For most entrepreneurs, acquiring capital can be the difference between a vision and seeing their venture come to life. However, for entrepreneurs from marginalized and underrepresented communities, there are even more barriers to overcome. On Thursday, Nov. 16, a panel of bank executives, entrepreneurs and investors convened in Van Munching Hall to share their lessons in acquiring capital and to highlight opportunities for general business growth for entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities during Elevate! Diverse Founders: Access to Capital.

For the first time, the Robert H. Smith School of Business has partnered with a Greek life fraternity at the University of Maryland to develop a new course where students work with real organizations to do social good.

The Center for Social Value Creation (CSVC) at University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business published an extensive report on the most effective strategies for driving environmental and social value creation (ESVC). The report sets out a new framework for understanding how companies, across nine industries, can generate meaningful, measurable improvement in environmental and social performance across industries.

The Maryland Smith chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi drew multiple accolades at the world’s largest business fraternity’s 2022 Convention, held August 3-6 in Miami. The Smith chapter, represented by President Jean Han (’23) and Director of Pledge Education Ayman Bootwala (’24), received Outstanding Programming awards in the categories of Knowledge, Integrity and Unity.

Maryland Smith is pushing students and business leaders to create a better world through business. That means considering multiple stakeholders – how a company’s environmental, social and corporate governance policies impact the world beyond just returning profits to shareholders. ESG is gaining momentum among businesses and investors and was the topic of Maryland Smith’s inaugural ESG Conference: Reimagine Your Impact, hosted by the Center for Social Value Creation on May 6, 2022.

Beyond quantifying and getting their boards to understand traditional financial risks such as credit and market risk, corporate risk officers are grappling with a host of nontraditional risks associated with and ranging from cyber to ESG (environmental, social and governance) and DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).

He’s just a semester into his college career at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, but freshman Michael Zhao already knows exactly what he wants to do for the rest of his life – use a finance and computer science education to make the world a better place.