School Notes: School of Management
May/June 2018

MBA scholarships for African students

Speaking at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya, on March 15, Yale University president Peter Salovey announced an expanded opportunity for emerging leaders in Africa to pursue an MBA education at Yale. The Yale School of Management will dedicate two scholarships in its full-time MBA program for African students who intend to return to Africa and contribute to economic growth in their nations and communities.

The Yale-Africa Impact Scholarships will be awarded based on merit to the candidates most likely to advance Yale SOM’s mission to educate leaders for business and society. The scholarships will provide funding for at least half of the tuition for the full-time MBA program. Within two years of graduation from Yale, Impact Scholars are expected to return to Africa to work for at least two years in a professional role that contributes to the continent’s development. These new scholarships will be in addition to Yale SOM’s existing partnership with the Harambe Entrepreneurship Alliance, which provides a full-tuition scholarship to one outstanding African entrepreneur.

New student-led conferences

Yale SOM students launched a new conference in February dedicated to the rapidly growing industry of marijuana. A diverse mix of investors, researchers, and activists filled Evans Hall for sessions on marketing, regulation, and other aspects of the legal cannabis industry. With the Organizing the Business of Legal Cannabis Conference, Yale SOM became the first US business school to host a conference dedicated to the legalized business of recreational marijuana.

But cannabis was just one of several timely topics addressed in new conferences at Yale SOM this year. As students increasingly seek to address the critical issues impacting business and society, conferences are growing at a fast rate. Five years ago, Yale SOM hosted five full-scale student-led conferences; this year, the school is home to 12. Students say that conferences let them hone their organizational and networking skills, while diving deeply into subjects they care about passionately.