Stone Circles is a 15 year-old nonprofit organization that works to sustain activists and strengthen the work for social justice through spiritual practice and a sustainable relationship with the land. stone circles was founded and is directed by Claudia Horwitz, an Echoing Green and Rockefeller Foundation Next Generation Leadership Fellow, and author of The Spiritual Activist: Practices to Transform Your Life, Your Work and Your World (PenguinCompass 2002). Two years ago stone circles created The Stone House, a retreat center, training ground and farm on 70 acres of land in Mebane, NC. Stone circles uses the House to run our their programs, rents the space to social change organizations, hosts educational workshops and youth programs on the land, grows a lot of their own food, and engages in national field-building. The budget ($560K) is based on a revenue model of foundation grants (general operating and program support), a strong individual donor program and earned revenue.

Stone circles is at an exciting point with two problems to solve:

(1) A long-term financing strategy that integrates capital, endowment, scholarship and maintenance funds
(2) Scaling up our earned revenue (facility rental, product development and more)

They are looking for MBA students interested in helping find solutions to these challenges. This can be a mentored study, or a volunteer engagement, depending on student preferences.

Contact: Ruth Tolman, CASE if interested (ruth.tolman@duke.edu)

The North Carolina STEM Community Collaborative, funded through generous support of MCNC, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and community partners, recognizes that community collaboration is the lever to ensure sustainable innovation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. It builds the capacity of local communities to create innovative and sustainable educational programs that are characterized by individualization, quality and scalability. STEM feels that we must prepare our children for the world they live in, not the one they came from. NC STEM is a new organization, incubated in 2008, bringing entrepreneurial approaches (in a non-profit setting) to education innovation in NC to ensure equitable, sustainable innovation. A large part of this work is in communications, helping build understanding of and demand for education innovation.

NC STEM is looking for 2-3 MBA Interns/Mentored Study Candidates for 2 potential projects (described below). Candidates will have great opportunity to engage on a critical challenge, impact many parts of a start-up environment, get visibility to leadership in every private & public sectors, and make a difference in education of all children.

Project 1 - NC STEM is creating a resource database of the best STEM programs, public and private, to help connect communities with experts and resources. Candidate would work closely with Exec Director and Knowledge Information Director to define the business model, technical architecture, creation/up-keep process, and community roll-out of this important tool.

Project 2 - Using social networking and online media as a fundamental building block for brand and message means more than having a fan page, especially when driving disruptive innovation. Candidate would research best practices, define repeatable processes, and enact a content/social media approach in the context of the overall communications plan of NC STEM, working closely with the Executive Director and Communications Director.

Contact: Karl Rectanus, Leader (karl@ncstem.org, 919-248-1107) and/or Stacey Yasses (syasses@mcnc.org)

Application Deadline: Thursday, November 5, 2009 @ 11:59pm EST

The Acumen Fund is excited to announce that the application process for the 2010-2011 Class of Acumen Fund Fellows is now open!

Applications will be accepted online until 11:59pm EST on Thursday, November 5, 2009. Detailed information about the program and application process, as well as the bios of current and past fellows, can be found on the Acumen Fund website. To apply, or to send more information to others you know who might be interested, please click here.

The Acumen Fund is looking for dedicated individuals with the practical skills, the creativity, the empathy and the leadership potential to affect change by leveraging market-based solutions to create social impact. Acumen Fund Fellows are drawn from a pool of talented, passionate people from all geographies, sectors, backgrounds and ethnicities.

Since graduating its first class of Fellows in 2007, the Fellows Program has continued to grow and expand, using the experiences of each class to continue building a unique training curriculum specifically focused on leadership and social enterprises. Fellows Alumni have called the program a life-changing experience, and one that allowed them to build critical business skills and a better understanding of the challenges involved in serving low-income consumers around the world.
 
The Acumen Fund is also excited to welcome the new Class of 2009-2010 Fellows to New York. Over the coming weeks the 2010 Fellows will be training and actively preparing to support Acumen Fund investments. The Fellows have committed to sharing their experiences both from New York and on the ground, so expect to see frequent posts from them on the Acumen Fund blog.

Deadline: Attend Info session as advertised, register for class for Term 2
Who: Open SYs MBAs only

Details: The Strategic Planning Practicum offers an opportunity to perform a strategic plan for a midsize company in the area ($10million to $500 million annual sales). Opportunity to join the team of students that will consult to the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD) as part of Prof. Bill Sax's Strategic Planning Practicum course. ISD director Chris Carmody is seeking a team of Duke MBAs to help them develop a strategy to scale up the Green Plus certification program. More detail on Green Plus project in the overview attached.

Compensation: Course Credit
Contact: Professor Bill Sax (bas4@duke.edu)

Note: there are also 2 projects currently available in the Strategic Planning Practicum focused on Healthcare. Contact Professor Bill Sax for more information about the project details.

Professor Joel Huber is looking for a few outstanding students to fill a Practicum project that may be of special interested to those interested in education, and/or scaling social impact. The practicum team would work with the National Humanities Center to look at expanding their education programs. The National Humanities Center has very successful web based programs to help high school teachers use original historical materials in their classes. The Center is seeking a team to formulate a strategy to scale that program nationally. Read more details about the project here.

The practicum course runs through terms 2 and 3 and provides credit for two 3 credit courses. Teams in the past indicate that the time commitment for the Practicum is comparable to a two regular Fuqua courses, but, of course, scheduling is far more flexible. This practicum involves a team of five students, with priority given to Fuqua MBA's.

More detail about the practicum program: http://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~jch8/marketing490/

Interested students should contact: Prof. Huber (Joel.huber@duke.edu) or Barmak Modrek (Barmak.Modrek@fuqua.duke.edu)