The 6th Annual Social Enterprise Symposium (#SES14) returns to the University of Maryland on Friday, March 7, 2014. Sponsored by the Center for Social Value Creation at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, the Social Enterprise Symposium is unlike any other event on campus.

Winners have been announced for the $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.  Broadcaster Tavis Smiley partnered with the University of Maryland to launch the inaugural event. 

The Office of Global Initiatives at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business hosted 50 Australian EMBA, MBA, and undergraduate students from RMIT University in Melbourne – one of Australia’s most highly-ranked business schools – from Jan. 4-18, 2014, in College Park. The students, most of whom had never been to the United States, traveled to Maryland to experience business education in an American setting and immerse themselves in U.S. business culture. 

Students in the University of Maryland’s Quality Enhancement Systems and Teams (QUEST) honors program are used to making an impact. As part of QUEST’s highly selective, reality-based learning program, they participate in courses focused on quality management, process improvement, and system design.

For many Smith students, an ideal career is one with more than just a big salary. They want a career that aligns with their values and supports a mission they feel passionate about.

Academia + Entrepreneurship: When science meets great business ideas 

PhD Candidate Tracks Rise of Peer-to-peer Online Lending in China “Welcome from Prestigious American University Bryan Stroube to share his expert knowledge.”  This was the banner that greeted 2015 PhD candidate, Bryan Stroube, as he arrived at a school in rural China, three hours by train from where he was based in Beijing. 

There was certainly a sense of accomplishment at the ChangeTheWorld.org Symposium and Reception hosted by the Center for Social Value Creation (CSVC). After a semester-long consulting engagement with nonprofits across the country, student consultants were eager to discuss the impressive outcomes of their work. In the beginning of the fall semester, students were grouped in teams and then paired with nonprofits through ChangeTheWorld.org, a program run in partnership between CSVC and Grassroots.org.

What is ahead for the American economy?  Martin Feldstein, president emeritus of the National Bureau of Economic Research and George F. Baker Professor of Economics at Harvard University, visited the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business last week to address this question.  In his comments to faculty and students, Feldstein stressed that today’s slow growth rate would continue into 2014 but that the long-term prospects for the U.S. are bright, so long as the large and growing national debt is curtailed.

  Twenty MBA and MS Finance students from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland were accompanied by finance professor David Kass on a trip to Omaha, Nebraska, to meet with Warren Buffett on November 15, 2013.  Read highlights in David Kass' Blog.