Penn State University’s Smeal College of Business announced last week that its chapter of the Net Impact MBA student organization has earned Gold status from the Net Impact Network. Only 24% of the 300 hundred chapters worldwide hold this distinction.
Net Impact is a nonprofit organization comprising students and professionals with a commitment to creating positive social and environmental change in the workplace and the larger community. Gold and silver standings are based on a set of rigorous criteria that include a chapter’s activities, programming, and membership reach.
During the 2012-2013 academic year, Penn State’s MBA Net Impact chapter organized panel discussions on topics like corporate sustainability and microfinance, engaging leaders from companies that included Siemens and The Hershey Company. Members also got a behind-the-scenes look at Penn State’s recycling and composting program and traveled to Baltimore to attend the National Net Impact conference.
The MBA student group plans to bring this momentum into the next academic year. Planned events include a tour of Happy Valley Vineyard and Winery, a business with a commitment to energy-efficiency and sustainability, as well as a trip to New Jersey to learn how waste can be “upcycled” into innovative products at the TerraCycle lab. Members will also have a bit farther to attend the next national conference, which is being held in San Jose, California–the heart of Silicon Valley–in October 2013.
Beyond such experiential learning opportunities, MBA students involved in Net Impact have the opportunity to engage in discussions about applying their mission to traditional business domains, topics that include socially responsible investing, sustainable supply chains, corporate citizenship, social marketing, green building and community economic development. This active organization and the recognition it’s received reflect the value of involvement in student groups as a supplement to classroom learning in an MBA program.
