On the morning of May 4, 2018, Lemma Senbet Fund fellows presented their final reports to Alex Triantis, dean of the Smith School, and the Smith Foundation Board. Seniors David Niezelski and Jacob Biedronoski led the presentation, highlighting overall gains and successful decisions made over the past year. While the equity market for the past 12 months gave the team reasonable hurdles in finding value-driven theses, the cohort persevered and ultimately achieved higher returns than previous years.

Shyama Srikkanth, ’19, contributed to this article. She is an Undergraduate Program Assistant working toward earning dual degrees in Operations Management & Business Analytics and Environmental Science and Politics.

Smith School undergraduates have many opportunities to develop their global mindset, including through study abroad. Studying abroad gives students the opportunity to expand their network, gain skills needed to compete in a global economy, and discover a new sense of adaptability. Devin Thrasher, a Senior Accounting Major, participated in Accounting’s Future, Present, and Past last winter and strongly recommends the program.

On May 3, 2018, Professor Zeinab Karake will receive the “Distinguished Faculty Member” Award at the Robert H. Smith School of Business’s 18th Annual Undergraduate Banquet. Smith seniors overwhelmingly nominated her for this honor: “ … [She] really cares about her students and always does the best for them.” “Karake goes the extra mile to care for her students outside of an academic perspective. She genuinely wants to aid students in their future endeavors.”

On March 3, 2017, Kara Gordon, now a junior double majoring in supply chain management and marketing, attended the Social Enterprise Symposium (SES) in Van Munching Hall. Hosted by the Smith School’s Center for Social Value Creation, SES takes place every year. For Kara, it served as an introduction to a new side of business that connected her interest in sustainability with her career goals in a way she had never previously envisioned.

Facing real-world corporate challenges, working on a team to find solutions and presenting the findings within a few days to knowledgeable and invested professionals is a tough way to earn a grade – and some money. But that is exactly what more than two dozen undergraduate finance majors did on April 6, 2018, when they participated in the Emerging CFOs Case Competition. Similar annual events are a big part of what provides the one-year Emerging CFOs Fellows Program with an experiential edge and connects students to experts in the field.

“What course of action would YOU recommend when confronted with a challenging and complicated business issue without clear-cut solutions?”

Many CEOs sleep with their smartphones on the nightstand next to their beds. Some even sleep with it in their beds. Deloitte CEO, Cathy Engelbert prefers to keep hers downstairs at night. "Disconnect yourself every once in a while," she told an overflow crowd on March 14, 2018, during the CEO@Smith speaker series at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “You work hard, but you need to find time to take care of yourself.”

Poets & Quants for Undergrads’ “The Best and Brightest Business Majors – Class of 2018” features two seniors from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

To make it as a woman in the male-dominated finance industry, you have to be assertive. And key to that is having – or faking – confidence, says Marguerita M. Cheng, CEO of investment advisory firm Blue Ocean Wealth. "I learned to assert myself through the skills that I have," says Cheng, a 1993 graduate of the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. Cheng began her career on Wall Street as an analyst, but wanted to work more closely with clients. She became a Certified Financial Planner and transitioned into wealth management.