News & Events

Board Fellows Program Welcomes 2022 Cohort

Jan 12, 2022
MBA students partner with local nonprofits for year-long service as Board Fellows

By Lacie Blankenship

The 2022 Owen Board Fellows program kicked off in early January when 33 first-year MBA students began their fellowship year. Board Fellows, one of the many opportunities for social impact at Vanderbilt Business, is a program rooted in partnership with the Turner Family Center for Social Ventures (TFC) and 100% Owen, the Vanderbilt Business community service and philanthropy club.

The Owen Board Fellows program matches local nonprofits with MBA students to serve as non-voting board members for a year, allowing the students to engage meaningfully with the community and strengthen leadership skills. 

“Owen Board Fellows connects MBA students with opportunities for community leadership and allows them to learn about nonprofit governance and leadership by giving them hands-on experience,” says Kathleen Fuchs Hritz, Assistant Director, TFC, and staff lead for the program.

Hritz praises Owen’s nonprofit partners for their integral involvement with Board Fellows. This year, 31 nonprofits (listed below) are serving as Owen Board Fellow Partners for the cohort running from January 2022 to December 2022. 

Students are selected as Board Fellows based on an application and interview process that concludes in November with matches announced in December of their first year. Selected Board Fellows for the current cohort were invited to an in-person networking event in December where they had the opportunity to meet other participants and leaders from the nonprofit partners.

“Students come to business school to grow their abilities as business leaders; Board Fellows is an opportunity for them to have a commensurate experience with nonprofit and community leadership,” says Hritz. “This program allows students to transition from direct service/volunteerism to board service, leveraging their business skills at a strategic level for nonprofits.”

Owen Board Fellows Partners 2022
AbleVoices
Book’em
Community Resource Center
End Slavery Tennessee
Fifty Forward
Girl Scouts of Middle Tennessee
Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee
Harpeth Conservancy
Heimerdinger Foundation
HopeKids Middle Tennessee 
Interfaith Dental
Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society – Tennessee & Alabama
Make-A-Wish of Middle Tennessee
Martha O’Bryan Center
Nashville Ballet
Nashville Symphony
Nurture the Next
Operation Stand Down Tennessee
PENCIL
Retrieving Independence
Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee
Sexual Assault Center
Special Olympics Tennessee
Springboard Landings
The F.I.N.D. Design
Tennessee Youth Symphony
Urban Green Lab
Vanderbilt Credit Union
Women in Technology in Tennessee (WiTT)
YWCA of Middle Tennessee

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