Business and Society Institute Programs

With 1-4 employees, microbusinesses may be individually small, but collectively create a big impact accounting for 7 million U.S. jobs and more than $350 billion in total payroll. When successful, microbusinesses generate income for entrepreneurs and their families while at the same time build neighborhood vitality. 

Start:ME Accelerator Program

Start:ME is an intensive 3-month accelerator program that provides microentrepreneurs (those starting businesses with 1-4 employees) in traditionally underserved metro Atlanta communities business training, mentorship support, and early-stage financing needed to start and / or grow thriving businesses.

Start:ME operates in Clarkston, the East Lake-Kirkwood, and Historic South Atlanta communities. The program conducts sessions weekly each spring (January through April) working with 15-18 promising micro-entrepreneurs in each community along with year-round alumni support activities. The program is delivered by the Goizueta Business School with lead community partners Friends of Refugees, East Lake Foundation, Focused Community Strategies (FCS), and Purpose Built Schools Atlanta.

More about Start:ME

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Specialty coffee consumption in the U.S. and other parts of world is growing with consumers paying retailers more; however, the farmers that grow this sought after specialty coffee struggle to earn a sustainable living for themselves and their families. When structured transparently, specialty coffee markets can create win-win opportunities for stakeholders across the supply chain.

Direct Coffee Farmer Support 

Launched in partnership with Emory University’s Office of the Provost Social Justice and the Socially Engaged Arts Initiative, The Understanding and Enhancing Farm Stories Project connects Emory students with coffee growers through semester-long directed studies and spring break trips to Central America focused on developing and enhancing farm stories. 

The project closes equity gaps and cultivates improved economic opportunity for coffee growers by empowering them to craft and tell their own farm stories, which include written narratives that can be shared on websites or on coffee bags. 

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Public Scholarship

The Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide (SCTG) provides an online platform where coffee consumers, direct trade roasters, and other ecosystem stakeholders share information and insights about the economic treatment of coffee growers. Produced annually in both English and Spanish, the guide summarizes contract data from 115 companies to serve as an an alternative pricing benchmark to the commodity markets. 

Within the SCTG website, users can also find other research-based tools developed and maintained by Professor Peter Roberts including the Specialty Coffee Retail Price Index (SCRPI) which tracks roasted coffee prices from Blue Chip Roasters quarterly.

More about SCTG

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By bringing current business leaders and top graduate and undergraduate students from across the country together, the John R. Lewis Racial Justice Case Competition goes beyond short-term solutions and brings lasting, value-creating change. It is a student-run case competition that connects corporations and students interested in business in an effort to create innovative and actionable racial justice initiatives for those corporations.

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Leaders driving social and environmental change require a new set of business knowledge, skills, and experiences to be effective. When provided with a set of multi-disciplinary experiences rooted in systems-based thinking, next generation leaders are better prepared to solve society’s largest challenges.

Social Enterprise Student Fellows Program

We recognize undergraduate and graduate business students who demonstrate both a deep interest in social and / or environmental impact and commitment to the Institute’s core focus areas of work. Fellows have access to the necessary hands-on education, exposure and experiences to develop their capabilities as next-generation social sector leaders.

Program Benefits include career coaching and mentorship through Executives-in-Residence and faculty/staff, cohort-based events/social activities, dedicated personal development funds, and opportunity to apply for summer or post-grad internship stipend funds for work in the social and environmental impact field. 

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