Â
This Winter, Use Design Thinking for Impact
+Impact Studio Course (BA 670) is taught by professor Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks. This award-winning course teaches skills in ethnography, ecosystem mapping, ideation, prototyping, and business model design, and all of it is focused on designing for resilience to help local small-businesses and nonprofit organizations navigate the pandemic. How can they build back better — reimagine business and social life to be more rewarding, just, and democratic?
This class is offered in a hybrid format from 9-11:50am on Mondays with a team lab time later in the week. Register now in Wolverine Access.
In the meantime check out some of the insights currently coming out of the +Impact Studio:
- PODCAST: Responding to Employee and Customer Needs During a Pandemic
- PODCAST: Sharing Makes Us Stronger
Michigan Business Challenge – Seigle Impact Track
Congratulations to these social entrepreneurs for moving on to the Semi-Finals of this competition, taking place on Fri, Jan. 29!
CLOVO Brand – CLOVO creates sustainable sheer tights with a new design to empower women and the environment. Megan Martis, MS ’21
Donate Anything – A search engine that shows organizations that accept a list of items an individual would like to donate. Andrew Wang, BBA ’24; Abdullah Umar, BBA, ’24.
enna – enna is a fashion and lifestyle magazine for Muslim women, by Muslim women. Amani Badran, WMBA, ‘21
EQuity – EQuity is a learning and development venture that provides training and coaching to help clients advance racial justice by developing emotional intelligence. Justin Woods, MSW/MBA ’21
GroundUp – GroundUp is an app-based marketplace for landscaping jobs and community service. Gabriel Doss, MBA ’21
MoneyMoves – MoneyMoves brings intentionality to consumer spending by helping consumers discover and shop at minority-owned businesses, ensuring that money moves into the hands of under-represented business owners. Sasha Kapur, MBA ’21, Claire Yee, MBA ’21, & Ezana Tadese, MBA ’21
Parcel Health – Parcel Health strives to create global impact through sustainable healthcare product innovation. Melinda Su En Lee, PharmD ’21 and Victor Le, PhD ’21
SustainiUM – This technology collects heat generated by spent nuclear fuel (SNF), a form of nuclear waste, and uses this heat to dry wastewater sludge. Aniket Yadav (MS’21), Jacob Ladd (JD’23), Anya Shapiro (MS/MBA’22), Luyao Li (MS’21), Marianna Coulentianos (Ph.D.’20)
The Michigan Business Challenge – Seigle Impact Track is sponsored by the Mark and Robin Seigle Entrepreneurial Innovation Fund and co-managed by Business+Impact, the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, and the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies.
A Searchable Platform for All Things Impact at Ross and Across Campus
The Business+Impact Gateway provides you with a single location for all things impact. Here you’ll find all of the activities, people and key partners working to use their learning to make a real impact in the world.Â
Â

Calling Future Open Road Fellows
Application Due
Sun, Feb. 14 @ 11:59 pm EST
Open Road @ Ross recently held an Information Session where they walked through the experience, and alums shared stories. If you weren’t able to attend, check out the recording here. Also, feel free to check their short Q&A video which answers frequently asked questions. Ross sponsors teams of MBAs to trek across the United States during the month of May to take on projects with social entrepreneurs.
Open Road applications are officially live! If you already have your team and are ready to get started on the application, you can find it here. All application materials are due Sunday, February 14, 2021.
Open Road @ Ross is a student club powered by Ford and co-sponsored by Business+Impact and the Zell Lurie Institute.

Innovation in Action
Application Due
Sun, Jan. 10
Innovation in Action at the University of Michigan is a campus-wide competition giving groups the opportunity, the tools, the people, and the room to take on the world’s biggest challenges.Through the course of this experience, you and your team will do a deep dive into a problem space and come out the other side with robust insights about complex issues, and the tools to synthesize that data into a solution.
View the world. Find a challenge. Create a better way.
IiA will run virtually from January through early April, and will include a track on Envisioning an Anti-Racist World in partnership with units across campus. Interested in IiA? Students can fill out an interest form on the IiA homepage to be notified when the application is released: innovationinaction.umich.edu
Impact News & Notes
- Weighing up business schools’ work on sustainability
- If billionaires really want to benefit society, they should work to reduce their own power
- Anti-Racism Faculty Hiring Initiative selection committee named
- University, community partners tackle energy insecurity
- Majority of Detroiters unlikely to get COVID-19 vaccine
- VIDEO: The Maize and Blue Cupboard at The University of Michigan
- Black in X Addresses Long-Standing Inequity in STEM
- U-M student raises 30K to build school in Malawi
- Detroit Kids Matter: two educators establish organization to support Detroit youth
- 8 Million Have Slipped Into Poverty Since May as Federal Aid Has Dried Up
- Can We Make Our Robots Less Biased Than We Are?
- When government works: Michigan’s response to COVID’s economic crisis
- The Struggle to Document COVID-19 for Future Generations
At the University:
WILLIAM DAVIDSON INSTITUTE
Global Case Writing Competition
Intent forms deadline extended to
Thurs, Dec . 31
In recognition of recent events across the world, it is an extremely important time to support and strengthen diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) skills and knowledge for today’s students, who will become tomorrow’s global business leaders. That’s why WDI Publishing and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and its Sanger Leadership Center are joining together to address this important movement by launching this competition
More info
OFFICE OF ACADEMIC MULTICULTURAL INITIATIVES
Martin Luther King Symposium: Where Do We Go From Here?
Mon, Jan. 18 @ 10-11:30 am
Online
Students, Faculty and staff are encouraged to attend the 2021 MLK Symposium will be Dr. Gloria House and Malik Yakini. Gloria House is a poet, essayist, educator and human rights activist with a deep connection to the city of Detroit. Malik Yakini is an educator, farmer, and food justice advocate. He is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), and a co-founder of the National Black Food and Justice Alliance
More Info
Â
In the Impact Community:
MBAs Invited to Volunteer to Provide Tax Aid
Apply Now
January Training Required
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance of Washtenaw County provides free tax preparation to low-income individuals and families. Volunteers can serve as Intake & Exit Specialists or Tax Preparers.
More Info
U-M Community Invited to Join Equity Challenge
Sign up to participate during
Black History Month
United Way of Washtenaw County (UWWC) has a vision that by 2030 your zip code will no longer determine your opportunity in life. At present in Washtenaw County, it does. We have work to do and invite you to join the conversation to be part of the change and lend your power to fuel a social movement. Join United Way on a virtual self-guided learning journey examining the history and impacts of racism and how it shapes people’s lived experience in Washtenaw County. Along the way, you’ll also receive examples and tools on how to undo racism and build racial equity and justice.
Information
Opportunity Collaboration 365
Workshops begin in January
For over a decade, Opportunity Collaboration (OC) has convened social sector leaders building sustainable solutions to poverty from over 85 countries around the world. With the impacts of the global pandemic, the pause on in-person gatherings, the ever-increasing need for more effective poverty solutions, and the overwhelming demand we’ve heard from our community, we are launching OC365, a yearlong online convening platform for global impact leaders to foster global community, personal growth, and poverty solutions.
Â