On March 27, 2018, the Center for Social Value Creation hosted a Lunch & Learn for students interested in impact investing. The event featured Rob Stevens, a Portfolio & Investment Associate with Accion Venture Lab. Stevens discussed the impact investing space, the changing global consumer market, and the various points of entry into the field.

For much of the past two decades, the overarching economic theme in sub-Saharan Africa has been “Africa Rising.” That’s still the case, though in 2016, growth in the region was “alarmingly poor,” dragged lower by a sharp slump in commodity prices, former Liberian finance minister Antoinette Monsio Sayeh said April 20, 2018, in Washington, D.C. The region’s economies are rebounding, said Sayeh, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development. “But momentum has slowed.”

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.

Career counselors from more than 55 universities convened at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School Business to trade information and best practices for international job seekers in MBA and specialty master’s programs. The Smith School has hosted the International Student Career Services Round Table for four consecutive years. More than 100 professionals were in attendance April 11-12, 2018.

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.”

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.

Hundreds of students, alumni, faculty, and staff gathered in Van Munching Hall on March 9, 2018, to discuss and celebrate trailblazing social value creation initiatives at the 10th Annual Social Enterprise Symposium (#SES18), hosted by the Center for Social Value Creation at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

For the fourth consecutive year, students of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business are preparing income tax returns for UMD students and staff, as well as individuals from the surrounding community. Smith’s Master Service Club has been providing the service from 6-9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, in 3505 Van Munching Hall.