Wow, what a privilege. For the past 9 months that I’ve served as president, I’ve been humbled and inspired by the brains and brawns of our Darden Net Impact community. We are a growing and thriving community – I would like to share with you a little about how we have grown and what we have accomplished so far.
Our community has shown the smarts to recognize that the business equation is changing. They are exploring trends in sustainability, social enterprise, international development (and many more fields) with a curiosity that is not blinded by altruism, but rather fueled by confidence that their Darden MBA is preparing them to drive change and make things better for people, business and the environment.
And our community has shown the strength to pursue jobs and companies they are passionate about. They proactively build their own unique networks, find their niche, strike out their own path. Whether this is addressing sustainability in their operations role in a traditional profit-driven firm, starting their own company that tackles a social issue, or everything in between, our members find a way to nurture their commitment to creating change.
This fall, Darden Net Impact demonstrated our collective strength and the power of our community. Check out what we’ve done in just the past 5 months of Fall 2010….
Here are some of the NEW initiatives we launched this fall:
- Created Net Impact Blog
- Launched Net Impact Career Google site
- Started weekly Net Impact “digest” email to replace ad hoc emails
- Organized a Net Impact Job Trek to DC in December and collaborated with the GMO trek
- Started a Darden Net Impact Alumni Linked In Group
- Combined forces with the Energy Club to make our annual event Feb 2 bigger and better than ever
- Connected with undergrad groups at UVA, namely SEED (student entrepreneurs for economic development) and the Sustainability Council
- Compiled Net Impact-related Darden Business Projects for second years
- Created a google doc to compile Net Impact-related conferences, case competition, business plan competitions and shared with other Net Impact chapters at other schools
- Formed, for the first time, a Net Impact Building Goodness in April (BGiA) team formed
- Ran the Darden Farmers Market every week this fall
- Doubled attendance at national Net Impact conference in Ann Arbor, MI
Events we held this fall: - Discussions and presentations with:
- Alan Hinchman, GE water
- Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps Fellow & Will Teichmann, Sustainability Consultant for Target and Darden alum
- Kirk Myers, CSR Manager at REI
- Dave Miller, President of Dupont’s Electronics & Communications division
- Craig Redmond, VP at Mercy Corps
- Stuart Yasgur, Managing Director at Ashoka
- Pat Nicklin, Managing Director at Share our Strength and Darden alum
- Greg Johnson, Senior VP, Bank of America
- Elizabeth Mercer of Acumen Fund
- Faculty Seminar Series with:
- Mike Lenox, Associate Dean & Director of the Batten Institute
- Peter Rodriuguez, Director of the Center for Global Initiatives at Darden
- Greg Fairchild, Executive Director of Darden’s Taylor Murphy Center
- Held panel on “How to get an internship in CSR”
- FY Focus Group on Darden’s sustainability curriculum
- Local food cooking challenge & social event with the Wine & Cuisine Club
- Prep session for the national Net Impact Conference
- Fiscal Debt event with the Committee for Economic Development and the Business & Public Policy club
- Networking Prep session for First Years
- Happy Hour/Networking event with the Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital Club, Energy club, and Business & Public Policy club
- Net Impact Job Trek to DC visiting: US Chamber of Commerce’s President of International Development, Technoserve, Share Our Strength, Community Wealth Ventures, Marriott, Chemonics, Whole Foods, IBM Consulting, Mars, National Park Service, Booz Allen Hamilton, Frontier Strategy Group, & Serco Consulting.
