Three centers focused on social change, financial policy, and leadership have recently expanded the business school’s repertoire.
While each has a separate agenda, these centers mark recent efforts by the business school to give undergraduate and graduate students more opportunities to increase and apply their business knowledge to real-world issues.
The Center for Social Value Creation (CSVC) is the oldest of the three fledgling centers. Opened in the spring of 2009, the CSVC emphasizes social and environmental change through the application of business principles.
“We want to build students who have a deep sense of responsibility,” said Melissa Carrier, the center’s executive director.
Based on ideas Carrier encountered in her previous work and supported by student interest, the center organizes programs such as Social Venture Consulting, which applies business know-how to non-profit organizations.
Jenna Gebel, a senior International Business and Marketing major, joined the center’s “Ashoka Terp Changemakers” program, which holds events and creates classes, among other activities. This program extends beyond Maryland – it’s part of a global network for entrepreneurs avid about creating social change.
“Our team’s goal is to embed social entrepreneurship throughout our campus and motivate students to create change in the issues they are most passionate about,” said Gebel.
The Center for Financial Policy, active since Nov. 2009, is also looking to guide students in the application of what they’ve learned at the school to real-world situations.
“We are trying to bridge an important gap,” said the center’s managing director Clifford Rossi, stressing the importance of the context provided by the recent financial crisis.
The center covers a range of issues including financial regulatory reform, proper consumer protections, and a study of the concept of institutions such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac considered “too big to fail.”
Consisting of five “Academic Tracks” from Risk Management to Emerging Markets, the center, similarly to the Center for Social Value Creation, offers internships, a Fellows program, and is open to both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as students of all majors interested in connecting policy with reality.
“It’s not just finances,” said Rossi – the center hopes to build programs that extend “across the school and the university.”
The school’s latest addition is the Center for Leadership, Innovation, and Change, recently bolstered by a $1.5 million contribution from the BB&T Foundation.
Directed by Professor Paul Tesluk, the center is still developing but has already drawn plans including events and courses that overlap with the Center for Social Value Creation, according to Carrier.
“The nature of leadership is changing,” she said.
According to the school’s website, Dean G. Anandalingam stated, concerning the new center’s goals, that: “This generation needs to understand the origins of our capitalist system from a historical and moral context in order to make good decisions that take all stakeholders into account.”
“