BizEd

JulyAugust2009

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Headlines engage every student in courses and experiential learning programs that demonstrate how businesses can cre- ate both economic prosperity and transformative social change. Melissa Carrier, executive director for Social Value Creation, will lead the effort, which will support the groundwork for establishing a center dedicated to social value creation. The goal of the initiative is to A Challenge for Social Entrepreneurs MBA students from top U.S. business schools headed to New Orleans last March to participate in the inau- gural "IDEAcorps Entrepreneur- ship Challenge" sponsored by Idea Village. The New Orleans-based nonprofit aims to "sow the seeds of change through innovation and entrepreneurship." Participants were DePaul University's Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, North- western University's Kellogg School of Management, the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, Tulane University's Freeman School of Business, Stanford University School of Business, and the Haas School of Business at University of California, Berkeley. A group from salesforce.com also participated. The initiative paired each team with a small business or startup ven- ture dedicated to the revitalization of post-Katrina New Orleans. According to Idea Village, the goal was to help New Orleans entrepreneurs become self-sustaining while giving students a hands-on learning experience with real-world implications. 8 BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2009 At the end of the weeklong undertaking, no winner was chosen, but each team's work was evalu- ated by a panel of business and civic leaders for its potential to solve the problems it addressed. Sponsors of the event included The Rockefeller Foundation, Blue Moon Fund, Har- rah's, and the U.S. Department of Commerce. Google also supported the initiative by providing a blog for students to chronicle their work. For more details, see ideavillage.org. teach students to use business knowl- edge to solve critical environmental and humanitarian problems, par- tially by participating in real-world fieldwork. For instance, students might provide consulting work for nonprofits, receive seed funding for social ventures, join Engineers With- out Borders to consult on projects in developing countries, or join student clubs devoted to social and environ- mental concerns. The initiative also will support a Social Enterprise Sym- posium and a Changemaker Speaker Series, as well as up to three faculty research awards a year. Philanthropy & Business Business and philanthropy can work together to solve global challenges and serve the needs of our rapidly evolving society. That was the theme of the annual Leadership Forum held this spring at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and co- sponsored by TIME. One keynote speaker was Van Creating Social Value The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business in Col- lege Park has launched the Initiative for Social Value Creation, a push to Jones, White House Special Advi- sor for Green Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation and founding president of Green For All. "The good news is that we can beat this global reces- sion and global warming at the same time. We can beat poverty and pollution at the same time … and you're the solution," said Jones.

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