It’s not often over 12,000 professionals, industry experts, community leaders, company representatives, and MBA students gather in one place. But at the National Black MBA Association’s (NBMBAA) conference and exposition, it happens every year. Smith first- and second-year MBA students had the opportunity to be a part of one of the nation’s largest development, recruiting, and networking events for black professionals.

The Smith School welcomes hundreds of new faces this fall -- all ready to start an exciting new school year at the University of Maryland. About 130 new full-time MBA students were the first to arrive at Van Munching Hall in mid-August for a week-long orientation that included special speakers, team-building activities and community service.

Orientation for first-year MBA students ended Friday, Sep. 5, 2008, with a service project at Takoma Educational Center, part of the Washington, D.C., public school system. Over 100 MBA students from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business traded their business attire for “TeamMBA” t-shirts and jeans and volunteered their time for tasks ranging from cleaning out storage rooms to leading story time for elementary students.

April 25, 2008 marked the final round of the annual Smith Technology Challenge Case Competition at the Robert H. Smith School of Business. The competition is designed to refine and develop the strategic thinking and analytical skills of second-year, part-time MBA students. Participation in this event is an academic requirement and began in March with a Sprint conference call and culminated with final team presentations at Van Munching Hall in College Park.

College Park, Md. - May 6, 2008 - The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business today announced that alumnus Robert H. Smith, former chairman of Charles E. Smith Cos. and naming donor to the school, will deliver the keynote speech at the May 23 graduation ceremony. The event will be held at 4 p.m. at the Comcast Center on the university's College Park campus.

Where do issues like drugs in the workplace, insider trading, off-shoring, and credit card debt meet Shakespeare? For more than 100 first-year MBA students in the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, ethical business issues and dramatic performance collided on center stage on a Saturday night at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, May 3, 2008.

Even the most casual followers of broad macroeconomic trends are familiar with the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and the rapid future economic growth that is predicted for each. But many people are relatively unaware of a less discussed, but just as critical, new emerging global market: Africa. In 2003, foreign investment in sub-Saharan Africa totaled $140 million; by 2007, this figure had increased exponentially to $1.4 billion.

After being elected as president of the Smith School’s MBA Association, Alex Kouts, MBA Candidate 2009, took a trip out to San Francisco to take part in the President's Forum at the Graduate Business Conference at Berkeley this spring. During this annual event incoming and outgoing presidents of each MBA Association from the top 50 MBA programs globally come together. One of the tasks that is accomplished during this meeting is the election of the chairman of the forum for the next year.

April was recognized as Sustainability Month this year at campuses around the country. The Smith School held a number of events for both the students and community to participate in that focused on sustainability and going green in recognition of the month. The events were focused around not only bringing about awareness of environmental issues to participants they were also designed to show how individuals can build companies around sustainability and the environment.

A team of four Smith second-year MBAs traveled to the University of Wisconsin in Madison on April 16-18, 2008 to compete in the CIBER (Center for International Business Education and Research) International Business Case Competition. The team—Dan Bresette, Ike Kim, Liubov Luzhnova, and Sam Tang—walked away with a second place finish out of 11 competing schools. Ike Kim was also awarded the individual best presenter award, which made him one of three winners of this award.