Greg Rafal, an undergraduate program manager for the Center for Global Business at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business writes about a global consulting project that Smith students worked on during spring 2018.

Sixty-four sophomores in the Business, Society and the Economy (BSE) program at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business successfully completed the two-year College Park Scholars program on May 4, 2018. Over 800 College Park Scholars, mentors, and faculty attended the annual academic showcase where the BSE sophomores presented their semester-long Capstone projects. The event was held at the Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center.

On the morning of May 4, 2018, Lemma Senbet Fund fellows presented their final reports to Alex Triantis, dean of the Smith School, and the Smith Foundation Board. Seniors David Niezelski and Jacob Biedronoski led the presentation, highlighting overall gains and successful decisions made over the past year. While the equity market for the past 12 months gave the team reasonable hurdles in finding value-driven theses, the cohort persevered and ultimately achieved higher returns than previous years.

Smith School undergraduates have many opportunities to develop their global mindset, including through study abroad. Studying abroad gives students the opportunity to expand their network, gain skills needed to compete in a global economy, and discover a new sense of adaptability. Devin Thrasher, a Senior Accounting Major, participated in Accounting’s Future, Present, and Past last winter and strongly recommends the program.

The Center for Global Business (CGB) at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business hosted its second annual Export Management Bootcamp in Baltimore from April 20-21, 2018.

On March 27, 2018, the Center for Social Value Creation hosted a Lunch & Learn for students interested in impact investing. The event featured Rob Stevens, a Portfolio & Investment Associate with Accion Venture Lab. Stevens discussed the impact investing space, the changing global consumer market, and the various points of entry into the field.

For much of the past two decades, the overarching economic theme in sub-Saharan Africa has been “Africa Rising.” That’s still the case, though in 2016, growth in the region was “alarmingly poor,” dragged lower by a sharp slump in commodity prices, former Liberian finance minister Antoinette Monsio Sayeh said April 20, 2018, in Washington, D.C. The region’s economies are rebounding, said Sayeh, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development. “But momentum has slowed.”

On March 3, 2017, Kara Gordon, now a junior double majoring in supply chain management and marketing, attended the Social Enterprise Symposium (SES) in Van Munching Hall. Hosted by the Smith School’s Center for Social Value Creation, SES takes place every year. For Kara, it served as an introduction to a new side of business that connected her interest in sustainability with her career goals in a way she had never previously envisioned.

Career counselors from more than 55 universities convened at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School Business to trade information and best practices for international job seekers in MBA and specialty master’s programs. The Smith School has hosted the International Student Career Services Round Table for four consecutive years. More than 100 professionals were in attendance April 11-12, 2018.

Facing real-world corporate challenges, working on a team to find solutions and presenting the findings within a few days to knowledgeable and invested professionals is a tough way to earn a grade – and some money. But that is exactly what more than two dozen undergraduate finance majors did on April 6, 2018, when they participated in the Emerging CFOs Case Competition. Similar annual events are a big part of what provides the one-year Emerging CFOs Fellows Program with an experiential edge and connects students to experts in the field.