Welcome back to Campus Chronicles, Clear Admit’s weekly peek inside the news at top business programs. This week we bring you a hard-copy special feature highlighting the Monroe Street Journal, printed by students at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Ross’s Black Business Students Association (BBSA) recently hosted the annual BBSA Alfred L. Edward Conference, focused on the theme “On the Shoulders of Giants: Leaving a Lasting and Impactful Legacy.” The keynote speaker for the event was distinguished Columbia University Professor Marc Lamont Hill, whose address focused on the responsibility MBA students have towards the less fortunate. This year’s conference also featured panels on the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in business, the impact of President Barack Obama on business leaders, and entrepreneurship. The conference’s namesake, Dr. Alfred Edwards, was a Professor at Ross for over 40 years and a champion of the school’s participation in the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, a nonprofit that aims to correct the underrepresentation of African American, Hispanic, and Native American students at business schools across the country.
A Ross startup business, Dinner With, recently launched its first campaign, offering a dinner with Michigan Wolverines football quarterback Denard Robinson. Dinner With was conceived by a group of four Ross MBA students, and offers the chance to dine with popular Michigan students, professors or administrators in exchange for donations to local nonprofit and social ventures. Proceeds from “Dinner with Denard Robinson” will go to the Pay It Forward Initiative, a Detroit-based nonprofit that helps young adults in Detroit find and hold jobs. Over the course of getting their venture off the ground, Dinner With participated in a bevy of Ross entrepreneurship events, including the “Entrepalooza” business concept competition, the Michigan Business Challenge, and the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies.
Finally, a group of “Erbies” traveled to UNC’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business and took second place in its annual Sustainable Venture Capital Investment Competition. “Erbies” are students at the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute, which is a partnership between the Ross School of Business and the School of Natural Resources and Environment. The competition drew teams from many other leading international business programs, including NYU Stern, Oxford Said, and Duke Fuqua. The team had to interview social entrepreneurs and present their formal investment recommendations to a panel of judges that included real investors.
