Business+Impact Announces its 2021-22 Board Fellows and Nonprofit Partners
Welcome to our 2021-22 Board Fellowship participants! This year’s Board Fellowship Program brings together a record 25 partner organizations and 33 students from four U-M schools. The Fellows will serve on the governing boards of these partner organizations for the academic year and complete a strategic project by April 2022.
MBA2s Win Gordon Scholarships for Commitment to Impact
Business+Impact (B+I) is pleased to announce that Nathan Alston (MBA ’22), J’Taime Lyons (MBA/MPP ’22), and Elizabeth Wallace (MBA/MS ’22) are the recipients of the 2021-22 Skip and Carrie Gordon Scholarships for outstanding commitment to solving complex social challenges. The award comes with $5,000 for each recipient. Gordon Scholars serve as B+I Student Ambassadors for the 2021-22 academic year.
Update from the +Impact Studio
The +Impact Studio brings impactful ideas to life using business knowledge, design tools, and research expertise. We are glad to welcome back our fellows, founders, and staff into the studio space in Ross for the upcoming semester. Take a peek inside a recent Community Coworking Session.
Design Equitable Enterprises in the Winter +Impact Studio Course
The award-winning Impact Studio course BA670 will be offered Winter term. This 3 credit course is open to all graduate students and in the course you’ll tackle questions such as: How can you use the tools of design to create a more just and inclusive economy? To build enterprises that uplift rather than deplete their communities? To enable sustainable livelihoods rather than financial precarity?
In Winter 2022, the Impact Studio course (BA670) will engage with IT-enabled changes that have transformed the raw materials of enterprise (labor, capital, supplies, distribution) and what that means for its stakeholders. Then, using the tools of design, we will prototype new forms of enterprise in an industry undergoing radical change around the globe right now: restaurants. Covid rapidly accelerated changes already underway, from a shift toward ghost kitchens and delivery to the use of QR codes in place of human servers. How might we use these same technologies to reimagine capitalism? To create equitable enterprises that provide a living wage and foster community?
Inaugural DEI Research Awards Honor Impactful Work at Ross
B+I is a sponsor of the Ross DEI Research Awards, instituted in 2021, which celebrate and honor research related to diversity, equity and inclusion conducted at the Ross School of Business, at every stage of the academic journey. Also established in 2021, the annual J. Frank Yates Diversity and Inclusion Teaching Excellence Award, honors a member of our teaching faculty who demonstrates a commitment to diversity and inclusion and makes a significant positive impact on the learning and personal growth of our students. In a ceremony on September 29, the award winners received their awards and presented a brief lightning talk on their area of expertise.
The research award winners were:
Faculty: Sarah Miller (Business Economics & Public Policy), Mohamed Mostagir (Technology & Operations)
Ph.D.: Virginia Traweek (Finance)
BBA senior thesis: Karthik Nagappan
Ross Event Highlights:
Women Who Fund: Forum
Wed, Oct 20 @ 10 am ET
Online
Ross: Forté/Women’s MBA Forum
Thurs, Oct 21 @ 11 am ET
Online
Sanger: Story Lab Retreats
Thurs, Nov. 4, 4 – 9 pm ET
Fri, Nov 5, 10 am – 3 pm ET
Ross DEI: First-Gen Students
Thurs, Nov. 18 @ 6 pm ET
Online
Michigan Business Challenge – Seigle Impact Track Begins
Info Session
Wed, Oct. 20 @ 5 – 6 pm
Online
The Michigan Business Challenge Seigle Impact Track, with prizes totaling over $26,000, recognizes the business plan that best pursues a mission-driven goal. This track aims to stimulate the creation of new businesses, products or services that prioritize social and/or environmental considerations. The Seigle Impact Track is sponsored by the Mark and Robin Seigle Entrepreneurial Innovation Fund and co-managed by Business+Impact at Ross, the Erb Institute for Global Sustainable Enterprise, and the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies.
Apply for the Competition by Mon, Nov. 1 @ 8 am
Give-A-Day-Fund Match Campaign Live for MBA2s
The Give-A-Day Fund (GADF) fundraising campaign is underway! GADF is a student-driven fund supporting MBAs interning in social impact, enabling them to focus on their mission instead of stressing about finances. You can read about 2021 interns here. If 90 students donate, we’ll unlock a $5,000 donation from an anonymous alumni donor!
DONATE HERE
Impact Advantage Open for Full-Time MBA May 2021 Grads
Have you heard? The new Ross School of Business Impact Advantage program now provides educational loan repayment assistance to Ross full-time MBA graduates who pursue careers in nonprofit or public sector organizations.
Launched this year, full-time MBA students like you who graduated in May 2021 or after will be eligible to apply for the Impact Advantage program and receive up to $7,500 per year for the first 5 years after graduation, towards Ross-related loan obligations. You must be in a full-time position at a public or nonprofit sector organization, earning below the median base salary of the most recent graduating class.
Info and Application
Impact News & Notes
Community brings a fresh spin to Detroit alleyways
Reflecting on U-M’s anti-racism initiatives a year later
Grants from OVPR, NCID advance anti-racism research, scholarship
More companies pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – featuring Jennifer Haverkamp
Dotson named University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor
Share of Michiganders living in poverty falls in 2020, largely due to aid
Michigan Ross Faculty and Students Help Launch New Michigan Climate Venture Fund at U-M
Nominations sought for president’s awards for public engagement
Can Colleges Reform Their Police Departments? One Says Yes, and Here’s How – featuring Charles Davis III
A Guide on Racism, Inequality, and Health Care for African Americans
MIDAS leads multi-university collaboration on data equity systems
A Tool for Exploring & Preparing for Graduate School
Breaking Up the Philanthropy ‘Boys Club’ – featuring Megan Tompkins-Stange
We don’t know where all the lead pipes are. This tool helps find them – featuring Eric Schwartz
McDonald’s Cannot Get to ‘Net Zero’ by Feeding the World Hamburgers, Experts Say – featuring Andy Hoffman
Journalist urges audience to ‘opt in’ to confront ‘twin plagues’
UM-Flint partners with city on sustainability goals for the future
Making a Positive Impact: Students Engaged in Sustainability Efforts at Michigan Ross
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.
At the University:
OPTIMIZE
Optimize Social Innovation Challenge
optiMize is an organization at the University of Michigan that offers programs, courses, mentorship, and funding for students of all ages and majors to work on self-directed projects. Submit a Challenge form right now and tell optiMize a bit about you and your interests. It should take 10 minutes or less. From there, we’ll connect with you to explore how optiMize can help you turn your ideas into impact!
More Info
FORD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY
Policy Talks @ the Ford School
The Ford School hosts a diverse array of timely, meaningful events that engage with students, community, and public policy leaders. During the coming month, the Ford School will host this wide-ranging and powerful series of talks on diversity, poverty and immigration.
- Embracing diversity in national security and diplomacy – Oct 21
- Racial foundations of education policy – Oct 26
- Lessons in using evidence to fight poverty – Nov 3
- Racial foundations of immigration policy – Nov 9
- Redesigning healthcare towards equity – Nov 10
RACKHAM GRADUATE SCHOOL
Public Scholarship Grants
Letter of Intent
Due by Wed, Oct. 20 @ 11:59 pm ET
Rackham Public Scholarship Grants provide support for publicly engaged scholarly projects created between Rackham students and community partners. Rackham students may apply for up to $8,000 to lead and implement a public scholarship project over the course of a one year grant period.Students may apply individually or as part of a team of students.
Info and Application
OFFICE OF DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION & CENTER FOR THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN (CEW+)
“Through My Lens” Discussion
Fri, Oct. 29 @ 4:30 – 6:30 pm
Virtual
To build awareness about the ongoing challenges facing Women of Color in academia and to celebrate 25+ years of advocacy work, the Women of Color in the Academy Project (WOCAP) invites you to the first of three anniversary events series entitled, “Connecting the Past to the Present: Honoring the Experiences of Women of Color in Academia.” This springboard event will be a virtual viewing of the WOCAP-curated 1999 film, “Through my Lens” paired with a moderated discussion as part of the U-M annual DEI Summit.
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK
Social Work Speaker Events
The School of Social Work (SSW) continues to raise awareness of important issues through events on campus and online. This month SSW will host a broad spectrum of events and speakers on subjects like social impact, racial justice, and affordable housing
- Idealist Virtual Social Impact Graduate School Fair – Nov 9
- Our Money & the Financing of Racial (In)Justice – Nov 9
- Suicide is a Social Justice Issue – Nov 11
- The Rise of Anti-Asian American Sentiment – Nov 11
- Housing in America and the Affordable Housing Crisis – Nov 18
GLOBAL SCHOLARS PROGRAM
GSP Applications
Early Decisions: October 8, 2021
Fall Deadline: December 10, 2021
Winter 2022 Deadline: December 3, 2021
Info Session: Thurs, Nov. 18 @ 7 pm
Location TBA
The Global Scholars Program (GSP) is now accepting applications for winter 2022 and academic year 2022-2023. The fall deadline for applications is December 10. There will be an Info Session November 18, 2021, 7:00-8:00 pm. Please RSVP if you plan on attending and the location of the meeting will be emailed to you.
In the Impact Community:
Wege Prize
Apply by
Mon, Nov. 1 @ 11:59 pm ET
Wege Prize 2022 will again be open to undergraduate and graduate students from anywhere in the world, and will again be focused on the circular economy. When does it start? Well, right now! The Team Application period has been open for a while, but final deliverables and team names are due next month.
More Info
Income 4 Interns
Submit by
Tues, Nov. 2 @ 11:59 pm
Unpaid internships exacerbate socioeconomic and racial inequalities as minority families may be disproportionately unable to subsidize their child’s college expenses in order for them to participate. Eligible participants must submit a video telling us what the right paid internship would empower them to do to build a career of meaning and impact. Finalists will be selected from the videos earning the highest votes or displaying the greatest potential and strongest need before being interviewed by our judging panel. The winner will be awarded $5,000 to support an unpaid internship in the social sector of their choosing in the subsequent 12 months.
D-Prize Global Competition for Poverty Intervention
Regular Application Due:
Sun, Nov. 7 @ Midnight
The world has already invented products and services to end poverty. Yet we have found dozens of proven interventions with large delivery gaps. Millions of people still don’t have access. Can you design a new business or NGO that delivers a proven poverty intervention at scale? Submit your idea to build a new organization and solve one of our Distribution Challenges below. We will award the most promising teams with up to $20,000 USD to launch wherever extreme poverty exists.
Epic Social Ventures
Do you have an idea for a product or service that is affordable to those impacted by poverty while creating employment opportunities? Apply for EPIC and your idea could be funded to impact the communities you care about most. OPEN to all social entrepreneurs who want to make a systematic change from the ground up on the #1 UN SDG: No Poverty.
Some images in this newsletter are Pre-COVID.
