An important way we foster a strong social-impact-oriented community at MIT Sloan is through the Sloan Social Impact Fellowship (SSIF). SSIF is a partnership between Net Impact, school administration and staff, and the wider student body. The fellowship was created to provide funding to MIT Sloan MBA students so that they may pursue social impact and sustainability oriented internships during the summer after their first year. The fellowship enables students to explore their passions for social impact and also allows social enterprise, government and non-profit organizations to host MBA interns that they might not be able to afford otherwise.

Net Impact’s SSIF committee manages two key tasks: oversight of the fellowship and fundraising. Fellowship oversight consists of raising awareness within the Sloan community about the program in order to recruit potential applicants, helping to coordinate the application and review process, and working with a committee of students, staff, and administration to select fellows. Fundraising primarily consists of administering the Give-a-Day campaign, in which Sloan students are asked to pledge one day’s worth of their summer salary to the fund; these funds are ultimately allocated to the fellows.

This year, SSIF achieved new levels of success. A competitive pool of nearly 20 students received the fellowship and will be pursing internships at organizations such as: World Economic Forum, Education Pioneers, Dalberg and Open Capital Advisors. On the fundraising side, the Give-a-Day campaign saw more success than ever before, garnering more than 35% participation from the first year MBA class, up from 21% last year. Over the next year, SSIF plans to conduct strategic visioning, raise awareness about the fellowship, expand the Give-a-Day fundraising participation rate, and build an even larger committee with new leadership from the class of 2014.

Over the past year, Net Impact has developed a partnership with BUILD. In their words, BUILD’s mission is “to use entrepreneurship to excite and propel disengaged, low-income students through high school to college success.”

Over the past year, MIT Net Impact hosted three events with BUILD designed to inform and inspire the students. The first was a Pitch Skills Workshop where the BUILD students came to the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and learned from Net Impact members how to effectively talk about and pitch their business ideas. The second, was an Idea Storm where project teams spend time generating new ideas for how to refine and improve their businesses. The last was an entrepreneurial skills workshop where different students on product teams attended workshops to help them take their business to the next level. For example, the project CEO learned about making powerpoint presentations, while the VP of product development learned about designing products.

The partnership with BUILD has been a rich experience for Net Impact members and students alike. We’re looking forward to continuing the partnership!

A record-breaking 100 Sloanies & SOs participated in OneSloan Service Day on October 21. They spread out across the metro Boston area to share their time and lend a hand at five fantastic nonprofit organizations: The Esplanade Association, Cradles to Crayons, The Greater Boston Food Bank, Fenway Public High School and Haley House.

Many Sloan students and clubs were involved in making this event a success. Net Impact, SWIM and the Senate co-sponsored the event. Lunch was provided on campus by Sloan Fellow Sal Lupoli’s well-loved establishment Sal’s Pizza. Organizers Dante Cassanego, Renu Ravilla and Ali Lynch won a Peer Recognition Award for their efforts in making this the best-attended Service Day in Sloan history.

We look forward to another fabulous Service Day next year!