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.

“Enthusiastically go after every single day.” This was the message of BB&T Chairman and CEO Kelly King’s Nov. 6 CEO@Smith presentation at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “Passion causes us to give it our all. Be passionate and purposeful about life – you can make a difference.”

For years, much of the American conversation about the Middle East has revolved around stories of violence, religious conflict, and political turmoil. Chris Schroeder, on the other hand, is intent on shedding light on a burgeoning trend in the region that receives far less media attention: entrepreneurship.

Wellford Dillard, MBA ’97, has a track record of turning around struggling companies. Today he’s using his financial expertise in a company that helps sick people get well. 

“You can market and create good at the same time,” Elysa Hammond said to an attentive crowd at the Smith School’s fifth annual Social Enterprise Symposium on March 1, 2013. “Business has been part of the problems we are facing today, and business needs to be part of the solution.” 

Samuel Blum ’13 is one lucky dog. He’s hitting the road this year as one of 12 Oscar Mayer Hotdoggers, driving the company’s iconic Wienermobile from sea to shining sea. 

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship is the Smith School’s hub of innovation and entrepreneurship. Activities are focused on building a community of entrepreneurs – and that goal extends well beyond the Smith School to students, faculty and staff across campus; alumni; and entrepreneurs throughout the region.