The Internship Fund raised an estimated $175,000 last year to support 34 students who worked in the nonprofit and public sectors this past summer. Thanks to higher Food for Thought sales, enthusiastic support for student led fundraisers, and continued alumni contributions, the amount raised was among the highest of the past five years. Each applicant received, on average, $4,718 from the Internship Fund. Total funding per applicant, which includes employer contribution, was, on average, $9,037. With the highest level of employer contributions ever, each dollar raised was leveraged to benefit more students.

Yale SOM offers many practical learning opportunities, as highlighted by Professor Sharon Oster in the last edition of the PSE Newsletter.

Highlighted here are three student projects with local nonprofits:

Farnam Neighborhood House by Kendra Lee, SOM’08
Christian Community Action by Sarah Rose Cohen, SOM’08
Visiting Nurse Services Health Care by Imani Brown

By Sarah Rose Cohen, SOM’08

Christian Community Action is an ecumenical social service organization that expresses faithful witness through providing emergency food, housing and support to those who are poor in New Haven, encouraging their efforts to attain self-sufficiency and working to change systems that perpetuate poverty and injustice. In 2003, CCA launched PIVOT, a job skills straining program that places ad funds members of their constituency into apprenticeships at New Haven companies, to help endow them with important job skills, and to launch them into stable job tracks.

For the past few years, CCA has been considering its options for establishing an earned-income venture (EIV). Such a project would enable CCA to provide some of PIVOT’s training apprenticeships in-house, and would provide the organization with a reliable, unrestricted source of cash flow (EIVs are currently a popular tool with many types of nonprofits because of this latter reason). The concept that emerged was Spirit Movers, a moving company that would serve the New Haven community, and would train and employ PIVOT participants.

(more…)

By Kendra Lee, SOM’08

Located in New Haven, Farnam Neighborhood House is a “home away from home” for many children in the community and provides recreational and educational facilities to children, teenagers, adults and families.

As a client of the Outreach program this year, FNH was interested in developing an alumni association and asked the Outreach team for assistance in getting the program started. The goal of the project was to create a sustainable program that would benefit the alumni and the children at Farnam. Once the Outreach team confirmed that it was feasible to develop an alumni association, they worked on a strategic plan to help Farnam create, market, and implement a variety of activities to start the program. On April 26, the Outreach team successfully presented their final ideas to the Executive Director and two board members of Farnam Neighborhood House.

Each year, the Community Service Club coordinates with FNH to help clean up Camp Farnam and get it ready for summer reopening. This was the (fourth or fifth) year that members of the club and SOM staff members trekked out to Durham, CT. April 27th was a rainy day, but students and staff successfully helped to clean cabins, recreation centers, and other camp spaces, ending the day with hot coffee and a barbeque lunch.

Read more about Farnam Neighborhood House.

By Nadia Gomes, SOM’07

As Yale SOM’s new core curriculum ushers in a mandatory international experience, the stage appears set for the school to expand its name and social consciousness on an international level as well. The Global Social Enterprise Club has now mirrored this initiative successfully for the third year in a row.

This year’s spring break trip saw twenty-four enthusiastic SOM students visit Brazil for the on-site portion of their global pro bono consulting projects. Student backgrounds ranged from finance to technology to non-profit work, yet all participants shared the common goal of applying the skills gained through their MBA experience to the creation of social impact in a developing country. Brazil provided a fantastic base for this initiative, from its colorful culture to its welcoming people and potential client base. After a week of on-site project work, students had the memorable opportunity to tour the historic city of Salvador da Bahia and the Amazon location of Manaus.

(more…)

By Nikki Huvelle, SOM’07

On February 16, 2007, The Yale School of Management Education Club, The Yale Law School Project on Law and Education at Yale, and the Program for Social Enterprise co-sponsored the Yale Education Leadership Conference.

Over 130 participated in discussions of educational inequity and the role of leadership in addressing this problem. The day brought together people from nonprofits, foundations, policy institutes, school districts, charter schools, the private sector, universities, graduate programs, and Yale College to share their thoughts, knowledge and experience in this area. The highlight of the conference was the panel discussions featuring leaders in the field from around the country. Many alums from The Yale School of Management, The Yale Law School and Yale College participated on the panel discussions with other influential members of the education reform movement.

(more…)

Since 1979, the Internship Fund at the Yale School of Management has provided financial support to students who pursue summer internships in the non-profit and public sectors. As part of this successful tradition, one of the primary sources of funding is the annual Internship Fund (I.F.) Auction, which brings together students, faculty, alumni, and the New Haven community in the spirit of a great cause.

This year’s auction, held on April 12^th, was a huge success that raised over $41,000. The I.F. campaign theme for the year, ‘Treasure Island – Pirates of the Curriculum’, gave recognition to the inaugural class of the new core curriculum and was evident in the creative pirate costumes sported by students and faculty alike. Big ticket items included a flat in London for a week, a house in the Caribbean, bowling with Dean Podolny, and a poker tournament with new SOM professor, James Baron. The Internship Fund will support nearly 40 students this summer working in the public and non-profit sectors.

Read more about the Internship Fund.

On Friday, February 9^th, 2007, the Yale SOM Economic Development Club hosted its 8^th Annual Economic Development Conference. Attended by more than seventy-five students, alumni, and distinguished guests, this year’s conference, Trends in Economic Development, focused on community and international development.

Professor Sharon Oster gave an introductory address and was followed the keynote address by Namrita Kapur, SOM ’97, Vice President of Finance, Development & Planning at EcoLogic Finance. Kapur gave an inspiring talk on small and medium enterprise development in Latin America and Africa.

Preceeding Ms. Kapur’s address, the first panel discussion focused on the current state of community development and featured Brandon Birdwell, YLS’07; Nora Bloch, SOM’98, of Wainwright Bank & Trust Co.; and Malcolm Bush of the Woodstock Institute.

The second panel included remarks by David Browning, SOM’99, of Technoserve; Lara Puglielli, SOM’96, of Catholic Relief Services; and Donald Terry, YC’68, of the Inter-American Development Bank.

The Economic Development Club would like to thank all of the speakers and volunteers who made the event another great success. The conference was made possible by the generous donation of the Sidney Gross Memorial Community Economic Development Fund.

By Hannah Grannemann-Isaac, SOM’08

On March 30, the Arts and Culture Club sponsored a trip to Long Wharf Theatre, a professional non-profit theater in New Haven, that included a discussion, tour and performance.

Seven SOM students met with Joan Channick, Managing Director, and Josh Borenstein, Associate Managing Director, for a discussion of Long Wharf’s strategy and operations. Both Channick and Borenstein hold Masters Degrees in Theater Management from Yale School of Drama. Channick is on the faculty of the School of Drama, where she teaches a course on law and the arts. (She also holds a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.)

Our discussion ranged from the payment structures of actors and playwrights to the impact of programming decisions on the organization. Along with non-profit theaters nationwide, Long Wharf Theatre must work hard to attract new audiences and adapt to changing ticket buying habits. Channick and Borenstein spoke at length about the financial and operational challenges the theater faces as it tries to support new work while maintaining or growing ticket revenue. Said Sheryl Linsky, SOM’08, of the presentation, “My greatest insight came from Joan’s frank discussion of the trade-offs necessary between customer and management interests. It was fascinating to hear the strategies theatres are implementing as earned income becomes scarcer.”

(more…)

By Caroline Boyd, SOM’07

On October 13, 2006, twenty SOM students participated in the Economic Development Club’s first job trek to New York.

The day began with a visit to Carlos Linares, MEM’03, Senior Water Policy Advisor at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Mr. Linares led an engaging discussion on the role of the private sector in international development.

Students next visited Citibank Community Development, where Erin Galligan, SOM’05, and her colleagues discussed the innovations and successes that have kept Citibank at the forefront of community development banking in the United States.

The job trek concluded at the offices of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, where Henry Lanier, SOM’78, and Manatt partner Peter Olberg, BA’74, JD’77, provided an invaluable overview of the many professional opportunities for MBAs in the fields of housing and economic development, ranging from public finance to policy-making.

The event was made possible through funding from the Sidney Gross Memorial Community Economic Development Fund and the generosity of the United Nations Development Programme, Citibank Community Development, and Mannat, Phelps & Phillips.

Back to previous | Forward to next