December 2024 Newsletter
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Use Gen AI to Design Adaptive Business Models in the Impact Studio Grad Course
The Impact Studio graduate course (BA670) prepares students to be architects of an equitable, just, and sustainable future. In Winter ’25, this award-winning course will focus on the clean energy transition. We will be engaging with neighborhood partners in Detroit to design equitable and feasible business models for innovative green energy models that support communities.
This year we have added two new features:
(1) Students will gain hands-on experience using a suite of generative AI tools for design and business modeling. We will be using BoodleBox, which includes one-stop access to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Semantic Scholar, and other GAI tools.
(2) A focus on collaborative adaptive learning with teammates and faculty, and specifically how to adjust to changing policy environments in real time. During the course itself, policy changes will unfold that create challenges and opportunities, and we will be working as a learning community to understand and adapt to these changes.
Business Owners and UM Students Can Partner this Winter
The University of Michigan’s Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project (DNEP), a program of Business+Impact is now recruiting Detroit business owners to be placed with teams of students for the Winter 2025 semester (January–April 2025). In these faculty-led DNEP classes, students receive course credit to work with business owners.
News from the Impact Studio
The Impact Studio has forged a new partnership with Boston Consulting Group! On Fri, Nov. 15, the Fall 2024 Impact Studio Founders and Applebaum Impact Design Fellows took an inaugural half-day trip to Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Detroit, where they pitched their ideas, received feedback from BCG reps, and networked with BCG consultants.
On Fri, Dec. 6, the Impact Studio Founders and Fellows met for the final time of the Fall semester, to celebrate everything they’ve achieved this semester and begin working towards prototypes for Demo Day, coming during the Winter semester.
Have You Used the Impact Roadmap?
B+I has created a Feedback form, collecting data on the UM Impact Roadmap — a resource for social impact and sustainability students at Ross and across the UM Campus. The site includes a calendar, careers, clubs, co-curriculars, colleagues, community impact, and courses for social impact students. Have you used it? Please submit your feedback and you could win a local gift. Bonus: if you provide a testimonial that we use in our marketing, you’ll win a gift basket!
Warm Wishes from Business+Impact
As we bid farewell to 2024, we at Business+Impact warmly congratulate our students as they complete the semester, and as some graduate. There is much to celebrate and be grateful for, and we are so thankful for everyone in our impact community and the vital work they do as changemakers. Wishing each of you an impactful 2025!
Map Your U-M Journey with the Impact Roadmap
The Business+Impact Impact Roadmap (UMImpactRoadmap.com) provides you with a single location for all social impact on the U-M campus. Here you’ll find all of the events, courses, people, and key partners working to use their learning to make a real impact in the world.
At the University:
WILLIAM DAVIDSON INSTITUTE
2025 DEI Global Case Writing Competition
Applications due: Fri, Jan. 31
The topic of this year’s WDI case study is on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as a business-related dilemma that must be solved by a protagonist grappling with time-sensitive decisions within any type of business discipline. The dilemma can be cross-disciplinary, i.e., affecting various disciplines such as accounting, marketing, supply chain operations, strategic management, information technology, economics, entrepreneurship, sustainability and leadership, to name a few. The geographical setting for the case can be domestic or international.
UM DETROIT
A Practicing Design Practice, Practicing
Fri, Dec. 13 @ Noon – 2 pm
UM Detroit Center
3663 Woodward Ave, Suite 150
Benjamin Gaydos, Assoc. Professor of Design at the University of Michigan-Flint, is a co-founder of goodgood, an interdisciplinary design firm with offices in Detroit and Boston, and co-author of First Things First (2020), advocating for inclusive and empathetic design. With extensive experience in community-based projects and award-winning teaching, Gaydos brings a unique perspective on design’s role in social and environmental justice. Join him as he shares insights from his work with Flint’s communities and beyond, inspiring new ways to think about design’s potential for meaningful change.
UM LIBRARIES
Antiracist Digital Research Grants
The intent of the grant and institute are to support early-stage digital scholarship projects with a focus on anti-racist praxis. Your project does not need to be fully conceptualized to apply. Competitive proposals will have compelling arguments for the use of digital scholarly approaches to advance the work of anti-racism, anti-colonialism, and social justice.
OFFICE OF ACADEMIC MULTICULTURAL INITIATIVES
MLK Symposium Events Requested
The MLK Symposium encourages events spread out through the months of January and February, as the MLK Holiday itself is usually a very crowded programming day. OAMI provides support to student organizations to create events for the symposium through our SAMI grants program. OAMI does not have any funding sources for MLK Symposium events for units/departments/faculty.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR INSTITUTIONAL DIVERSITY
Join the Diversity Scholars Network
The National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) at the University of Michigan invites applications for the Diversity Scholars Network (DSN). The DSN is a global scholarly community committed to advancing diversity research and scholarship that addresses critical social issues related to identity, difference, culture, representation, power, oppression, and inequality.
WILLIAM DAVIDSON INSTITUTE
The Climate Entrepreneurship Exchange
Climate Entrepreneurship Exchange is an 8-week, innovative extracurricular virtual exchange certificate program that fosters climate entrepreneurship among undergraduate students in Michigan, Egypt, Libya, and Morocco. The program promotes cross-cultural collaboration and communication while equipping participants with knowledge and skills necessary to create climate-conscious businesses.
SEMESTER IN DETROIT
Apply for Semester in Detroit
Apply by Wed, Jan. 1 at 11:59 pm
The School of Social Work hosts a wide range of important social impact events that engage students, community, and Social Work leaders.
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MARSAL FAMILY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
James A. Kelly Learning Lever Prize
The James A. Kelly Learning Lever Prize is a competition designed to challenge University of Michigan students to invent digital tools with the potential to significantly improve student learning. This prize encourages a culture of innovation in education, and rewards the creative, interdisciplinary work of University of Michigan students.
U-M CGIS
U-M Global Social Impact Internships
Apply between now and Sat, Feb. 1
Join this program to find independent social impact internships in fields including health, engineering, education, human rights, sustainability, gender-based advocacy, and a trusted pathway for academic credit and peer support. Alongside your internship, you will engage in critical dialogue and reflection about the complexities of striving for justice while crossing differences of culture and power, and you will create a series of digital storytelling posts that document your experiences.
LSA
Semester in Detroit
Apply between now and Fri, Mar 31
Semester in Detroit accepts undergraduate students from all schools and departments at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, UM-Dearborn, UM-Flint and Grand Valley State University. All students, from First years to Seniors or Super Seniors are eligible to apply. Applicants should have a strong interest in the city of Detroit and in questioning dominant narratives; engaging with challenging new perspectives on contemporary issues; and building community with one another, SiD faculty and staff, and community members at internship sites and beyond.
In the Impact Community:
NEW Events
Centering Justice
Wed, Dec. 11 @ Noon-1:30 ET
Online
Board Brilliance
Tues, Jan. 17 @ 9 am – 1 pm
1100 N. Main St., Ann Arbor
Stay Woke (SAVE THE DATE)
Mon, Jan. 20 @ 9 am – 3:30 pm
1100 N. Main St., Ann Arbor
NEW Center hosts online and in-person events periodically throughout the year that focus on nonprofit organizational skills and learning.
FATE Program
Give Merit’s FATE Program has operated with students from Detroit’s Jalen Rose Leadership Academy since 2012. This four-year, cohort-based program provides innovative programming that blends project-based learning, character development, career exposure, and mentorship into a co-curricular experience that emphasizes the value of education and its role in achieving long-term career and personal goals.
Volunteer to Prepare Taxes
United Way of Southeast Michigan sponsors volunteer tax preparers from December 7 through April 16. As a volunteer tax preparer, you can ensure that our clients get the best return on their taxes. No need to be an accountant: we arm you with tax law training and on-site expert support so that you can confidently complete accurate returns. With a minimum commitment of 30 hours, you can help us return millions of dollars to members of our community this season.
Apply for MBArk Expo West
Apply by Sun, Jan. 26 @ Midnight MST
Expo West Event: March 4-7
Can you design a new business or NGO that delivers a proven poverty intervention at scale? Submit your design for a new organization that solves one of our Distribution Challenges below. We will award the most promising teams with up to $20,000 USD to launch their new organization wherever extreme poverty exists. Challenges include Health, Water, Education, Agriculture, Livelihoods, Energy, and Public Services.