August 2024 Newsletter
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Board Fellows Information Sessions
Are you a graduate student interested in learning what it takes to run a nonprofit from the boardroom? Do you want to contribute to high-level strategic projects for an impactful nonprofit organization? Business+Impact’s Nonprofit Board Fellowship Program develops cross-sector leadership skills by placing graduate students like you as non-voting members on boards at Southeast Michigan nonprofits, which provides you with project management experience and develops your executive skills.
Interested students should attend one of the following information sessions to learn more about the Board Fellowship and receive application information. Applications will be due Friday, Sep. 6th at noon.
You must attend an info session below in order to participate in the program for 2024-25:
Info Session #1
Thurs, Aug. 29 @ 1-2 pm
Ross School of Business (lunch provided)
Info Session #3
Tues. Sept 3 @ 5-6 pm
Zoom
If you are unable to attend due to an academic or religious conflict, please email boardfellows@umich.edu.
B+I Showcase Will Highlight Impact Centers & Clubs Across Campus for All U-M Students
Thurs, Sept. 5 @ 11 am – 1 pm
Ross School of Business
Sixth Floor, Tauber Colloquium
Welcome new and returning students! We hope your summer was empowering and invigorating, because we have a lot of opportunities coming up for you. As part of our mission to make students aware of impact opportunities across campus, we welcome students to our 7th annual Business+Impact Showcase at Ross. Students will have a chance to meet with over 30 organizations and map out their U-M impact journeys. The event will also feature a “Mission & Mocktails Room,” and other fun, engaging activities.
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Impact Studio Incubator and Fellowship Applications Open
Apply by
Fri, Sept. 6 @ Noon ET
Calling all current U-M students! Do you have a strong entrepreneurial spirit? Enthusiasm for interdisciplinary collaboration? A commitment to impact? If so, we want you! Come join our vibrant collaborative community and help take ideas from concept to prototype to scale!
The Impact Studio Founders Program helps impact-driven creators and innovators bring impactful ideas to life that build a sustainable and just world for all! Using business knowledge, design tools, and research expertise, our experienced and interdisciplinary coaches and fellows roll up their sleeves and work alongside founders to accomplish great things.
Applebaum Impact Design Fellows are part of an interdisciplinary cohort working to support the +Impact Studio Founders Program & prototype studio concepts.
Impact Internship Stories from Across the US
This year, Business+Impact’s Summer Fund financially supported the summer impact internships and experiences of 21 U-M students. Each summer, Business+Impact awards competitive grants for summer internships from the Give-A-Day Fund, Ford Philanthropy, the Gordon Impact Entrepreneurship Fund, and the Ford School of Public Policy.
Shailee Ghelani (MBA ’25), Peighton Gimotty (BBA ’26), Jaymie Tibbits (MPP/MSW ’24), and Rebecca Trychel (MPP ’24) have worked at a variety of social impact organizations this summer, all across the USA.
DNEP Impact Studio for Local Business Stories
Through the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project’s summer internship program, Impact Studio for Local Business, students have been learning how to automate Detroit businesses, optimize point-of-sale systems and launch new products by operationalizing manufacturing, packaging and fulfillment. Below are three stories from students took part in the program
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MBA Impact at Ross Happy Hour
Thurs, Aug. 29 @ 4:30-6:30 pm
Casa Dominick’s
812 Monroe St., Ann Arbor
Business+Impact and Net Impact are excited to welcome all MBAs to a kickoff Happy Hour at Dominicks, celebrating the beginning of the academic year and renewing friendships while refreshing ourselves. New and returning MBAs interested in impact are invited to gather at this special event featuring sangria and pizza, co-sponsored by Business+Impact and Ross Net Impact.
Attendees will be limited.
Impact Tabling Events Where You Can Meet Us!
Business+Impact will be taking part in a number of tabling events during the next month where you can meet us and find out more about our programs and our mission:
- FTMBA Orientation Meet Centers and Institutes
- Incoming BBA Tabling Event
- B+I & Net Impact Happy hour – Thurs, Aug. 29 4:30-6:30 @ Dominick’s
- Taubman College Welcome Picnic – Wed, Sept 4, 6:30-8 @ The Taubman Patio
- B+I Showcase – Thurs, Sept 5 11-1 @ Ross’ Tauber Colloquium
- UMSI Cross-School Resource Fair – Tues, Sept. 10, 10:30 am – 1 pm
- Social Work Resource Fair
- VC & Entrepreneurship Resource Fair – Fri, Sept. 13 Noon-2 pm????
- Earthfest – Thurs, Sept 26 10am – 2 pm @ The Diag
Featured Fall ’24 Impact Courses Across U-M
Are you still looking to round out your class schedule for Fall ’24? You can still add or change courses during the next month. See our highlights of the best impact courses offered in Fall ’24. Feverishly researched, our listing points you in the right direction for impact at Michigan Ross, and across campus. Courses in social impact and sustainability, as well as social justice and world issues are shown.
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Save the Date! B+I at Detroit Month of Design
“Workshop: New Opportunities for Creating Equitable Business in Detroit”
Mon, Sept. 23 @ 2-6 pm
UM Detroit Center
3663 Woodward Ave. #150, Detroit
Featuring the Impact Studio and DNEP, this event will begin with a hands-on design exercise to introduce the key steps to launching a business including researching customer needs, defining opportunities, brainstorming solutions, prototyping a business model, and testing its feasibility. Expert overviews of new business opportunities in Detroit will be provided including policy changes such as the Inflation Reduction Act. Resources developed at U-M will be shared, followed by a resource fair featuring no-cost providers at U-M and beyond to help with the startup process. The event will also have catered food and drink.
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR SPOTLIGHT
SOCENT SPOTLIGHT: Plucky Comics
Socent Spotlights are a series on U-M alumni who have created social enterprises and continue the work of entrepreneurship after graduation. In this post, we focus on Plucky Comics, a company specializing in telling the stories of Black Queer people through comic books.
Plucky Comics was founded in 2021 by Daniella Gennaro and Nathan Alston at the University of Michigan, specifically through the Impact Studio at Ross. To spread Black Queer stories and empower a future generation of students, Plucky built a team of artists to begin to tell the stories that they wish had been present when they were children. Within each of these stories are tales of Black Queer heroism, love, and resistance that deserve to be more widely known.
Ross Events:
Diversity: Black Business Students Association |
Diversity: Out for Business at Ross |
Map Your U-M Journey: A Platform for Impact Across Campus
The Business+Impact Map Your U-M Journey (rossimpact.com) provides you with a single location for all things impact at Ross and across campus. 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:
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM
Become a Community Partner
Community-engaged research activities through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) are in the spirit of the U-M’s mission. UROP invites nonprofit and governmental organizations serving communities within proximity to the U-M Ann Arbor including Detroit, Ypsilanti and Washtenaw County to propose projects involving research or creative activities for undergraduate students that will help the organization with its work to benefit a local community.
IMPACT INVESTING GROUP
Partner with Students to Expand Your Business
Are you a business seeking financial support and consulting to drive growth and positive impact? Please complete this form to start the selection process and take your business to the next level. For more information on the Impact Investing Group, please visit our website.
CENTER FOR SOCIALLY ENGAGED DESIGN
Get Info on SEED Capstones
The Socially Engaged Engineering & Design (SEED) Capstone is an elective course giving the opportunity, the tools, the people, the room to help face the world’s biggest challenges head-on. This hybrid, pass-fail course will be held in the 2024 Winter semester. Complete the form to indicate your interest and to hear more! For more information, you can also visit our website!
CEW+
Lunch and Learn: New Title IX Regulations Impact on Pregnant & Parenting Students
Tues, Aug. 20 @ 11:30 am – 1 pm
CEW+, 330 East Liberty, Ann Arbor
Community-engaged research activities through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) are in the spirit of the U-M’s mission. UROP invites nonprofit and governmental organizations serving communities within proximity to the U-M Ann Arbor including Detroit, Ypsilanti and Washtenaw County to propose projects involving research or creative activities for undergraduate students that will help the organization with its work to benefit a local community.
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SPECTRUM CENTER
Pride Outside
Sun, Sept. 1 @ 2-4:30 pm
Ingalls Mall
A major part of Welcome to Michigan, Pride Outside is an annual LGBTQIA2S+ centric welcome event providing a space for new and returning students to celebrate the beginning of fall semester with resource tables, lawn games, a drag show, shaved ice, t-shirt giveaways, and more.
WALLENBERG LEGACY MEDAL & LECTURE
Nnimmo Bassey: Wallenberg Lecture
Tues, Sept. 10 @ 4:30 pm
Robertson Auditorium, Ross School of Business
Nnimmo Bassey, executive director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation and a global environmental activist, will receive the 2024 Wallenberg Medal from the University of Michigan. Nnimmo Bassey is an architect, director of the Nigeria-based ecological think-tank, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), and member of the steering committee of Oilwatch International, a network resisting the expansion of fossil fuel extraction in the Global South. The Wallenberg Medal and Lecture ceremony is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required. Please direct any inquiries about the event and requests for event accommodations to wallenberglecture@umich.edu or 734-936-3973.
CEW+
Fall Open House
Mon, Sept. 19 @ 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
CEW+, 330 East Liberty, Ann Arbor
The CEW+ Open House is your chance to meet our staff, tour the Center, enjoy a light lunch, and find out how CEW+ supports women+ and underserved communities at U-M through counseling, funding, events, and initiatives. Come and go as your schedule allows. We look forward to welcoming you to our space and celebrating campus partnerships – old and new!
In the Impact Community:
Responsible Investment Forum: West 2024
Sept. 4-5
Silicon Valley, California
Join 200+ institutional investors, fund managers, expert advisors, and highly recognized thought leaders in the heart of Silicon Valley for unrivalled networking opportunities on 4-5 September. Discover how to leverage sustainable investment strategies that enhance returns. Gain a comprehensive overview of the current regulations and policies in place that are driving positive change and supporting the state of California’s commitment to a more sustainable future.
Detroit Month of Design
The 14th Annual Detroit Month of Design Festival is a citywide celebration of creativity that gathers designers and the greater community to celebrate Detroit’s role as a national and global design capital. Check out 175+ creatives, 80+ events, and meet 50,000 attendees in various Detroit neighborhoods throughout the month.
Apply to Be a Champion for Change
Apply between now and
Mon, Sept. 9 @ 9 am
In vibrant communities, all people are welcomed, included, valued and nurtured. Together, we can find new ways to disrupt the many forms of racism. Throughout Champions for Change, we nurture and support Leaders of Color and White Leaders in their efforts for social change. We cultivate dialogic skills, engage in critical self-reflection, and empower each other to leverage our influence to create racially equitable communities.
RECESS24
Sept. 9-11
Huntington Place, Detroit
Walker-Miller Energy Services is excited to present the second annual Resilience and Equity in the Clean Energy Sector Summit (RECESS). “RECESS24” will help advance equity for Black and Brown people by creating an on ramp into the rapidly transitioning clean energy economy, showcasing experts, ideas, technologies, and connections to help drive the benefits of participation to those who have been historically excluded.
Bamboo Start-up Pitch Night
Apply to Pitch on
Sept 12 @ Detroit
Are you a founder or creator with a product, idea, or technology company? At each pitch night, we welcome 3-5 founders from the Michigan startup community to present for 5 minutes and take questions from the audience. Applications close 2 weeks before each pitch night date for review and selection. All Michigan-based companies are eligible to apply to any of the pitch nights– you don’t have to be located in the city of the event!
Ele’s Place Healing Hearts 5K
Sun, Sept 15 @ 11 am
6300 Interfirst Dr., Ann Arbor
Help raise awareness of and support for grieving children, teens, and their families who are grieving in Ann Arbor, and the surrounding southeast Michigan area. Ele’s Place Ann Arbor families and the community are invited to participate in this family-friendly event to honor, celebrate and remember a special person who has died. This event is an opportunity to put “one foot in front of the other” to help fund our peer grief support programs and ensure they remain FREE OF CHARGE to all who are in need of our services today, tomorrow and always. So, grab your walking/running shoes AND join us for the Ele’s Place Ann Arbor Healing Hearts Family 5K Walk/Run
Home for Good
Wed, Sept. 18 @ 6-9 pm
Ann Arbor City Club
1830 Washtenaw Ave.
Home for Good is Avalon Housing’s annual fundraising event. Join us on Wednesday, September 18th at the Ann Arbor City Club! When you sponsor Home for Good or buy a ticket, your gift helps Avalon provide care and support to help people stay in their homes—for good. Join us in building healthy, safe and inclusive supportive housing communities as a long-term solution to homelessness.
2024 Symposium on Public Policy for Nonprofits
Fri, Sept. 20 @ 1-4 pm ET
Virtual
The Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), Independent Sector, and Nonprofit Policy Forum invite you to this symposium. This year’s symposium will focus on surfacing promising public policy recommendations to strengthen the nonprofit sector and philanthropy.
Wege Prize Competition
Apply between now and
Sun, Oct. 6
Wege Prize is an annual competition that ignites game-changing solutions for the future by inspiring college/university students around the world to collaborate across institutional, disciplinary, and cultural boundaries to redesign the way economies work. Participants contend for $65,000 (USD) in total cash prizes, all while learning — and helping to show the world — what the future of problem solving looks like.