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.
- Ross Asian American Business Association Official Statement and Call to Action
- The Muddled History of Anti-Asian Violence
- This Michigan Ross BBA Is Reclaiming Her Asian American Identity
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. Â
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.
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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
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.Â
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.Â
Impact News & Notes
- Race on Campus (featuring Provost Robert Sellers)
- U-M researchers working on anti-racism, racial justice issues
- SummerWorks seeks U-M mentors, employers for young adults
- Carbon neutrality commission submits final recommendations
- The Golden Ratio, a supposed Greek invention, may have African roots – featuring Audrey Bennett
- Three Michigan Ross Alumni and Business Leaders Innovating with Healthcare Technology to Combat COVID-19
- Management should be a calling to do good by serving, not merely accumulating
- U-M shifts strategy for natural resources investments
- ‘We have to look in the mirror’: U-M Professors say data, science has answers to ending gun violence
- U-M’s Ford School to expand work in social policy, equity work, thanks to Kohn Charitable Trust
- Overcoming Systemic Barriers to Minority Entrepreneurship
- Anti-racism design challenge promotes creativity, collaboration
- Sellers announces end of tenure as chief diversity officer
- Ready or not, the era of corporate political responsibility is upon us – featuring Tom Lyon
- Meet the Michigander who’s advising Biden on environmental justice – featuring Kyle Whyte
- Republicans Simmer Over Voting Stand by Some US Corporate Leaders – featuring Jerry Davis
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.
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
At the University:
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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.
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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.
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.
Tues, Sept. 15 @ 4 pm
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.
Focused in particular on the way Covid-19 is reshaping the social sector, this online conference through the 
