The Cupid’s Cup business competition this year expanded beyond the university to award cash prizes to the most promising entrepreneurs in the country. But the April 5 competition, sponsored by Under Armour founder and CEO Kevin Plank ’96 and hosted by Smith’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, found its top winner close to home.

During the week of November 18–22, the Smith School will participate as a partner in Global Entrepreneurship Week – the world’s largest celebration of innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare.

Last week at the Net Impact Conference in San Jose, the Smith Undergraduate Net Impact chapter (SUNI) at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business was awarded 2013 Undergraduate National Chapter of the Year. The Net Impact conference is a national convening of nearly 3,000 students and professional leaders using their careers to change the world.

Seth Goldman, Founder and 'TEO' of Honest Tea, spoke to students of the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business on October 15, 2013. 

Brought to you by Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management, The Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership, and The Center for Social Value Creation The Do Good Challenge is both a fun competition and a real-world opportunity for teams to advance the causes they’re passionate about and work towards solving some of the world’s most pressing problems. During the Challenge, University of Maryland students further their favorite causes by volunteering, fundraising, promoting awareness, or starting or advancing a social enterprise.

If all goes to plan, six Smith School of Business MBA students will have helped create 290 full-time jobs in northern and eastern Sri Lanka – the regions most devastated by a 25 year civil war. And it only took them three weeks. 

“My day started at 3:45 a.m.,” said Chester “Chet” Burrell. And that’s typical for the CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield president and CEO. He spends his first two hours every day answering emails and making important decisions in the quiet of his home office before heading to work for a typical 12-hour day of meetings, presentations and perhaps a speaking engagement. But Burrell says none of it seems like work to him. Running CareFirst is his passion and mission in life. He encouraged students at the University of Maryland’s Robert H.

Welcome back! Thank goodness it’s “Innovation Fridays.” Last spring, we got on board with the University of Maryland’s “Innovation Fridays,” introducing weekly coverage to highlight some of the exciting happenings around innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. This fall, we continue that semester-long commitment.

Broadcaster Tavis Smiley, in partnership with the University of Maryland, will launch a $75,000 TS/UM Social Innovation Challenge to help address some of society’s most pressing issues in three key areas: hunger, education, and sustainability. The inaugural TS/UM Social Innovation Challenge invites aspiring entrepreneurs to develop transformative solutions to affect positive change for individuals and communities across the nation.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Eleven University of Maryland students have traveled to Nicaragua this summer as part of a new UMD study abroad program that combines entrepreneurship with service learning. The students, members of the Maryland Social Entrepreneur Corps, will spend eight weeks (May 19 – July 12) in rural areas, helping develop and promote small businesses that provide essential products, including eyeglasses, energy efficient stoves, and water filters, at affordable prices to local people.