Smith Undergrads Present Research in Rome

In April 2017, four students in the Social Innovation Fellows Program at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business traveled to Rome, Italy, with Professor David Kirsch to present research at the inaugural IESE-LUISS Business School Conference on Responsibility, Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship. Fasika Delessa, Evan Haas, Aishwariya Chandrasekar, and Sarina Haryanto reflect on their experience:

As students at Maryland’s flagship university, opportunities to get involved beyond the classroom are plenty. With over 40,000 students who call College Park home, close to 1,000 clubs, dozens of honors programs, and various living and learning programs, it’s safe to say enrichment is at every corner. We’re immensely grateful for this supportive academic environment, and want to share a bit of our story that led us to the first IESE-LUISS Conference on Responsibility, Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship in Rome, Italy.

Last fall, we began our journey in Social Innovation Fellows (SIF); a year-long fellowship in the Robert H. Smith School of Business. This past year, along with a cohort of about 20 students, we’ve studied social enterprise, business model canvases, impact investing, and all the ways different sectors can come together to create social change. We’ve been challenged to re-think the role of business, and explore career paths that best align with our values and the better good of society, all while using our business skills to get there.

Every spring, students in SIF take on consulting projects to take all we’ve learned in the fall into real-world projects, with real clients facing complex issues. This semester, we had the opportunity to partner with Halcyon Incubator to help them re-develop and launch their second annual Social Enterprise Ecosystem Survey. This survey, designed to understand the state of social entrepreneurship in the United States, was well-received last year and helped Halcyon learn more about city-level social enterprise ecosystems. It inferred four factors that support ecosystems, including Regulation and Receptivity, Quality of Life, Human Capital, and Funding.

With a solid foundation in social enterprise, the four of us dove deep into the project, and very quickly, learned about the challenges and nuances of survey design. Through beginning to think critically about what questions we wanted to ask social entrepreneurs, our own curiosity grew, and we began to explore academic literature to help us more effectively develop the survey. After months of learning the field, Dr. Kirsch, our professor and SIF faculty champion, introduced us to the IESE-LUISS conference, and together, we wrote the beginning of a research paper on social enterprise ecosystems. For a group of undergraduates, this task initially seemed daunting- almost impossible- but with the help and guidance of Dr. Kirsch, we persisted, and our paper ultimately was accepted.

The conference was an incredible experience that words will inevitably fail to give justice to. After months of research into hybrid entities, social enterprise ecosystems, and institutional logics, we had the opportunity to present our work to a room full of experts in the field. We heard from some of our Social-Enterprise-Heroes, including Johanna Mair and Ute Stephan, who are leading scholars in this discipline. After pouring over their work, it was surreal to hear directly from them and even have the chance to ask them questions. Our own presentation was met with thoughtful and productive feedback, and we hope to submit a final paper in mid-June.

With a little time under our belts to reflect on our journey to the eternal city, we are most grateful for the incredible faculty and staff of the Smith School who led the way for this to be possible. First, Dr. Kirsch, whose own faith and trust in us guided us, long before this project even began. From the first SIF class to the last, Dr. Kirsch stimulated thoughtful discussion and intense debate about the pressing issues business students, leaders, and academics face today. From it, we are better people, more critical thinkers, and more responsible future business leaders. We’re positive that SIF Cohorts for years to come will thrive under his leadership.

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, and specifically Sara Herald, who was with us every step of the way. Through her own expertise with social entrepreneurship, her positive attitude, and consistently thoughtful feedback, we were, and are, a better team.

The Center for Social Value Creation, and Kim Glinka, Kirsten Craft, and Christine Beckman, who supported us and have, for years, made social enterprise a priority at the Smith School.

The Office of Global Initiatives, and Greg Rafal, who supported us and helped navigate our trip, and travel logistics, to Rome.

And finally, the Smith Fellows Program and undergraduate office for providing the foundation for this journey- the Social Innovation Fellows Program, which we encourage everyone reading this to apply to!

Beyond our thank-yous to the members of the Smith community who made our trip possible, we also wanted to share some important lessons we took away from this opportunity--the de-stigmatization of academic research, the importance of consummate effort, and the value of multidisciplinary perspectives in research. By traveling in Rome, we were able to experience a more global and research-oriented view of social enterprise. These lessons, and all the memories created throughout this past year, will stay with us through a lifetime, and we will always be grateful.