@work on the economy:

 

UNC Students at Work Solving NC Community Challenges

 

Three undeniable facts:

• North Carolina communities have big and growing social and economic needs.
• North Carolina needs new kinds of jobs to replace those that are disappearing.
• Public universities have large numbers of earnest, energetic students with all kinds of knowledge and a desire to give back.

But is there any way to combine those facts into something that will be useful to the state? UNC thinks so. On September 27 at NC A&T State University in Greensboro, student teams will come together from every UNC campus to propose business solutions to big challenges their communities have identified. The UNC Social Entrepreneurship Conference will feature Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mohammad Yunus discussing his concept of “social business” – which seek to create revenue-generating businesses that solve community problems – and students proposing very specific solutions.

 

Student teams are working with faculty this spring to develop ideas. They will receive mentoring support from TiE, an entrepreneurial support group, in developing their ideas. Two teams from each campus will be selected to come to the conference to present their business plans to a blue-ribbon panel of judges. Judges will pick winners and winners will get both seed money and in-kind support from investors to turn their business ideas into reality.

 

Professor Yunus believes that the “social business” can play an important role in solving the world’s problems going forward. It has some of the key elements of a traditional for-profit business (most importantly an identified consistent revenue stream, to ensure sustainability over time) as well as some of the key elements of a nonprofit approach (clearly responsive to an identified social challenge facing the community). In contrast to a traditional for profit business, though, in a social business profits are reinvested in the company itself, making it possible for the enterprise to sustain itself over time, solve a greater portion of the problem, and hire more people.

 

Mohammad Bhuyian, head of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Fayetteville State University, will lead the conference, with support from UNC General Administration and leadership on each of the seventeen UNC campuses.  

 

On the day of the conference, attendees will hear a keynote address from Professor Yunus, then blue ribbon panels of judges will review all the business plans, culminating in winners by the afternoon. For more information about the conference and registration, please go to the conference website: http://www.northcarolina.edu/social_business_microcredit/index.htm

@work in the community:

 

Eleven UNC Schools named to President's Higher Education Honor Roll

 

For the second time in three years, a UNC school has won the highest national award for community service. North Carolina State University has been awarded the 2012 President’s Higher Education Community Service Award for General Service, one of five institutions recognized nationally for making a meaningful impact on their larger communities: among other elements of the award, the judges noted that 21,000 NC State students gave more than 330,000 hours of community service. 

 

NC State joins UNC-Chapel Hill, which won the award in 2010. Ten other UNC schools made this year’s “Honor Roll.”

 

The Honor Roll spotlights colleges and universities that engage in an active community involvement that produces both meaningful and marked outcomes.  In awarding NC State the highest honor, judges noted NCSU’s innovation, the inclusion of service-learning opportunities as well as the duration of the commitment to the community.  The community service activities from NC State students went well beyond the physical boundaries of its campus, and brought them into contact with more than 240,000 youth.  The programs range from mentoring military children on life skills and career training to over 10,500 hours of tutoring for an early literacy initiative serving local elementary.  Chancellor Randy Woodson said of this award, “Service is part of NC State’s DNA.”  

 

The service includes high profile programs like the annual Krispy Kreme Challenge, which benefits the N.C. Children’s Hospital and less visible events like anti-hunger foodpacking marathons and efforts to improve Third World sanitation and living conditions.

 

A total of 513 colleges and universities were named to the Honor Roll.  North Carolina Central was a finalist as a Presidential nominee.  Elizabeth City State University was one of only four Honor Roll members “With Distinction."  Eight additional UNC campuses were named to the Honor Roll: East Carolina; Fayetteville State; UNC Chapel Hill; University of North Carolina at Charlotte; UNC Greensboro; UNC Pembroke; UNC Wilmington; and Western Carolina. 

 

The Honor Roll was started in 2006.  Its mission is to inspire a life-long commitment to civic engagement by recognizing organizations that promote and achieve positive result within their community. 

@work in the world:

 

Focusing on People... with the help of Technology

 

 

 

For most students, spring break is time off from study and work. But for some students at UNC Charlotte, this spring break is an opportunity to help others learn computer skills, leadership skills and how to have fun with technology. In March, twelve undergraduate students and Ph.D. students from UNC’s College of Computing and Informatics traveled to Haiti to volunteer and share expertise with primary and secondary students as wells as school teachers in Haiti.  

 

This spring break, UNCC students worked alongside local community as well as international community groups. The participants are part of Students & Technology in Academia, Research & Service (STARS) Leadership Corps.  THE STARS program builds on the work of “High Hopes Haiti” (HHH), http://www.highhopesforhaiti.org/   a Charlotte-based non-profit, and Mothering Across Continents^SM (MAC) http://www.motheringacrosscontinents.org/High_Hopes_Haiti.html as well as the non-profit Hands for Haiti.

 

What did the students learn? According to Dr. Tiffany Barnes, Associate Professor of Computer Science, UNC Charlotte, the trip’s main goal was a win-win: “to enhance learning in Haitian schools through fun laptop games that promote inquiry-based learning while enabling STARS college students to apply their computing skills for social good.” 

 

HHH was selected by the Waveplace Foundation as a partner to provide XO laptops, training and educational courseware to three schools in northern, rural Haiti, within 90 minutes of the city of Cap Haitien. The XO laptops have received widespread recognition through the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) global education project http://one.laptop.org/. 

 

The spring break work may pay off for UNCC and the state in other ways too. “One reason that many U.S. students do not pursue computing-based college majors is the perception that computing careers focus solely on technology not people,” said Dr. Teresa Dahlberg, Professor and Associate Dean of the UNC Charlotte College of Computing and Informatics: “The STARS Leadership Corps challenges students to find innovative ways of leveraging technology to solve important social and global problems.” 

 

Now that they are back in the U.S., trip participants are making recommendations for future computing enhancements to the overall infrastructure of Haiti, for how to increase access to internet and software. 

 

If they can make those suggestions forward and share what they have learned with fellow students and others in the community, a whole new “spring” tradition might just “break” out.

Fact of the Month

 

UNC Recruits…and Retains STEM Graduates

 

A 2011 study of UNC graduates in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) disciplines found that UNC campuses served in some ways to attract and retain these important students. Ten years after graduation, 32.2% of students who came to our schools from foreign countries were still living in North Carolina. About 26.8% of students who came to our schools from other American states were still living in North Carolina ten years after graduation. Among STEM graduates originating in North Carolina, 74.5% were still here ten years later.

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