Dear Céline,
Hi.
It is with great pleasure that I would like to inform you and your readers that the new Sustainable Entrepreneurship MBA (SEMBA) at the University of Vermont welcomed its first cohort three weeks ago. The first cohort consists of 20 students, 50% female, 15% international students, all with varied and rich backgrounds and more than 200 years of experience among them.
SEMBA is a one year, AACSB-accredited program focusing on the development of the next generation of leaders who will build, disrupt, innovate and reinvent sustainable enterprises in a world that demands it (www.uvm.edu/business/mba). Our program's curriculum has been redesigned from the bottom-up making sustainability the core of every course we teach. The one year program consists of 9 months of classroom learning (August to April) and 3 months of a practicum project (May to July). The practicum project is a true hands-on, meaningful experiential project with companies and entrepreneurs in the United States and around the world (students can choose projects in China, Colombia, India, Mexico, and Nigeria, among others). The deliverable of this practicum is a business/action plan for an existing firm or new venture to offer a sustainable product or service using disruptive technologies. Students will pitch their business plan to a panel of Bankers, Chief Sustainability Officers, and Venture Capital Fund Managers. A successful pitch is part of the graduation requirement. Another curricular activity includes having the students spend the year helping a mission-based organization deliver its services more effectively.
SEMBA's curriculum is highly innovative – consisting of the full MBA toolkit but focused 100% on sustainable entrepreneurship – and is delivered by a world-class, multi-disciplinary Faculty from the Business School, the School of Environment and Natural Resources, the department of Community Development and Applied Economics and The Vermont Law School. This world-class faculty is augmented by day-long visits every two weeks (15 in all) from CEOs and entrepreneurs from successful sustainable enterprises. These executive/entrepreneurs in residence share their personal experiences, hold in-class discussion of cases and readings, and present challenges and opportunities in a variety of economic sectors. The SEMBA Faculty is also augmented by a Board of Advisors (high level executives and entrepreneurs from sustainable enterprises) that mentors students throughout the year.
We are planning our second cohort, start date August 2015, to consist of 35 highly qualified participants. We are accepting applications now and the application deadline is February 15, 2015. We have several very generous merit scholarships available.
Thank you in advance Céline for including this note in Fall 2014 ONE Newsletter.
Please let me know if you need a longer, more detailed description or if you have any questions.
All the best,
Willy
William Cats-Baril, PhD
Associate Professor and Director, MBA Program
School of Business
University of Vermont
www.uvm.edu/business/mba