Rollins College wins GMAC TeamMBA Award
Business students honored for service to community
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – June 13, 2014 – For service projects including a schoolwide breast cancer awareness day and a community wide holiday drive, the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College was named winner of the Graduate Management Admission Council’s 2014 TeamMBA Award. The award, presented today at GMAC’s Annual Conference in Baltimore, honors graduate management students “in the business of giving back.”
“With service activities throughout the year, some of which involve the entire school, the Crummer School shows breadth, depth and consistency of the commitment to serving others,” said GMAC president and CEO Sangeet Chowfla, who presented the award. “GMAC is pleased to recognize Rollins for the array of causes the students support, both locally and nationally.”
One of 14 graduate business schools worldwide nominated for the seventh annual award, Rollins is the first repeat TeamMBA winner, having also won in 2011.
Community service is part of a required ethics course at the Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business. It is also incorporated into a leadership development road map for full-time MBA students seeking leadership recognition by providing opportunities for students to serve others throughout the year. Rollins students organized or participated in events supporting a variety of causes, from breast cancer and vision impairment to Second Harvest, a local hunger organization.
A school-wide Pink Out, held for the first time in October, was inspired by Erin Painter-Pianko, a Rollins alumna and staff member who passed away in 2011 after battling breast cancer. Through Pink Out fund-raisers and participation in the Race for the Cure, Rollins students raised more than $1,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
An annual toy drive, started by a Rollins MBA student in 2010, was expanded to personal items in December. More than 400 toys and items were collected and distributed to the Winter Park Day Nursery, the Eatonville Boys & Girls Club, and the Beta Center, which provides shelter and education to pregnant and parenting teens.
“A healthy community is essential for thriving businesses, and thriving businesses are essential for a healthy community,” said Susan Bach, executive director of the Center for Leadership Development at the Crummer School. Through service learning and community engagement, Rollins College MBA students learn not only to work on effective teams but also how important it is to engage with the community and give back, she said.
The TeamMBA program encourages graduate business students worldwide to make a difference in their communities. TeamMBA and the TeamMBA Award are supported by the GMAC Management Education for Tomorrow Fund, which invests in strategic philanthropic initiatives that benefit business and management education globally.
For more information, contact Tracey Briggs at tbriggs@gmac.com 703-668-9726 or Joanna Camburn at jcamburn@rollins.edu 407-646-2456
About GMAC and the GMAC MET Fund
The Graduate Management Admission Council (gmac.com) is a nonprofit education organization of leading graduate business schools and owner of the Graduate Management Admission Test® (GMAT®), used by more than 6,100 graduate business and management programs worldwide -- along with other products designed to help students find, connect and apply and gain admittance to business and management programs around the world. GMAC is based in Reston, Va., and has regional offices in London, New Delhi and Hong Kong. The GMAT exam -- the only standardized test designed expressly for graduate business and management programs worldwide -- is continuously available at 600 test centers in 113 countries. More information about the GMAT exam is available at mba.com. For more information about GMAC, please visit gmac.com/newscenter.