The Social Enterprise Symposium (SES), hosted by the Center for Social Value Creation at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, is less than a month away, on March 3, 2017. If you’re someone who likes to push the envelope, explore big ideas and wants to create a better world, SES is definitely for you. Here are five reasons why you should attend #SES17:

We received more than 250 submissions for the third iteration of the Smith Photo Contest at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. After a month of online voting and judges’ deliberation, we are proud to share the 20 winning photographs from the talented Smith community. Winners were selected in six categories: action, architectural, campus, global, landscape, and portrait. Of the 20 winners, two were selected through online voting on Smith’s Facebook page as the People’s Choice award.

Building the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and then the National Museum of African American History and Culture changes a person. Lisa Anders, an MBA graduate at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, led both projects and will discuss her experiences at a Black History Month celebration 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 8, 2017, at the campus’ Riggs Alumni Center.

Each year, the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship hosts Pitch Dingman Competition, an opportunity for University of Maryland student entrepreneurs to pitch their businesses shark tank style to an expert panel of judges to compete for a total of $30,000 in seed funding. Pitch Dingman applications open at the beginning of the academic year, with a short quarterfinals phase in late September. A vetting process from alumni entrepreneur judges leads to a selection of 10 semifinalists. The Pitch Dingman Semifinals on Nov.

All faculty, program directors, deans, department chairs, alumni, and students of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business are invited to nominate deserving Smith School faculty members (i.e., tenured, tenure-track, clinical, Professor of the Practice, lecturer, adjunct, or Ph.D. student) for one of several teaching awards. Nominations are due by March 3, 2017, and awards will be presented in May. Allen J. Krowe Award for Teaching Excellence

Check out the most popular news stories from 2016 for the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business: 1) Top 10 Business Books for Your Summer Reading List  2) Dingman Center Launches Bootstrapped Podcast

On Dec. 21, 2016, over 800 students graduated from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business with PhD, MS, MBA, and BS degrees. The commencement ceremony was held at the Xfinity Center on the university’s College Park campus. You can watch the entire ceremony online.

The Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship produces Bootstrapped, a podcast featuring founders, investors and serial entrepreneurs. The podcast is hosted by Elana Fine, Managing Director of the Dingman Center, and Joe Bailey, Associate Research Professor at the Smith School. Each episode brings a different startup story to life with special guests offering advice and lessons learned on topics that range from fundraising and marketing to team formation and customer acquisition.

Join the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016, at 9 a.m. as we celebrate the accomplishments of business graduates at the Xfinity Center in College Park, Md. Tickets are not required for the Smith ceremony or the main campus ceremony, which is on Tuesday, Dec. 20 at 6 p.m. Smith’s keynote speaker is Richard L. Novak ’62, operating partner at Linden Capital Partners. YongHyeok Joo, class of 2017, will sing the National Anthem. The graduate speaker is Rahul Sood and the undergraduate student speaker is Adam Greene.

More than 200 Girl Scouts came to Cookie College and learned about the business of selling cookies on Dec. 10, 2016, at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “The girls learned life skills like goal setting and money management that will help them in all aspects of life,” said Sara Tyler, program specialist at the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital. “It sets them up for life.”