Student News

Imagine that you have to leave your home for another country because of war and violence, fleeing with your family and what few possessions you can salvage. Imagine living in temporary shelters amidst thousands of other people, many of them orphaned children, with limited access to food, medicine, clean water and education. For Smith School junior Foday Sackor, this was not imaginary—it was real.

Seven years ago, Sackor left Budumburam Refugee Camp in Ghana, where he and his family had fled to escape persecution in his native Liberia, and started a new life in the United States. As ethnic Mandingos, Sackor and his family faced discrimination, arbitrary arrests, and violence from rebel groups. “Being in a war is something I don’t wish on anyone,” says Sackor, “but the experience shaped my life. In the refugee camp we ate the same thing—soup and bread—every day for months. It has made me appreciate all the little things of my life, from the food I eat to the clothes I wear.”

►Full Story in Smith Business magazine

Smith Undergraduates Visit Asia for Class on Global Business

A group of honors students from the Smith School made Hong Kong their classroom earlier this year, experiencing first-hand how global developments impact business.

The three-credit class and 10-day trip, “Topics in Global Business: Comparative Capital Markets: U.S., Mainland China & Hong Kong,” was designed to examine the globalization of business by studying the transnational flow of ideas, people, capital, goods, and even diseases. “It has become a truism to say that ‘all business is global business’ in the 21st century, and that students must learn and appreciate the complexities and opportunities presented by cross-cultural collaboration in order to succeed in business,” said Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs Pat Cleveland.

►Full Story

Smith's U.S. EMBA students teach Smith's EMBA students from GSBA Zürich  how to enjoy the classic Maryland steamed crab at the June 30th crab feast, held in the Edwards Courtyard at Van Munching Hall. Forty-nine Smith-GSBA Zürich executive MBA students traveled to College Park from Switzerland for their two-week logistics and supply chain module. During the time they were here, they also enjoyed watching the World Cup.

Smith Team wins the Entrepreneur’s Choice Award at the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC)!
Capital Access Ventures, comprised of Mark Slusser, Anne Engebretsen, Avi Lerner, Susannah Campbell and Karl Olson, had earlier won the Smith (internal) round of VCIC held on February 24th, 2006. The internal round was sponsored by the Dingman Center of Entrepreneurship, Office of Career Management and venture capital firm Opus 8.

Elaborating on the experience, first year MBA student Anne Engebretsen said, “representing the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the VCIC Regional Round at Georgia Tech in Atlanta last spring was a wonderful experience. We competed against seven other teams for two long days (and nights) and ended up winning the Entrepreneur’s Choice Award. The competition proved to be a test of our ability to appropriately and effectively divide up tasks and our ability to perform at a high level on little sleep”.

►Full Story
 

►MBA Student Blogs 2006-2007
►Spring 2006 News
►2005 News