UF Colleges With a Conscience

Coordinated teams of students conduct eight-week business planning projects for university, local, and state clients. Projects might consist of primary or secondary market research, competitor analysis, marketing plan formation, or financial forecasting. Contact Ted Astleford at and visit www.ufgatornest.com for more information.

Ted Astleford offers one-hour consulting sessions to local startups. Please contact to discuss in detail.

The Innovative Social Impact Initiative at CEI challenges students to develop the skills and strategies of successful business leaders, while inspiring them to become engaged citizens of our increasingly global community. Students learn to become social entrepreneurs, that is, to think innovatively about social problems and empower themselves to create change, and use business strategies to solve social, ecological and economic problems around the world. Social entrepreneurs have been around for some time–though we have only recently started calling them "social entrepreneurs." Some examples of the diversity of these innovators, and of their organizations and missions, include Gandhi (Indian National Conference), Martin Luther King (Southern Christian Leadership Coalition), Muhammad Yunus (Grameen Bank), Wendy Kopp (Teach for America), Matt and Jessica Flannery (Kiva), and Ben Cohen & Jerry Greenfield (Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream).

CEI launched this program in 2005, and students have worked as consultants with many nonprofits, with over 200 Social Entrepreneurship students (both graduate and undergraduate) having spent more than 4,000 hours working to help organizations and agencies (more than 30) in the local community be more innovative and sustainable. An Honors section has been added, totaling an additional 600+ hours of service contributed locally.

Summer Program for High School Students

Since summer 2007, when the pilot Summer Program launched, about 40 participants have completed more than 175 hours of community service. The students also take two courses (Exploring Entrepreneurship and Social Problems & Solutions), and participate in activities and events to learn about leadership, entrepreneurship, and social entrepreneurship–all while living, learning, eating, sleeping, and playing on UF's campus for six weeks. In summer 2008, CEI also partnered with the Ashoka Foundation & the National Education Association, as YELC hosted the Lorax Challenge Sustainability Bootcamp Weekend. Attendance at the Bootcamp was the prize for winners of the Lorax Challenge, a national competition. More than 500 teams entered proposals to solve environmental problems, and the best five teams were selected to participate in the Bootcamp weekend at UF.

SIFE is nationally partnered with Campbell's soup in a competition called Stamp Out Hunger. It is a two-part competition that consists of conducting a food drive and completing a project that demonstrates: "How did the SIFE team provide the low-income population with the education and skills training needed to succeed in a dynamic, competitive global economy?".

In fall 2007, UF SIFE spearheaded a food drive that engaged student organizations from the Warrington College of Business Administration, and university-wide, which collected nearly 1,500 cans for the Bread of the Mighty Food Bank.

The second phase has a new focus: informing low-income individuals and families about resources, training, and business expertise available to them (e.g., free tax services, seminars, etc.) The information will be compiled in a guide that will be distributed throughout Gainesville via community centers, shelters, and public bulletins.

Read the Independent Florida Alligator article (November 13, 2007.)

The Day of Difference is a unique program that teaches financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and success skills to elementary school children—crucial lessons that are not normally covered in the classrooms. In fall 2008, the project touched 80 classrooms for the marathon event and was a huge success! Many students do not receive consistent positive mentorship. Having young, enthusiastic college students come into their classrooms and teach them about business, the importance of education, and the possibilities that lie ahead makes a world of difference.

Dollars & Sense is a weekly presentation series aimed at improving the financial literacy and success skills of at-risk high school students. Funded by the Marcus Foundation's "I Choose!" grant, Dollars & Sense, launched in 2007, is now at the end of its second successful year of teaching students the strategies needed for long-term financial success. Introductory lessons build a solid foundation by teaching students the basic dynamics of the market economy and the importance of the budgeting process. Students then learn about investing, and the numerous financial instruments through which their money can grow. Lessons focus on banking options, the components of risk, and the dynamics of interest rates, and stocks and bonds. Dollars & Sense also teaches students how to properly manage debt assumed for college, home, or vehicle loans.

In step with the Ethics Case Competition and Business Ethics Course, offered primarily to UF undergraduates, SIFE members expanded their emphasis on ethics to educate younger students, specifically 8th graders. SIFE members went into classrooms to facilitate discussions on the definition of ethics and its application in the real world. Students were then asked to write a five-paragraph essay—to show what they had learned and to practice for their upcoming "Florida Writes" essays. SIFE plans to expand this project in the future to include more classrooms and students

The Reichert House is an after school program for underprivileged middle and high school boys. SIFE will be mentoring the students as they compete in a national Stock Market Simulation. This activity allows the students to invest a fictional $100,000 in the stock market through a program that closely mimics the real stock market. No background knowledge of investment and/or the stock market is required.

SIFE members understand that high school students often lack incentives to learn the personal finance skills that are crucial for future success. We have partnered with the Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation to create an Internet-based scholarship competition to tackle this problem. Students are directed to a website with lessons on financial literacy and are then tested through a series of online quizzes. The participant that learns the most and scores the highest after four rounds of quizzes earns a scholarship. Over 120 students participated in a pilot scholarship challenge held for Alachua County students in November 2007, and plans are underway to expand the program nationally.

This ongoing project assists local small businesses with services such as creation of a marketing plan, a financial plan, and development strategies. This project allows students to apply skills and principles learned in the classroom in a real world setting. Every semester, students take on two businesses and develop a recommendation (in the form of a brochure or a presentation) for the business regarding the specific issues encountered.

Since 2007, freshmen enrolled in our Warrington Welcome program (our version of First Year Florida) have participated in maintenance operations with the City of Gainesville's Nature Operations Division. Due to their efforts, our College was awarded the STAR Volunteer Award in 2007, and the Nature Centers Commission Green Business Star Award in 2008.