Mihaylo Turns 10, USC Marshall Interviews, and More – Los Angeles News
It’s been a busy week, but we’ve caught up with a few of the Los Angeles business school stories you need to know.
USC Marshall Professor on the Economics of Migrant Populations – USC Marshall News & Events
USC Marshall Professor of Finance and Business Economics Sandra Rozo recently gathered a group of scholars for a session on an issue with global resonance—the refugee crisis.
Rozo organized the ‘Conference on the Impacts of Refugees in Hosting Economies’ in order to address the effects of forced migration upon the social, economic and political climates in various countries.
The transformation of certain Turkish communities that experienced an influx of Syrian refugees was just one of the positive impacts that Rozo and her colleagues presented. In a collaboration with fellow economics professors, Rozo explored how the resettlement of over 3 million Syrian refugees resulted in measurable change in the nation’s economy.
The oil and gas industries, for example, experienced growth as a result of increased usage. A notable increase in new business formation also arose from the migration, as Syrians new to the country saw opportunity in partnering with Turkish entrepreneurs. The researchers discovered that there was a marked positive effect on the construction, hotel and restaurant industries after the migration.
Rozo points that the positive outcomes of migration must be explored along with the sometimes enormous negatives. “The media tend to focus on the negative but the effects of displaced populations cannot be generalized in one way or another. We’re asking what the impacts are so we can ameliorate the negative and amplify the positive.”
Keynote speaker George Borjas of Harvard’s Kennedy School opened the conference, and Paolo Verme of the World Bank delivered the closing address.
You can read more on the research here.
Mihaylo College’s Landmark Home Turns Ten – Mihaylo News
As the largest accredited business school on the West Coast of the U.S., Mihaylo Business School at Cal State Fullerton needed a building that would make a statement. The university celebrates 10 years since the completion of this landmark structure for the Mihaylo College with alumni, donors, and staff on September 28, 2018.
Steven G. Mihaylo Hall, built in ’08 / Photo via business.fullerton.edu
In 2008, the school hired internationally celebrated firm HOK to design the state-of-the-art Steven G. Mihaylo Hall. The 195,000 square-feet, $89 million building contains 10,000 students and hundreds of faculty.
The shift in the U.S. economy has been vast since the late ’00s, and the growth of Mihaylo’s programs has followed a similar trajectory.
With sustainable design elements throughout the building that minimize environmental impact, Mihaylo Hall set a high standard for future building projects across campus. The Women’s Leadership Program, Mihaylo Career Services, and a state-of-the-art trading lab are just a few of the developments that grew forth after the building’s completion. Read more about the building and its decade of success here.
USC Marshall Welcomes 9 New Faculty – MetroMBA
MetroMBA recently spoke with several of the newest members of the USC Marshall faculty, joining the business school for 2018-19.
David Bacci, a new lecturer in the Department of Business Communication, says:
“Simply stated, my teaching philosophy is to train to students to be the types of great employees I would hire. I spent 10+ years in various industries and in management. In my experience, employers will teach their employees the technical skills required to do their jobs. But employers will not teach employees how to communicate; how to show up each day; how to engage with their boss and coworkers; and how to use their soft skills to add organizational value—employers simply expect people to have these skills already developed. Given this gap, I see my role as a professor to teach students how to use their communication skills to distinguish themselves as ‘great’ amongst a sea of ‘good.’”
You can read more from our recent interviews here.
Berkeley Haas Student App Helps Empower Syrian Asylum-Seekers
Students at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley have found a unique and important way to potentially help the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis through a new student-built crowd-source platform.
Founded by Sarrah Nomanbhoy, MBA ’18, who’d previously launched a seed accelerator for new Sri Lankan startups, MarHub came to life with the help of a $5,000 Dean’s Seed Fund grant, a $5,000 Hansoo Lee Fellowship, and a $12,500 Jack Larson Scholarship. Nomanbhoy’s idea emerged from last year’s Hult Prize Challenge on Refugees.
Along with significant contributions from co-founders Jerry Philip, EWMBA ’19; Peter Wasserman, MBA/MPH 18; and Srinivas Vaidyanathan, EWMBA 18, MarHub addresses a common concern among refugees who struggle to navigate confusing and often conflicting sources of information once they reach a border.
Nomanbhoy explained in a recent interview, “Information from humanitarian agencies [was] too general, and social media was filled with unverified rumors. About 70 percent of asylum seekers receive negative decisions after this first set of interviews, and many are now in limbo pending the outcome of the appeal process.”
“The hard part psychologically is not knowing how long the wait is going to be. Time moves very slowly when you’re waiting in a queue, but imagine not knowing whether you’ll be stuck for two months or two years,” Philip added
Based on interviews at the Ritsona and Chios refugee camps in Athens, Greece, the MarHub platform evolved into a Facebook messenger-enabled chatbot that allows refugees to “view, evaluate, and comment on information from humanitarian agencies, volunteers on the ground, and other asylum seekers.” As MarHub accumulates users, “the data collected will enable more accurate, timely responses.”
But Chatbots are merely the beginning of Nomanbhoy’s plans for MarHub. Her long-term goal is to use data to “improve migration management” full stop. The product is expected to begin its initial pilot service with Greece’s RefuComm this fall, followed by more rounds of seed funding.
