What Happens If You Get Caught With a Fake ID at a Bar?

Anti Racism and Food Justice

Interested in food sustainability or social justice initiatives? Want to explore ways to resist white supremacy within the food system? Come join one of our biweekly meetings to get involved with The University of Michigan Sustainable Food Program. We have four different groups to join, all with different themes. Fill out the interest form and come to a meeting to get involved! Questions? Email us at umsfp.core@umich.edu

Interest form

Anti Racism and Food Justice

Interest form

April 21, 2021April 23, 2021

April 2021 Newsletter

Anti-Racism and Racial Justice

Business+Impact stands in solidarity with our Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander communities, and the Ross School of Business AABA in their call to action to #StopAsianHate and #StopAAPIHate. We condemn all acts of hate, racial violence, xenophobia, and misogyny, including recent anti-Asian and anti-Black violence. At Business + Impact, we are committed to the work of dismantling the structures of systemic racism, achieving racial justice in America, and building an equitable and sustainable future for all. Below are links to learn more and find out how you can support the APPI community.

Business+Impact also recognizes the pain and injustice of recent acts of police violence against people of color, namely Daunte Write and Adam Toledo, especially within the context of the ongoing Derek Chauvin trial. We stand against all systemic racism, selective enforcement, and police brutality against Black and brown people, and we support the Black Lives Matter movement.

Racial Justice Resources

+Impact Studio Update

Applebaum Family Philanthropy Gift

Business+Impact has received more than $1 million from the Applebaum Family Philanthropy to establish the Business+Impact Experiences and Innovation Program at Michigan Ross. This new program will allow the school to enhance and expand its impact and design offerings, including the creation of a permanent endowment fund for need-based internships and scholarships to Business+Impact students. The new program will support approximately 20 students per year through the +Impact Studio at Michigan Ross. Students chosen as Applebaum Impact Design Fellows will develop and test student-led ideas from the award-winning +Impact Studio course and student social innovators around campus, and Applebaum Impact Design Interns will engage in summer internships in connection with the +Impact Studio. Additionally, the gift provides Business+Impact with funding for a range of impact and design activities, such as a new Applebaum Innovator-in-Residence, prototype development for models of social impact, community outreach, research, and more.

Read About the Gift

Stories from the +Impact Studio

The +Impact Studio Course‘s multi-year partnership with BlueConduit, a impact company co-founded by Ross professor Eric Schwartz to use data and machine learning for lead service line identification and removal, has been a collaboration success story, and the company has received exciting coverage from a variety of media outlets:

Public Tools for Empowerment: Designing for Trust and Transparency – Feb. 22
More than Data: Getting the Lead out with Trust, Transparency, and Empowerment – Jan 15
NPR SciFri: After Flint’s Crisis, An Algorithm Helps Citizens Find Lead Pipes – Jan. 22
Wired: An Algorithm Is Helping a Community Detect Lead Pipes – Jan. 14

+Impact Studio course student, Applebaum Impact Design Fellow, and Founder Justin Woods (MBA/MSW 21) has spent the past year supporting racial justice through work with the Fellows team on development of the Racial Equity Pledge prototype, and building his social enterprise, EQuity. In his post, “Advancing My Social Impact and Racial Equity Work Through the +Impact Studio,” Justin describes how the +Impact Studio was at the intersection of both his professional and personal goals.

New Scholarship Essay Competition

EQuity is hosting a scholarship essay competition through May 28. You can learn more about the story behind the competition, donate to the scholarship fund, and sign up to be in the first of EQuity’s immersive course.

Michigan Ross Announces New Student Loan Repayment Program For Full-Time MBA Grads Pursuing Social Impact Careers

Through the Impact Advantage Program, alumni of the Michigan Ross Full-Time MBA Program, beginning with the graduating class of May 2021, who pursue a career in the public or nonprofit sectors can apply for student loan repayment assistance. For those graduates accepted into the program, Impact Advantage will cover a portion of their Ross-related loan obligations — $7,500 per year for five years — while they are employed full-time at a social impact organization.

Board Fellowship Info Session for Nonprofits

Wed, May 19 @ Noon ET
Online

Are you a nonprofit organization in Southeast Michigan that is curious about the Board Fellowship program? Graduate student Fellows serve as non-voting board members and complete a strategic project that can provide valuable capacity in areas such as strategic plan implementation, sustainability strategies, business plans, and dashboards. This session provides an overview for prospective organizations interested in participating during the 2021-22 academic year, and features insights from nonprofit leaders currently participating.

Learn more and RSVP

New Undergrad Journal of Sustainability Seeks Leadership Team Members

The goal of UJS at U-M is to promote undergraduate research related to the field of Sustainability. By reviewing and publishing articles from students across campus, UJS provides an incentive for students to not only conduct sustainability-focused research, but also use their research to contribute to the academic field. The organization is looking to recruit like-minded individuals for its founding team.

Interest Form

Impact News & Notes

Ross Event Highlights:

Ross Alumni: Environment and Sustainability Discussion with Andy Hoffman
Thurs, Apr. 22 @ 6 pm ET
Online

CPO: Positive Business Conference
Thurs and Fri, May 13-14
Online

SPOTLIGHT

Sarita Nayyar (MBA ’87), Managing Board Member at the World Economic Forum

Sarita Nayyar is a member of the Managing Board at the World Economic Forum, who heads strategic partnerships with partners at Board and C-suite levels, for the purpose of improving the state of the world. She led the international expansion of the global Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) network. The network seeks to rapidly achieve global scope and scale in establishing a new operating system for international technology governance and cooperation. Prior to this work, Ms. Nayyar worked with Mondelez International in the Post Cereals Division. Find out how she lived the credo “Business can be a force for good,” and learn how she made the transition from food manufacturing to a major public-private international organization.

READ MORE

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.

IMPACT GATEWAY

At the University:

OFFICE FOR HEALTH EQUITY AND INCLUSION

Making Space for Belonging Through Racial Healing

Thurs, Apr. 29 @ 3-5 pm ET
Online

At this unique virtual event, Sonya Jacobs, Chief Organizational Learning Officer for Michigan Medicine will welcome Professor Rhonda V. Magee from the University of San Francisco School of Law to discuss mindfulness-based transformational education’s public health imperative with regard to racial healing. This will be followed by a Healing panel discussion and DEI Advocate Awards.

Info and Registration

In the Impact Community:

Public Allies

Apply Now

Public Allies Metro Detroit is a program of the U of M-Dearborn, and a proud member of the AmeriCorps national service network. The program is made possible through funding of the Corporation for National and the Community Service, and the Michigan Community Service Commission. Apply now for fall opportunities.

Application info

You Can’t Change Systems Without Advocacy

Tues, May 11 @ TBA
Online

This Upswell Pop-Up will explore the mechanics of effective advocacy. With transformative change within reach, we’ll learn with some of the most influential advocates about what our ongoing crises have taught us – and how we can (and must) use collective action to move quickly toward a healthier and more equitable future.

More info and Registration

D Prize

Early Submission Date:
Sun, May 16 @ Midnight PT

The world has already invented ways to end poverty, yet the best interventions are not being distributed at mass-scale. Can you design a business or NGO that addresses subjects from education to health access? If selected, you’ll be awarded up to $20,000 to launch a pilot in any region where extreme poverty exists.

Info and Application

Climate Leadership Conference

Tues, May 25 @ 12:30 – 5 pm ET
Online

As 2021 kicks off a decade of climate transformation, the virtual Climate Leadership Exchange is your opportunity to engage and connect with North America’s most influential community of climate leaders from business, government, academia, and the nonprofit sector. The CL Conference will feature top-notch intelligence, peer-to-peer learning, and connections.

Registration info

CEMEX-TEC Awards and Bootcamps

Submit by May 31

The CEMEX-TEC Award has 4 global categories, within which you can participate by registering your project. Social entrepreneurship projects must have at least one year of implementation and generate a systemic change. Projects in sustainable transformation of communities should focus on postgraduate students. Community-based and social transformation projects that have at least one year of implementation form the third group. Collaborative action projects are focused on organizations that work through intersectoral alliances, involving at least 3 sectors of society.

Submission info

All images in this newsletter are Pre-COVID.

August 18, 2020August 19, 2020

August 2020 Newsletter

Engage with 30+ UM Impact Groups at the B+I Virtual Showcase

Thurs, Sept. 3 @ Noon – 1:30 pm
on Zoom

Welcome new and returning students! Come discover opportunities to make a difference in the places where you live and work, at the school, and around the world. As part of our mission to make students aware of impact opportunities across campus, we invite students to our third annual Business+Impact Showcase on Sept. 3 from Noon – 1:30 pm. This is a virtual tabled event hosted on Zoom, and students will have a chance to meet with over 30 organizations and map out their U-M impact journeys.

FIND OUT MORE

Nonprofit Board Fellowship Info Session and Application

Business+Impact’s Nonprofit Board Fellowship Program places top graduate students as non-voting members on boards of Southeast Michigan nonprofits. An application for the program is available on our website, and is due Fri, Sept. 11 at noon. Application instructions and a student information sheet are also available. A video of a mandatory info session will be on the B+I website by the first day of classes (8/31) With all the challenges that nonprofit organizations of various types face in the current times, with the COVID crisis, this promises to be an interesting and rewarding year for the program, and masters students across U-M are invited to apply.

LEARN MORE

+Impact Studio Supports Local Businesses and Impactful Prototypes

The +Impact Studio is a studio for impact creators and innovators that brings impactful ideas to life using business, design, and research expertise. This summer, Impact Design Fellows in the interdisciplinary +Impact Design Lab (Justin Wood (MSW/MBA), Elizabeth Sofranek (MBA), and Lucy Jiang (MSI) have been hard at work moving projects forward for long term impact. Their focus has been on nurturing a prototype from last year’s course, supporting a community of innovators across U-M, and sharing learnings on designing for impact on Medium.

This summer, the +Impact Studio also collaborated with the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project (DNEP) of the UM Center on Finance, Law, & Policy and the Ford School of Public Policy to launch the Impact Studio for Local Business to help businesses in Southeast Michigan respond to and adapt to challenges caused by the pandemic. Led by Ross faculty Chris Mueller, 37 Ross and Ford school students worked with small businesses across the restaurant, retail, and personal services sectors to identify pain points and opportunity spaces to develop scalable solutions. These open source tools and guides are available here!

+Impact Studio Course: Designing for Resiliency Through the Pandemic

In the interdisciplinary studio course BA670, graduate students gain a mindset, process, and set of tools and experiences for developing impactful solutions to societal challenges, a toolkit that is also desired by top employers across industries. This fall, students in BA670 will engage local businesses and nonprofits to design solutions for tackling challenges and increasing resiliency through the pandemic. Students can still register to be part of this impactful experience.

Professor Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks walks you through the syllabus for Fall 2020 (video)
Review the course syllabus (.pdf)

Insights from the +Impact Studio Community

Part of our mission to bring impactful ideas to life includes reflecting and sharing our learning with others working to create impact. In order to share these ideas in a blog format and reach a wider audience we created a new Medium site!

Stories of Impact from Summer Impact Interns

In the summer of 2020, Business+Impact supported student internship opportunities with different types of organizations. Students from Ross and Ford created impact through virtual internships where they developed skills in business and policy that expanded their horizons exponentially. Read eight snapshots of student experiences from this summer and see testimonials of students who previously participated in Give-A-Day Fund internships.

READ MORE

Admissions: Ask Me Anything: Diversity at Ross
Thurs, Aug. 20
@ 7 pm EDT
Online

Tauber: Spotlight! Showcase
Fri, Sept. 11 @ 8 am – 4 pm EDT
Online

Watch for Business+Impact at the following events in September

Business+Impact is built on the foundational belief that diverse views and voices strengthen our ability to affect change. As such, we partner with businesses, nonprofits, social enterprises, and other academic units so our students have profound experiences and see tangible results. In the interest of sharing our opportunities with students, we will be taking part in a number of virtual programs across campus and speaking one-on-one with them virtually as they begin planning for the academic year. Below are places where we will be found:

Munger Graduate Residence Fair
Ross Centers and Institutes Orientation
B+I Showcase – Sept. 3
School of Social Work Fair – TBA
Ford School Clubs Fair – TBA
Taubman School of Urban Planning – TBA
So Cool, So Just Fair – Sept. 24
SpringFest – April of ’21!

BackPac App Connects Nonprofits and Activists

BackPac is a new app founded by Ross alums and developed through TechArb and Ross’ Living Business Leadership Experience. Backpac helps those who want to find connections with nonprofits, and is currently working with many nonprofits in Washtenaw and Wayne counties to source virtual and in-person volunteers and funds needed to adress the many challenges arising due to the current pandemic. In a recent SE Michigan Ross Alumni meeting, BackPac presented opportunities and demonstrated the online app. You can view opportunities around you for yourself at app.backpac.co. Two of BackPac’s co-founders are now working full time on the company. They have also scaled their development team from one to five full time developers, which has helped them accelerate progress. B+I is proud of what BackPac has accomplished already and where they are headed in the future.

News & Notes

RACIAL JUSTICE:

COVID-19:

OTHER:

At the University:

ENGAGED MICHIGAN

Community Engagement Online Mini-Course

Developed by an interdisciplinary team of content experts from U-M, the Community Engagement: Collaborating for Change massive open online course (MOOC) is designed to help both novices and seasoned practitioners of community engagement work more effectively with communities and organizations, both domestically and abroad.

More Info

MICHIGAN ONLINE

Enroll Any Time for these Teach-outs

Michigan Online offers a variety of learning experiences from individual courses to fully online degrees. Included in these offerings are short online learning ‘teach-outs’ on important topics facing society. Learn more about the items below and other items, and start learning now!

NUCLEAR ENGINEERING AND RADIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Fastest Path to Zero Summit II

Tues, Sept. 15 @ Noon – 1:30 pm
Online

Join the University of Michigan and Third Way, a public policy think tank based in Washington, DC, for the second annual Fastest Path to Zero Summit. This year, to protect the health of all those involved, the summit will be a virtual series. The summit will bring together leading climate advocates, philanthropists, labor leaders, elected officials, academics, and media from across the Midwest and the nation.

More Info

FORD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY

Women of Color on the Rise

Tues, Sept. 15 @ 4 pm
Online

Join Ford School professor Celeste Watkins-Hayes. for a discussion with Cecilia Muñoz about her new book, More than Ready: Be Strong and Be You . . . and Other Lessons for Women of Color on the Rise.

More Info

In the Impact Community:

Impact Foundry Webinars

Offering comprehensive resources, from a professionally-staffed library, access to a grant funder database, from fundraising workshops to management networking, the Impact Foundry enables new and existing nonprofits to improve management, operations, fund development, marketing & public relations, board development and more.

Full Calendar of Events

Council of Michigan Foundations

Thurs, Aug. 20 @ 1 – 3:30 pm EDT
Online

Join the Council of Michigan Foundations, Michigan Nonprofit Association, Michigan Community Resources and Co.act Detroit as they explore how nonprofit boards in these exceptional times can demonstrate leadership, serve as a valued partner and support team culture. A panel of nonprofit executives will discuss the role of boards in preparing for the long-term implications of COVID-19 and how to engage in their organization’s racial justice work while considering the larger question of how governance structures can promote equity, or reinforce inequity.

Information and Registration

Wege Prize

Applications Start Tues, Aug. 25
Apply by Mon, Nov. 9

Wege Prize 2021 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 since August, but final deliverables and team names are due next month.

Application Information

The Color of Law, The Color of Money – Restorative Solutions to Redress the Racial Wealth Gap

Thurs, Aug. 27 @ 2:30 – 3:30 pm EDT
Skills Workshop @ 3:30 – 4:30 pm EDT
Online

Net Impact will explore a few innovative ideas and solutions for building capital in Black communities and closing the wealth gap, which include Path to 15-55 and “baby bonds” as discussed by guest Tynesia Boyea-Robinson and Derrick Hamilton. At the end of the first hour, you are invited to join a second hour for a skills-building workshop led by Tynesia. This interactive session will expand on the themes and specific examples discussed in Part 1, and provide attendees a broader framework that can help them understand how to leverage the tools of capitalism for social outcomes.

Event Info

Nonprofit Management Institute 2020

Sept. 22-24
Online

Focused in particular on the way Covid-19 is reshaping the social sector, this online conference through the Stanford Social Innovation Review will feature numerous speakers from inside and around the nonprofit sector who are at the top of their game, who will discuss everything from in-person board meetings to philanthropy and collective action.

Info and Registration

Epic Social Ventures

Apply now

The Social Ventures Foundation mission is to facilitate sustainable market creation at the Bottom of the Pyramid by identifying, promoting and facilitating the investment in social ventures that employ the poor to lift the livelihoods of the poor. The End Poverty Innovation Challenge is at the heart of the Foundation’s mission, EPIC facilitates a pipeline to facilitate the identification, recognition, promotion and investment in the most impactful and of outstanding sustainable social ventures that can scale and make a difference to millions of the world’s poor.

Application Information

June 18, 2020June 18, 2020

Summer 2020 Newsletter

Anti-Racism and Racial Justice

Business+Impact stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and the Ross School of Business BBSA. With Business+Impact we aim to build a better world through powerful ideas and solutions to address the global challenges of our time. We are committed to the work of dismantling the structures of systemic racism, advancing racial justice in America, and building an equitable and sustainable future. We recognize that we must examine how we live our values each day, and seek to continually educate ourselves and others in the fight for justice and equity. Below are some featured items and a link to a resource page.

Obama Foundation: Meet Anguish With Action
National Museum of African American History & Culture: Being Antiracist
5 Ineffective Ways Organizations Respond to Racial Trauma (author Justin Woods, Impact Design Fellow with the Impact Studio)

RACIAL JUSTICE RESOURCES

+Impact Studio News

Impact Design Lab
The Impact Design Lab provides interdisciplinary coaching and support for early-stage impact prototypes developed through the course and other impact projects. The Lab offers guidance on design thinking, social impact, and innovation, and helps connect projects into the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem at UM.

Impact Design Summer Fellowship
This summer, a team of Impact Design Fellows with business, digital design, and technical skills are collaborating with Studio faculty and staff to bring the work of the studio from prototype to launch. The Fellows– Lucy Jiang (MSI), Justin Woods (MBA/MSW), and Elizabeth Sofranek (MBA) will bring their interdisciplinary skills to a project prototype designed to advance equity.

They are joined in the Impact Design Fellowship by student Fellows working on course prototypes at external organizations or impact projects/ventures, including: Alyshia Dyer (MPP), Justin Woods (MBA/MSW), Zichen Wang (MS, Design Science), Ruchita Lodha (MSI), Bennett Hilkert (BBA), Stephanie Shoo (BBA/BSE), and Rodney Sherwin Shibu (BSE).

You can read insights from Impact Design Fellow Justin Woods in the article, 5 Ineffective Ways Organizations Respond to Racial Trauma and participate in a series of three webinars on racial justice next week. Stayed tuned for more news from the Impact Design Lab this summer!

+Impact Studio for Local Business
This summer B+I is working with partners at Michigan Ross and the Ford School of Public Policy to help small businesses in Detroit adapt and innovate in the wake of COVID-19 through a program called Impact Studio for Local Business. Business and Public Policy students in the program support the Southeast Michigan community and help build a more resilient local ecosystem.

LEARN MORE

Announcing the 2020 Impact Interns

Each summer, Business+Impact awards competitive grants for summer internships to MBAs and BBA juniors in the Ross School of Business as well as MPP students in the Ford School of Public Policy. MBA funding comes from the Give-A-Day Fund, a Ross MBA pay-it-forward fund, which recently won a CASE award.

This year, although interns will be asked to work from home, these students are still making an impact around the world. Below, see the list of nearly 30 recipients and who they will be working with this summer.

BBAs:
Claire Haase, Waterworks, Detroit, MI
Ryan Kellett, Positive Business Rapid Assessment Tool, Birmingham, MI
Yousef Kobeissi, US House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
Reena Mathews, Sierra Club, Lansing, MI
Neha Paragi, Troy Digital Consulting Initiative, Troy, MI
Sara Sotirov, Total Impact Capital, Bethesda, MD

MBAs
Claire Babilonia, Ashoka, Arlington, VA
Sara Bemporad, Blavity Inc., San Francisco, CA
Kelsey Casey, The Global Good Fund Columbia, MD
Robert Chen, Bcurrent Impact Investment, Taiwan
Suman Gidwani, VoteTripling.org, Los Angeles, CA
Andrey Higashi, Fleming Medicina, Porto Alegre Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Dustin Huibregtse, Quorum: The Twin Cities GLBTA Chamber of Commerce, Minneapolis, MN
J’Taime Lyons, East Durham Children’s Initiative, Durham, NC
Avani Sharma, Teach for India, New Delhi, India
Stephanie Simpson, NextStep, Ann Arbor, MI
Alexandra Taikowski, Henry Health, Washington, D.C.
Allison Winstel, Enterprise Community Partners, Washington, DC
Nicki Yochim, Spoiler Alert, Boston, MA

MPPs:
Paul Capp, Asia Society Policy Institute, New York, NY
Kellen Data, City of Hamtramck Community and Economic Development, Hamtramck, MI
Eli Gold, Soulardarity, Highland Park, MI
Vivian Kalumbi, CARE, Merrifield, VA
Emma Kern, Hawaii Appleseed, Honolulu, HI
Christopher LeFlore, Office of Detroit City Council Member Janee’ Ayers, Detroit, MI
Tanya Omolo, Mary Turner Center for Advocacy, Detroit, MI
Daniel Park, Movement Advancement Project, Boulder, CO
Victor Rateng, MIT GOV/LAB, Cambridge, MA
Orlando Sanchez, Monterrey County Free Libraries, Marina, CA
Kalena Thomhave, Institute for Policy Studies, Boston, MA

One searchable platform for all things impact at Ross and across campus

Board Fellows Program Information

Could your nonprofit benefit from the knowledge that an outstanding graduate student could provide? Applications from nonprofit organizations are accepted on a rolling basis through June 26. We match students with organizations based on the student’s skills and interests and your needs. For the coming year, projects could focus on the COVID-19 response or on broader strategic goals.

NONPROFITS: LEARN MORE AND APPLY

STUDENTS: READ ABOUT RECENT STUDENT EXPERIENCES

The Restorative Potential of Local Economies

Tues, June 23
@ 5:30-6:30 pm EDT
ONLINE

As we watch COVID-19 unfold across the globe we see supply chain breakdown and shortages in desperately needed PPE. Across the nation companies are pivoting how they do business, leveraging their supply chain, and repurposing equipment. How can local economies and resources such as makerspaces and design tools make an impact and fuel economic growth, and what can we do to help our local ecosystem during this unprecedented pandemic?