co-Founders and Co-Presidents of NYU Stern’s CannaBusiness and NYU Law’s CannaLaw, the Universities’ first student-run cannabis organizations. Brandon, Katrina, and Tosin are working together to create a unified cannabis network at NYU that will harness the institution's resources to shape the trajectory of the cannabis industry. In just one year’s time they have created a network of over 200 students, established NYU’s first cannabis recruiting pipeline, and are building out services for JDs and MBAs to assist victims of cannabis prohibition expunge their criminal records and get clemency for marijuana crimes.
Tosin Ajayi:
https://www.instagram.com/holisticremedies_llc/
https://www.instagram.com/ms.tos/
https://holisticremedies.co/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/oluwatosinajayi/
Brandon Katz:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-katz-40415974/
https://www.law.nyu.edu/studentorganizations/cannalaw
Katrina Zhekezynak:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/nyu-stern-cannabusiness-club/https://www.instagram.com/highergrad/
https://nyustern.campusgroups.com/cbc/home/
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:01] You're listening to Thinking Outside the Bud where we speak with entrepreneurs investors thought leaders researchers advocates and policymakers who are finding new and exciting ways for cannabis to positively impact business society and culture. And now, here is your host Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt.
[00:00:30] Are you a CEO looking to scale your company faster and easier. Checkout Thrive Roundtable thrive combines a moderated peer group mastermind expert one on one coaching access to proven growth tools and a 24/7 support community created by Inc. Award winning CEO and certified scaling up business coach Bruce Eckfeldt. Thrive will help you grow your business more quickly and with less drama. For details on the program visit Eckfeldt.com/thrive. That's E C K F E L D T.com/thrive.
[00:01:02] Welcome, everyone. This is Thinking Outside the Bud. Hi, I'm Bruce Eckfeldt. I'm your host and we have a couple of different guests today. This is a kind of unique episode.
[00:01:10] We've got three people who have been involved at the university level in helping organize how universities are sort of responding to supporting interfacing with the cannabis world, the cannabis community, cannabis industry. And so we're gonna talk a little bit about what's happening here at NYU and the New York area and some of the programs are putting in place by the different schools where you can talk a little bit about more broadly the role that universities can play, because I think this is the one area inside the cannabis kind of industry, the cannabis ecosystem that we haven't really covered and I don't really hear talked a whole lot about is this next generation. And my kind of personal point of view. You know, you want to change the world. You teach the children change it, and they will change it ultimately. But I think that universities are going to be a huge driving factor on the future of the cannabis industry and how it shapes what it does, what it doesn't do. And so I'm excited about this conversation. So we've got a couple of people I'll just go through quickly and then I'll have them introduce themselves a little bit. Brandon Katz is a JD MBA student with NYU, Tosin Ajayi, who's an MBA. She's also owner of Holistic Remedies. We're going to talk a little bit about her background there. And then and then we'll see. I've been working on this one.
[00:02:20] Katrina Zheleznyak. She's an MBA student as well.
[00:02:28] And so we're going to talk with them a little bit about the organizations they've put together there, which is, I would say, pretty innovative as the first or at least one of the first, I think student led school supported cannabis focused organizations. That is really happening. And like I said, I'm excited about it because I think the university is really going to play its huge role in where this industry goes. So with that, let's talk a little bit about the programs that you've been able to put together, the organizations you've put together. Why don't I start with Brandon to kind of talk about sort of the high level things that we'll talk about the business side and just what is happening to date, what you've been able to accomplish. Let me talk a little bit about where you hope to go with some of these organizations, both within White and NYU as well as universities in general. So. Well, actually, let me give you each a little bit of time to give your background and then we'll do that. So let's do Brandon Tosi and then Katrina. So, Brandon, give us a little sense, your background and how you been involved in these programs.
[00:03:17] And thanks for having us, Bruce. Really appreciate it. Yeah. So I went to Vanderbilt undergrad, studied history, economics, and sort of had an interest in government going into law school, but then realized maybe I want to be in the private sector. And as I sort of took on my degree, I realized that cannabis was a unique area where the public sector is actually sort of driven by it company in the private sector. And it's such an underdeveloped sort of space, though, to make an impact on the business side. You can actually really sort of spearhead legal development in a unique way. So I wanted to get involved in the cannabis space, but it was sort of hard to do so because there was no formal recruiting pipeline the same way you'd see in consulting or investment banking. So I sort of serendipitously found my way into the industry. I worked at a private equity. I interned there my first year of the business part of my degree. And I met Katrina was also working in the industry. And we thought, wow, would be really great if we could, you know, build a recruiting pipeline so more people could get involved. And from there, it really sort of took off.
[00:04:16] We met someone named Chris Berg Ave, who is also in the industry. He's the former chief marketing officer of Anheuser Busch. So they know a legitimate person in this new space. And he sort of taught us about the need for responsibility in the industry at this early stage and how universities can really play a role. And actually now during the trajectory of the industry at a very early stage of development in order to make a disproportionate impact in the long run development. And so we really think that, especially given the state of the industry right now, to have qualified, responsible people come in is going to be really, really important for the development of the industry to make this into something that can be a beacon as opposed to potentially an abomination, which it could very well turn out to be if the right people aren't in it. If the regulations are not written the right way. If we don't have the correct sort of sticking by and social imprint on the industry. So we want to touch on all those areas of just a very high level. Specifically, we have three different student organizations built out already at three different NYU schools at NYU Stern.
[00:05:19] We have kind of business which is more business focused, as you can imagine that recruiting events. But also we have the first two accredited classes on the. Cannabis industry for students to actually take and learn about the space and work with companies in the space directly at the law school, we now have Canon Law, which is the first student club for law students. And we're helping non-profit organizations and lawyers in the space to help get people executive clemency or now incarcerated for marijuana crimes, to get pardons released from prison or their sentences commuted. Also to expunge criminal records for people who have criminal records for marijuana crimes. We had appointments and also outsourced policy research. So law students could help companies expand to new states that might not know the regulations in those states. And so really trying to fill these industry needs an early level for all the different schools. And now as of yesterday, actually, we finally created Katta policy so that those who speak more, too. But that's sort of the very bird's eye view of our organization, where we're going to call the whole thing the NYU Cannabis Network. That's sort of all of these subsidiaries compartmentalize for specific value offerings in the industry.
[00:06:29] Yes. Tosi So give us a of your background why you've gotten involved in this. And tell us a little bit more about the policy side. So I think that sounds like the newest piece and I think a very interesting one.
[00:06:38] Given I think one of the fascinating things about the cannabis industry is that it has such an important social justice aspect, historical aspect, a policy aspect. So give us a sense your background and what you're doing with the policy.
[00:06:49] Yeah, absolutely. So again, my name's Tulsi and I am a student of Wagner, which is a school of public service at NYU. A little bit by my background is that I graduated with a bachelors degree in public health. I've always been really driven by really helping people. I took it to the next level when I got my start of my MBA and public administration really wanted to help people on a larger scale and with my health background and with my enthusiastic attitude towards Canada for lack of a better way, I really about twenty eighteen started to really think about how I can really start to destigmatize the plant stigmatized cannabis. And that's when I mean my partner created holistic remedies, which is all about pointing out the medicinal qualities of cannabis. So you make like a CBD healing bomb. We make me use a garden, a honey sticks because there are so many health qualities to cannabis as we now with anxiety or even I work in healthcare with cancer patients and so many cancer patients, we're calling in trying to get cannabis prescriptions. And we were being told that cannabis was completely nothing that we can talk about. I mean, we've seen the evolution of how medicinal cannabis has evolved over the years.
[00:08:05] And holistic omnis was my way of kind of really trying to drive that segmentation of plants. And it was earlier last semester that I saw a call come out from Rantanen Katrina about Canada Business Club. And I was really intrigued to get involved because I was like, I'm at NYU. I'm already have this cannabis business. And I'm so passionate about, you know, really pushing forward what cannabis can do for so many people that I really told. So kind of really about it kind of forcefully like myself into their atmosphere and said like, this is me, I want to be part of this. And I was one of the I think the first student that was in a stern business student who was part of the club. And I became a pointed to being the V.P. of Community for Cannabis A.. And since I've started, we've had brands in Katrina. And I had this idea of, you know, expanding the cannabis coalition policy. And as we talked about, really happy to hear that more to announce that policy was just approved at NYU. And really, it's gonna be a club that's just, again, pushing forward a more socially equitable and conscious cannabis community.
[00:09:16] I am so happy to kind of lead by example and show people that, you know, there can be minorities that are in this space because as we now know, minorities have been disproportionately affected by a lot of the cannabis laws in this country. And even as we see the industry open up, they are a significant amount of people who are being left out of this rush, this green rush. So as Brandon was alluding to, you know, we want to focus on incarcerated individuals from marijuana conviction, seeing how we can help, whether it's through advocacy, grassroots advocacy, picking up the phone, calling your local representatives, organizing all day. You know, there were ideas of us potentially coming up with a scale for social equity, scale for cannabis businesses that they got into their own business and see if they are, you know, doing what's what's expected of them as we push for it. For the simple I'm just I'm really excited about being part of this group, being part of this team. And my perseverance and love, honestly, for the plan is just helping to open a lot more opportunities to continue de-stigmatizing the plan, which is what I'm all about. Awesome.
[00:10:22] Thank you, Katrina. So tell us a little bit about your background and then gets a little bit about kind of the.
[00:10:28] Take a picture here in terms of what you hope by creating these different groups within the different schools and then the overall and then ultimately, you know what other universities can do. How do you sort of see this playing out and about a broader kind of, you know, academic institution level?
[00:10:44] Absolutely. Thank you again for having us. So my name is Katrina. Just a brief background on myself. I'm originally from the Bay Area, so I've definitely always grown up around, you know, pretty pretty innovative attitude around cannabis. And honestly, seeing cannabis use of medicine and really treated as such by doctors or whatever it might be. I studied neurobiology and underground, so I was always very interested in healthcare. Truthfully, I was pre-med longer than I like to admit. Far after I graduated, I kept on pushing, wanted to help in this way and was truthfully so disillusioned with the current state of health care. They spent many years bouncing around anywhere from lab research to business development and biotech to finally for business school health care consulting and truthfully wanted to find a more innovative, disruptive way to create more systemic change. As much as I wanted to go person by person. I really thought there might be a better way. And so that being said, I recognize I, first of all, needed to go to business school. I was sort of the pivot there. I needed around out the scientific background with actual business foundation to be able to take products from conceptualisation to commercialization. And throughout this whole time, I had a secret goal in my mind of maybe one day I'll move in again. But not yet business school as those structured, I need to get, you know, everything out of my investment.
[00:11:56] There is, as Brandon has said, no recruiting pipeline. Let me work for a big, you know, Johnson and Johnson. See what's out there. And eventually I'll take this and sort of put it on the backburner. And as you know, you've sort of heard the theme very soon. But Asli, I fell into the CBD phase because right when we started our MBA program, August 2013 was right when CVT exploded in New York City. I kept on seeing it everywhere and talking to all my friends about it. And truthfully, you threw the classic business networking, found an incredible internship with our reason, which is exactly CVT beverage, one of the earlier ones. Now you see them everywhere. But at the time it really was a very forward thinking company and it lost me in the face to say why would I wait until after business school to move into that is a fascinating case study. This leverages my entire background. There's a huge need for science and credibility. And truthfully, it felt like a really hands on thing to actually get to apply my physical education. So that being said, I fell into it at the perfect time, happened to me, Brandon and everything sort of went from there where we met tosee we met our incredible board. We have over 20 people on our board alone for the Canna Business Club.
[00:13:00] So we've definitely found so much support. And truthfully, what it took with being concerned enough to say, I'm going to put this on my résumé, there's going to be my thing, because if anybody doesn't want to hire me later on down the line because of that, truthfully, it probably wouldn't have wanted to work there anyway. So that's pretty helpful self-selection. So all of this is to say, I think this is a really big motivating factor for myself coming from this health care background, looking for disruption and hopefully making a pretty big change in medicine as we know it. I see an city that is not yet maybe five years, maybe ten. But it's really great to work with people like towsley and Brandon across law and across policy, because that is exactly why I went to NYU. And that's sort of where I want to pivot to. How is this relevant to other people and what's ahead for us? I think what was really, really important for me coming into starting something like this was cannabis is at its core in this very moment, very fragmented across state lines, companies, whatever it might be. Everybody is reinventing the wheel, although there is so much shared passion for the plans, for the social equity, for the responsible rollout of this. Disney is an industry while staying cognizant of the fact that it's not really a new industry like any other legal industry.
[00:14:06] So we've been reminded that, you know, in every way, financially, legally or otherwise. And so that being said, I think it was really important for us to make sure that what we built out was job, you know, business school getting job and cannabis and no job in cannabis, making money and getting out of the space. That was the last thing we want. We recognize there are big my rounds. What does a school student do? The very core was important for us to build out not just ganna business, but Daniloff Keanna policy. Hopefully Keanna Health. And really for others across all institutions that we can just see we're working with tosee. I would never have otherwise spoken to a single person for Wagner. Throughout my time at CERN almost I happened to be in a class. McGahn I think that all of these things bother with my falling into Cannabist meeting other people who bring so many diverse backgrounds and professional skill sets to this. It shouldn't be left to chance. It shouldn't be a fair and depillis meeting or a aligning. There should be structure and credibility to it. And I think that's something that we've really been able to achieve at NYU. In the beginning, we had the sit in push, you know, with the administration push through some of the sounds of the passion.
[00:15:05] Sounds like a side project maybe you can build out under another club. And once we pushed through that, we were able to get not only so many students, but, as Brandon said, the former chief marketing officer. And either Bush is not only a mentor, but teaching our class, that's our next year. And that is the second time having a class on candidates with hands on consulting where students can actually learn and consults for, in this case, a nonprofit at no cost. That nonprofit and. Credible, that is, I think that used to leave off on his. Why isn't this everywhere? It was hard. Don't get me wrong, we have put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears. But ultimately having the right strategy and support, it takes a couple of phone calls. Maybe it takes a couple of hours sitting outside a family's office. But once you get that traction and the stigma sort of starts, the less I mean, truthfully, it's chicken or the egg. That's that's a part of the same thing shifted as well as students coming into the space and bringing in academic thought leadership, not companies who are driven by self-interest, who are paying for research because they need certain result or lobbying for, you know, their product to be whatever it might be. We need academic thought leadership with genuinely passionate people who do care about the industry and long term.
[00:16:08] So that's why we're all here to give us a sense of kind of the complications of doing this inside the university complex, because I know I know that it's taking a while. I know you've had some struggles. And why why is this.
[00:16:19] I guess complicated or difficult or, you know, dynamic for a university to engage in the cannabis industry at this point and give us a little sense of what the journey has been like. What are the issues that have come up? How is the work around it? Because I know it hasn't been easy. I know it wasn't like, hey, we've got this idea great. With a little forum. We've got this group and we're good to go read that. There's been some back and forth and I'll let anyone decide who they want to take this. But just, you know, from us, from an Enlightenment point of view, you know, for listeners here, what are the dynamics at the university level when it comes to the cannabis industry?
[00:16:47] I think, interestingly enough, we can all sort of split across, you know, just quickly rounding out the cannabis nurses and Brandon, I'll pass it to you for canela and tosee most recently policywhich policy, which truthfully I think might have been, you know, the most forceful. Did we learn each time that sort of a big part of this issue is if we can share what we have done to save other students, other schools, the time of doing this? You know, it's all in the spirit of transparency for cannabis mess. It wasn't that anybody had shut us down or say it was more so that we really need and think of how to pitch it to a business oriented organization that first time. At first, just the passion saying this is a need isn't quite enough. So we literally made a pitch that. And we showed here the others that are doing this. Here is the market opportunity is you're the need for qualified business minded people to really build this into this sustainable industry. I think seeing some of those metrics, understanding the projections and truthfully sort of the inner business language in that sense. Right. They want their students to get the best job they can. And if you imagine cannabis, as you know, any other industry, finance or investment banking, we personally think it will look the same.
[00:17:47] And maybe five years there will be big cannabis company is coming to recruit at the schools. Whatever other graduate schools and the earlier you can get your best people, qualified people to make a positive impact in front of themselves. And again, that was the language we had to seek. And eventually, I think beyond the response that maybe this could just be another part of. What about the Entrepreneurship and Startup Association who don't get me wrong, as a close sister club, we can't explain to them that because the Zann finance law, health care, any background that you have, we can't really choose another club. It has to be its own standalone and we have our own journey ahead of us in terms of shifting the stigma. Right, that you can come from finance and maybe be disillusioned and maybe try finance and and all the people you work with and a lot of be one doesn't score in that weird kind of inflection point. I think ultimately, although it did take that time, it took us under a year to become what is now a professional club. That's another really, really big development that we had, I think this past week. We came in as a special interest adventure club or tennis club, which was fine.
[00:18:46] We were happy to work with that and make sure that we branded it as professionally as possible and even well-meaning students would come in and be like, oh haha, like, you know, like the wine club. And we're like, no, this is what we're looking to build.
[00:18:58] We can't wait for the day where we look back on this and laugh to ourselves that that is the response we got. But now we are officially a professional club, meaning we have support from our Office of Career Development from administrators, and truthfully, that earned does see a longer lasting relationship with this club. So I'll pass it off to randomly give each hop. It had its own challenges, but I really think so.
[00:19:18] Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I found that sort of in all the clubs, especially initially getting them off the ground, there was sort of a social hurdle and there was that stigma and sort of the initial response haha. Well that's, you know, not necessarily a serious topic. Is there really gonna be that much interest in that. Is there going to be consumption involved? That was a big part of it. So but you know, when you present it the right way and you and you do it with enough sort of fire and you really present how you want to make that impact and how you what you want to build out different schools, you show them that there is clearly student interest and there's clearly interest out in the industry from companies. So to bridge that gap is just a it's basically a gap, a space for NYU to fill in the industry, to become a thought leader and actually make an impact very early on a lot of other student clubs. You know, you're in a very mature industry that's been around for a long time. You've had issues with their companies for a long time. This is really a unique opportunity to make an impact and sort of be the locus of the industry in your respective states. So that convinced them that, you know, you have to keep on reiterating and pushing and pushing because, you know. Some personalities that were difficult to think to sort of understand the real value there. And I give it back. Generally speaking, though, I think everybody has come around and we've been able to accomplish a ton. And, you know, once the ball started rolling, we kept on growing and growing. One interesting sort of illustration of this is when we're starting Canon Law, we had a presentation in front of the Student Bar Association in front of the administration, and we thought that we had it locked down. We had this great presentation. We showed everything that we want to do and we got Steve Harvey.
[00:21:00] If you remember that, where we were accepted and then rescinded afterwards.
[00:21:05] And they're like, wait a second. There's not gonna be consumption, right? We're like, no. And they said, well, we have to run it through a legal.
[00:21:10] To make sure that's not going to impact federal funding. And I was like, wow, that's since it's illegal federally. Like even if we're. But say, facilitating a an internship or something like that, is that aiding and abetting a federal crime? Is there going to be potentially employers coming to school with their products on hand for giveaway? Are we really at a risk to lose our federal funding? So we had to wait an additional two weeks for legal sort of quiros. And the solution was we had to put into our Constitution. We will not actually sell any products that violated state or federal law. And we're like, OK, sure, we're not trying to do it anyway. There's no big deal. So we put it right in the courts.
[00:21:51] How many clubs have to put it? Shouldn't every club have to sign that?
[00:21:54] Exactly. That's exactly what would be a requirement at all club. Exactly.
[00:21:59] But to me, that now is sort of like a moment of pride, because I see that at the time that, you know, back in my day before it was legalized, we had to put in our constitution that we were not going to sell drugs just to get a student club approved.
[00:22:13] So there's clearly a sort of stigma. But you know that that's to be expected. No. Then why are you right?
[00:22:20] I mean, since the state of the world right now, we've been particularly shame west because we believe what we believe and we've really pushed hard and it's allowed us to be very entrepreneurial and get a lot done. So I think that even where you had those sort of blocks on the road, those obstacles, you know, you present the rational argument here. You can you can go a long way.
[00:22:38] Yeah, great. Totally. Tell us about the policy group and how that kind of played out. The most recent one. So I'm curious, what if there was changes, if it was easier, if it was harder than the other groups?
[00:22:49] Yeah. I mean, I think that they were less systematic roadblocks that were put in place for a policy. But being that we are like a public service school, there was a big building component that was part of it. I don't think necessarily was part of it at the other schools. So it really went through our Wagner Student Association and they had to do like a preliminary building sanction. And then it just went through our Wagner town hall or we invited all the students and Wagner and Cee Lo and D.S. and this is something that we want to deal. And I would also say, I mean, one of the biggest challenges that I face with any kind of policy gather was one of the requirements was that we needed a Sacchetti advisor. And being in that we are in public service, a lot of our professors actually work in government. So there were people who I approached and it wasn't necessarily surprising ask because since I've started at Wagner, I've been writing academic pieces on Canada. So like my first semester, I did a bad why THC shouldn't be excluded from medicinal cannabis. I also wrote another memo policy mental on like addressing systematic racism and marijuana law enforcement.
[00:23:59] So when I reached out to those professors and they weren't necessarily surprised, I did get pushback. And you know, I am considering how politically affiliated. I don't know if this necessarily makes sense for me. And it actually it's up the person who actually ends up accepting it. It took several times reaching out to him and actually reaching out to other professors who then recommended that like looped back to that one professor trying again and then kind of coming back to them and saying, let this professor recommended you the best person. And it's funny, like I'll do it. So that was really the process. I was kind of again, that social hurdle really pushing forward, you know, against the stigma. People just not sure if they weren't necessarily affiliated with cannabis. But as we presented our mission and like how important it is for us to be in this space, especially with other institutions already doing things like this, why would you want our students to be left behind? Essentially, that's what it would be. So I think getting that point across was really helpful and convincing everybody that this is the type that needs to happen at work.
[00:25:00] So let's go through each club again and give me a sense of what are your goals, what you hope to achieve? What's kind of on your agenda for. Well, we're recording this a middle of the cove it lockdown. So I don't know what's going to happen.
[00:25:10] I think the rest of this year is kind of a wash or people are trying to figure out how to finish up 20 the 1920 calendar year. But for twenty twenty one, you know something? We're kind of back into programs. People are back into classes of some sorts later this fall. What do you hope to achieve next year in terms of either. Items, topics, activities like what is on your agenda, what do you hope to achieve? Let's start with Katrina will go back around.
[00:25:34] So I guess just to start out, it does feel like in so many ways this year has been canceled. There is definitely a period of recalibration. I think everybody took it differently. Everyone has affected differently. And so did take us a little bit of time to say, all right, we have to repay our ties. A lot of the sort of check the box may maybe just fun events that we could more easily have. Maybe those shouldn't be the focus. Maybe we'll have, you know, a board hang out in the meantime. But how can we really make a positive impact right now? Because although, again, in many ways, this has not been what we saw in any way, I think particularly given this was the brunt of I mean, for Brandon and then myself. This is our entire two year MBA program, personally speaking like above. Even finding myself a job like this is a legacy. They think we want to leave and laying the infrastructure and a stable point so that it can be how fast the other passionate board for each of these clubs have been extremely important for Kanna business in particular. We actually do want to add the next. I mean, we have essentially a month until graduation, which is crazy. Something that really came to light, I think for all of us was a lot of this club and especially kind of business and focused around this idea of social responsibility, knowing, yes, there is a market opportunity, but there has to be done. Right. I'm from California. I know what it looks like when a place that if California can't do it right.
[00:26:46] Roll out all the social equity programs that you know.
[00:26:49] Yeah, New York is going to have a beach on its hands and being in the middle of it. There is a real chance to make an impact. There was always a sense that we have to fight this hypocrisy of all. We'll give back social equity when we're profitable. From the business perspective, run the businesses that we work with and how we understand that these then hope help develop it. And so that being said, something that I think really culminated during the golden time of the hypocrisy of having cannabis be death. Laghi And in the central good. I'm personally in California. I will have somebody deliver it to my house and then having that translate into an actual death sentence. Birbiglia Over 40000 incarcerated individuals that we still have war. I mean, it's just mind boggling. And I think that's always at the heart of not only kind of business, but especially why we wanted to build out this broader ecosystem and have an action oriented sort of coalition of students. That's a really big goal. I would say across every club that is part of the reason we really rush to even get a policy off the ground tosee mentioned this before, but potentially helping out our existing partners. So we work really closely with the last prisoner project really from the very beginning before we were even an official club. We've been working extremely closely with them and they're actually the subject of our class in the fall. So our class is going to be consulting for them and how companies can prioritize corporate social responsibility given this situation and the different scenarios politically and otherwise, that can unfold. And so that's something up on our radar.
[00:28:09] But we thinking fall is pretty far away where I can be sidelined that long. We should definitely look to use this ASMS form to really inspire the people that that Duesberg for cannabis. That's our number one goal for I would say cannabis, Anderson, is a medium term in the longer term. Hopefully this battle really building out and following through on a robust recruiting pipeline hand-in-hand with the Office of Career Development, where we can lend credibility to job work with employers, that they understand what students might need to see to actually move into cannabis. We've already been gathering a lot of data, actually, and we have over 120 data points on why certain SKUs do or don't want to work in Canada. And so that kind of work, I think will be really instrumental in, as Brendan said, bridging the gap between employers needing qualified talent and truthfully, slightly cheaper talent. I would imagine in the next couple of years, maybe it's not that executive search. Maybe some middle management people are qualified, passionate business school, public policy, whatever it might be. A student comes in and really turns organization around. I would like to think. And so that's really our longer term goal. In addition to fitting into this broader ecosystem and hopefully having classes that man across all of the school, all the that he's considered and and really building that up, that's sort of the cannon business. He's now I'll pass it off to whoever you'd like to fill in.
[00:29:26] Let's go to Brandon with with law. What's what's the goal for Hannelore? Short term and long term.
[00:29:31] Yeah. So in terms of short term, I think for the short term, as Katrina mentioned, our focus is really going to be already covered. It would be sort of tone deaf and also just sort of broad to continue operating digitally what we were doing physically, not to focus on this immediate crisis and lay off, you know, all the people who are incarcerated and exposed to the virus. So we are going to be working closely with the last prisoners project. We're actually trying to connect them with legal interns to help them with their compassionate release program. They've actually have a lot of federal constituents who are incarcerated for marijuana crimes. So to try to file motions and get compassionate release during during this time period is really a backbone of Gordhan's. We're getting law students with that. We're also going to have a phone banking event where we get students from Wagner and the business school and the law school altogether to call local governors offices and Department of Corrections to advocate to get people released from prison works with. So we're gonna be focusing I coal bed for the rest of the semester and also just digital sort of, you know, educational events that we would have otherwise, not a person of next year. You know, we actually had a partnership or weather with a networking company in New York that a big networking event where they're going to come to NYU Law School and we're gonna go create events to get presented at the beginning of them and spread the word.
[00:30:53] So we're gonna have a lot of really cool educational events at the law school. And as Katrina metrick continued to develop our relationships with companies in the space and facilitate internships and get, you know, NYU law students into the cannabis industry, because I know that there is a lot of demand there from the students. Now, there's really not that access point. So we have to really you know, we have the infrastructure now. Now we have to make it happen next year. And then, you know, actually sort of executing. There's a lot of the infrastructure that we've set up in terms of mass numbers, in terms of the the expungement services especially, and getting even more hands on deck to help with the advocacy strategy for the clemency campaign to get executive pardons from people incarcerated. So, yeah, but I think for all the clubs, you know, there is a lot of overlap in our goals. And that is bringing sort of students who are educating students, reading responsibility in the police or bringing those students into the industry and having and why you shouldn't be sort of the be the launch pad for that. Giving the university an opportunity to really enter into a place of thought leadership based as early year is so totally.
[00:32:01] Let's talk about policy. I know that it's just recently formalized, but how are you dealing with the current situation? What are the kind of the bigger term plans around what you hope to achieve with kind of policy inside of me?
[00:32:10] Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think just piggybacking off of Katrina and Brandon and there is so much overlap on how we want to work together to really just become, you know, a leader. I thought leader in this space. But I would say immediately for, you know, policy being that we were just really.
[00:32:25] I think the most important thing is setting up transition for our board. I am graduating in May, which I'm really excited about, but I want to make sure that the leadership is in place so that our mission and vision continues. Even when I do leave, I know I'm a really passionate person pushing forward this club. But we have over 50 people who have signed up in support of this flag and people were ready identify that they want to be leaders in the group. So I think is really just laying the groundwork for a smooth transition for next semester and also is going to just long term is going to coincide with the day efforts of canon law and cannabis. So we're talking about supporting expungement efforts for Canada, victims of incarceration. I know that cannabis is going to be on a few ballots this year on the state ballot. So if there's a way that we can work with that. I know for particularly I'm from New Jersey and is supposed to be a question on the ballot this year. And there's a lot of students from New Jersey who go to NYU. So I think that just, you know, now really thinking through what way can we leverage our power, leverage the support of students to make sure that we are putting as much information out there so that people hopefully make the right decision on how they want cannabis to be infiltrated in the United States is really kind of the long term vision and just working with all three clubs, some part of this infrastructure to see how we can be most powerful and just leading universities and how to move forward with this industry.
[00:33:52] And so for folks that are in the industry listening to this, what are some recommendations, some suggestion, give them to help to get involved at the university level where there are opportunities, where do you have need either individually or at the corporate level? Because I think it's really important that we engage the industry in this. Where are the opportunities? I'll let anyone who feels like they've got some ideas go, but hopefully get the folks listening, those engaged in some of the things you're doing.
[00:34:15] Well well, I would say there are a number of opportunities. One, if if you want to come in and speak to students in advance and actually come join our events, that would be a great opportunity to actually get linked up with with an institution like NYU, too, is if you want access to student talent, if you need interns or somebody to pick up a consulting project or to help you with some specific strategy initiative. This is sort of the perfect opportunity for students that jump into the industry. I think you'd be finding them eager and willing to do that, probably for pretty cheap as well as Katrina mentioned. Also, the opportunity to connect with with other organizations that that we're partnered with non-profit organizations and space, you know, without any sort of personal motive involved, just purely for achieving our mission of making a positive impact in this space, contributing towards our social equity services and our criminal justice services at the law school. So, you know, sort of a hub for all of these all these connections between employers and why use an institution between employers and these students at NYU, whether business, law or policy. And also just the opportunity to sort of improve the. Industry at large and impact development perfect.
[00:35:30] I'm going to collect information from all of you for contact information and how, you know, links for people to get more information about each one of your programs. It's in the show notes here. But I really appreciate the time today. Brandon toseek Katrina. I really great conversation.
[00:35:43] Like I said, I think this is a an untapped area of the industry is really working with universities, working with students to help, you know, not only help the industry right now, but really kind of shape the industry going forward. So I really appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time today for us.
[00:35:56] Thanks. Thank you so much. Looking forward to it. Anybody wants to get involved in any way. Have a fun journey.
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