The Foster Effect
The Foster School earns high marks for employer satisfaction, academic reputation, alumni advancement, and return on investment – but the bottom line of any business school is impact – economic, environmental, and social.
Whether students and alumni are starting minority-owned companies, working on ground-breaking change in Foster’s newest carbon offset building, cleaning up the country with zero and low-emission vehicles or working on sustainable consulting projects, from Seattle to South Africa, students are applying ingenuity to better humanity through action.
Innovation
Entrepreneurship programs at the University of Washington ranked in the top 10 for Best Entrepreneurship Programs according to a ranking produced jointly by The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine. Over the last 10 years, over 540 companies have been launched by graduate students with more than $350M in fundraising and investment. The annual Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge is just one of the many opportunities hosted by Foster’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship – solving some of the world’s most pressing environmental problems with innovations that have market potential.
Any farmer would tell you there is power in a pile of dirt, particularly what’s inside of it. The grand prize winning team at the 2023 Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge (EIC) understands this at its core. Team FREYR won…
March 31, 2023
Beyond the classroom
Make an impact outside of the classroom and engage with companies and organizations through Applied Strategy consulting projects, our Challenge for Charity (C4C) competition, or the Board Fellows Program – just a few examples of experiential learning at Foster.
Ascend
Over the past two years alone, Ascend has helped more than 500 businesses raise $60 million in capital, generate $670 million in revenue, and create and retain more than 5,500 jobs. By 2025, the program plans to create $1 billion in value through the growth of businesses owned by entrepreneurs of color— helping 400 surpass $1 million in annual revenue, 75 exceed $5 million and 25 top $10 million. Students participate through the Ascend Fellows program or take a course on impact lending to underserved communities.
Board Fellows Program
The Board Fellows Program at Foster is the largest Board Fellows Program in the country, impacting over 2.5 million people annually! Foster MBA students serve as advisory, non-voting board members of local nonprofit organizations throughout Washington State as well as California and New York.
Students develop a technology plan or data dashboards, or assist with succession planning and plan onboarding for new board members, as well as advise on strategies for fundraising, engagement, recruitment, or changes in bylaws and best practices. Students who are passionate about supporting environmental justice, human rights, equity, strong communities, health, food access, the arts, and many other causes help to affect change while gaining valuable leadership experience.
Race, Culture, and Business MBA Immersion
Before attending the immersive study tour through the American South, students participate in five pre-trip class sessions that focus on the economics of slavery, post-slavery economic exploitation, the business case for DEI and efforts to promote DEI in the workplace. The sessions also served to build community among the participants, explaining the “why” and “how” around being a better ally and an everyday activist.
The Immersion focuses on the various regional industries that affect the nation’s broader social structure and explores the way that issues of race and culture are inherently central in the American economy. Watch this video to see how the program provides students with indelible domestic experiences that prepare them to join the workforce intent on bettering humanity.
On this episode I speak with Rachel Hester, Foster MBA 2018. Rachel went to work for Nike in a finance manager role after graduating, and in a little less than a year moved into a role in sustainability Finance. Since…
November 18, 2021