Why CSVC Created a Handbook for Impact Consulting
Amidst a pandemic, the Center for Social Value Creation has created an unlikely source of commonality between universities: a guidebook.
<p>Nicole Coomber is on the faculty in the Management & Organization area at the Robert H. Smith School of Business.</p>
Amidst a pandemic, the Center for Social Value Creation has created an unlikely source of commonality between universities: a guidebook.
For Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) professionals, getting ahead in the corporate environment can be difficult. But they don’t need to walk the road alone.
Malcolm Gillian ’95, MBA ’00, says his path to success was forged in part because of the mentorship he received early in his career. Having that mentor, he says, was essential for his first promotion after graduate school and accelerated his career growth.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Just weeks into the pandemic, Nicole M. Coomber began noticing a worrying trend. Upwardly mobile professionals across her social media networks were opting to step back from their careers, overwhelmed by the new demands of their work lives and home lives.
Despite pandemic-induced social distancing, nearly 150 students are driving a Maryland Smith project this summer supporting value-driven organizations. With Zoom the primary platform, the Center for Social Value Creation at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business has launched a two-month Impact Consulting Fellowship program in the vein of its earlier, signature Change the World Consulting program. Under way as of June 2020, the Impact Consulting Fellowship involves full- and part-time MBAs managing undergrads and other master’s students in providing consulting services – for example, to the blended learning school College Park Academy, a blended learning school; Black Girl Ventures, which supports founders; MLevel, a digital learning development platform; and Great Dwellings, a D.C.-based company that helps homeowners maximize their Airbnb and short-term vacation rentals.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Maryland Smith management professor Nicole M. Coomber has one word to describe these past months of remote work: Challenging. Emotional intelligence, she says, has never been more important.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – People who are able to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic are seeing their spouses’ work personalities in action, sometimes for the first time, The Information reports. And what they are discovering can be pretty jarring.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – There’s a lot to learn when you start work with a new company. There are all those day-to-day routines – where to park, where to find coffee, and where to turn with your IT questions. Those are the details that a new employee can pick up quickly.
Understanding the organizational culture, however, can take months.
SMITH BRAIN TRUST – With the coronavirus pandemic forcing schools to close across the country, parents working from home might feel overwhelmed with the prospect of balancing both their professional and personal obligations all at once for the foreseeable future.
How do you deal with the “broken rung” that affects women trying to climb the corporate ladder? One way is to enlist the help of other women.
The image of the broken rung was popularized by a landmark LeanIn.Org and McKinsey study that showed men outnumber women almost 2 to 1 in first-level manager jobs. That first missed promotion creates an imbalance, the research showed, that follows women throughout their careers.
Event Honors Smith Alumnae for Their Achievements
College Park, Md. (Feb. 10, 2020) – Meg Goldthwaite, chief marketing officer at NPR, and Sherika Ekpo, global diversity and inclusion lead for Google AI, will be the honored guests at this year’s Women Inspire event, hosted by the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. Both women are graduates of the school’s MBA program.