PTMBAA Board Opportunities

Are you interested in a student leadership role where you can play a critical role in developing and fostering ideas in community service and professional development for the Smith Community?

If so, we encourage you to please apply for this awesome opportunity!

Apply Now
Time is running out to get a ticket to Monte Carlo!

If you haven't already, set yourself up for success and reserve your  Monte Carlo 
tickets today.

Once you do, you'll be ready for an epic  evening of dancing, delicious food and drinks, and of course socializing with your colleagues, alumni, and faculty staff. 

The theme is the Roaring 20's, so if you like dressing up, think of Gatsby in the Ritz and go all out. 

Unique Case Competition: Leadership Under Fire


On behalf of the Professional Communications Club and the Net Impact Club in the full-time MBA program, all part-time MBA students are invited to "Leadership Under Fire." This event is a unique case competition, focused on crisis communication. 

Date:  Friday, February 24, 2017
Location: Van Munching Hall, College Park, MD
Schedule:  12:30pm-4:30pm -- Event Introduction & Competition
                  4:30pm-6:00pm -- Awards & Reception

Students who participate will organize into teams of three and be given a business case, where they will play the roles of a senior management team attempting to lead their company through a major corporate crisis. When you receive the case, you will have three days to draft a press release responding to the crisis. Throughout the three days in between receiving the case and presenting, you will receive random email "updates" on the fluid situation. 

At the end of the three days, your "presentation" will actually be a press conference, and will involve a two-minute opening statement, followed by ~13 minutes of questions from a panel of actual DC-area journalists. This panel will consist of representatives from organizations including NBC News, ABC-7, CBS Radio, and WTOP Radio, among others, and will ask questions as they would a real company going through a similar issue (i.e. they will push you -- hard). You will then receive five minutes of feedback from a separate panel of judges.

A maximum of 18 teams will be accommodated, first come, first serve. The participating teams will be split in half, with nine teams presenting in each of two different rooms. Each room's judging panel will select a winning team, which will receive a $900 cash prize.

If you are interested in forming a team to participate, REGISTER yourself and your two teammates (only one person per team needs to submit).

The schedule for the entire competition will be as follows (all events will take place in Van Munching Hall on the College Park campus):
  • Thursday, 2/16, 12:00pm-1:00pm: PR Training Session
  • Tuesday, 2/21, 1:00pm-2:00pm: Kickoff & Case Release
  • Friday, 2/24, 10:00am: Press Release Submission Deadline
  • Friday, 2/24, 12:30pm-4:30pm: Competition!
We understand that many of you work full-time and may not be able to make it to the weekday events. If that's the case, we will email you all the cases at the same time as the kickoff event on  Tuesday, 2/21. But, of course you will need to be there in person to present on 2/24.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Kevin Hannigan.

This is one of the most popular events in our program, and we would love to offer the opportunity to MBA students across all of Maryland's programs.


Let's Help Chile Recover

Chile needs our help! This summer Chile faced the worst forest fires catastrophe in history. The fires have devastated almost 1.5 million acres of land, including houses, national parks and farms (that's more than the entire territory of Delaware!)

Regarding the information provided by government officials: 7,370 people have been directly affected and 1,624 houses have been completely destroyed.

As part of the Robert H. Smith School of Business community we do not want to be careless about this emergency affecting Chile. We believe that every help is needed; not only because of our partners, alumni and current students from Chile but also because we are characterized by a solidarity spirit.

Please join this campaign to reactivate smallholders' businesses in the O'Higgins Region. Most of these people have not only lost their homes but also their crops, animals, forests, greenhouses, hives, etc. We are partnering with a small association called  'ProSexta AG', a group of young leaders dedicated to promote the development of the agricultural sector in the O'Higgins Region (or commonly known as Sixth Region).



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