Center for Social Value Creation Wins Teaching Award

The Smith School's Center for Social Value Creation (CSVC) was chosen to receive the University of Maryland's Center for Teaching Excellence 2010-11 Departmental Award for Excellence and Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching. The award recognizes notable improvements and accomplishments in undergraduate education at the department or program level. The center is being honored for its integrated plan to improve the educational experience at Smith so that undergraduate students might be better equipped to drive social value creation in our global economy.

CSVC is the most student-centric of Smith’s centers and its major offerings complement the student experience with co-curricular programs, elective coursework and hands-on consulting projects. The center also helps faculty integrate the concept of creating social value into their curriculum in a strategic and methodical way, without removing any of the core teachings of their disciplines, offering faculty workshops and one-on-one assistance with course design.

The center partners with Smith School faculty to offer seven undergraduate courses, including a social innovation practicum in which students work on solving business problems for nonprofit organizations. Each student team devotes 60 to 80 hours over three months to their assigned project, working under the guidance and supervision of a faculty champion. The program has been so well-received that this year the center received proposals for more than 150 projects, just a dozen of which were selected. Melissa Carrier, the center’s executive director, looks for projects that have an achievable scope, will provide a meaningful learning experience for students and results in a viable solution for the nonprofit.

For many students, it’s more than just an opportunity to practice applying business processes in the real world. It is an eye-opening and gratifying experience to see their recommendations put to work, solving real problems for organizations doing good in the community. Despite the fact that the projects are not for credit and unpaid, there is more student demand for this program than CSVC can accommodate.

CSVC is providing non-Smith School students with greater access to the latest research and best business practices in the social enterprise and social entrepreneurship fields. The center developed a new i-Series course that was first offered in fall 2010 and received outstanding student feedback. The center has also offered a whole host of tremendous co- and extracurricular activities for undergraduate students in the past two years, including hosting leaders from organizations such as Ashoka, Grameen Foundation, IBM, Honest Tea, and General Electric.

Some students find their interaction with the center so inspiring that they go on to pursue a career in the nonprofit sector, or in one of many companies that place social responsibility among their core values. Students can learn about creating social change through market-based approaches, explore career options and network with socially responsible corporations at the center’s annual Social Enterprise Symposium, which draws about 600 students from across the University of Maryland campus. The symposium is partly organized by the Terp Changemakers, a student group that is part of the Ashoka UChangemaker Campus initiative and supported by CSVC.

“The impact that this team has had on the Smith School in just over two years is truly extraordinary,” says Hugh Courtney, vice dean and Professor of the Practice of Strategy. “We are quite thankful for their efforts and remain committed to supporting the Center’s growth in the coming years. We can’t imagine any other investment we could make as a school that would deliver higher returns.”

Learn more about CSVC. http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/svc/