Goizueta’s Business & Society Institute

18/06/2026

From food businesses and urban farms to education and wellness ventures, our Start:ME Atlanta 2026 graduates are helping strengthen communities across metro Atlanta.

Earlier this spring, the program celebrated the graduation of 86 entrepreneurs representing 69 microbusinesses from Clarkston, East Lake, Southside, and Westside. Together, they operate 12 physical locations, employ 144 people beyond their founders, and generate $3.2 million in annual revenue.

More than 100 volunteer mentors supported this year’s cohort, including business leaders and program alumni returning to help guide newer founders.

Start:ME operates in partnership with East Lake Foundation, Friends of Refugees, FCS , Grove Park Foundation, and Purpose Built Schools Atlanta, and is offered free of charge to all entrepreneurs thanks to continued support from financial partners including Delta Community Credit Union, PNC, Regions Bank Foundation, Target, Truist Foundation, and Emory University Goizueta Business School.

Check out the new EmoryBusiness.com story about including more details about seed grant and award winners from this year's cohorts: https://www.emorybusiness.com/2026/06/16/startme-celebrates-2026-graduates-and-growing-community-impact/

16/06/2026

Atlanta hosted its first FIFA World Cup match this week. We're pleased to mark the occasion with the release of the Insights and Ideas Recap Report from the 2026 Climate Design Challenge.

The Report provides a summary of ideas and insights generated by more than 50 Emory University and Georgia Tech students for how the ATL can best use the 2026 World Cup to strengthen climate-smart, circular systems that deliver long-term value for people, place, and planet.

The World Cup presents a special opportunity to prototype climate-smart infrastructure, circular logistics, mobility systems, procurement strategies, and public engagement models that could later scale across the city. This month of matches can become a launchpad for longer-term systems transformation.

Review report at https://www.climatedesignatl.com/2026recap.

10/06/2026

Don't miss your chance to participate in Cox Enterprises' Play with a Purpose Sustainability Hackathon! Student team registration closes on Friday, June 12th!

⚽ Against the backdrop of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, our friends at Cox Enterprises, Georgia Cleantech Innovation Hub, and Atlanta Tech Week are hosting a 3-day sustainability hackathon (June 14-17, 2026) that brings together current students (undergrad and grad) from all disciplines to tackle climate challenges.

🎟️ Winning teams receive some great prizes including tickets to a World Cup match.

💡Big ideas start with bold collaboration. Form your team, build and pitch real-world solutions and compete for unique prizes.

🔗 Learn more and register:

Join Cox Enterprises in a 3-day hackathon to tackle the sustainability challenges that matter most.

10/06/2026

School may be out; however, the social impact continues.

We're pleased to announce our 2026 Social Impact Stipend Awards which provide funds to support Emory University Goizueta Business School students engaged in internships or special projects making a positive impact for people and the planet:

Lauren Cofield (MBA27): Working with Atlanta SMART Academy to design a student-led agricultural microenterprise that combines STEM education, sustainability, entrepreneurship, and community impact.

Jasmin Lopez (MBA26): Developing refined financial models, pitch materials, and supporting other investment strategies for Certified Coschool.

Vyomini Manath (BBA27): Working with Cherry Street Energy to make more clean electricity available to more people and more communities.

Anna Moceyunas (MBA27): Supporting Impact Strategy at Momentus Capital to provide communities and small businesses access to the capital.

Shruti Nemala (BBA26): Developing a new coffee supply-chain transparency app for Certified Bear Lake Coffee Company.

Thirumal Sethusivaram (MBA27): Supporting Alterno Nexus, a clean energy storage startup invested in by zero.by.fifty, with their go-to-market strategy for expansion across four countries.

Wendy Yu (EvMBA27): Designing the relaunch of the Refugee Women's Network's Chefs Club program with a focus on revenue generating cooking class experiences.

The Summer Stipend program is made possible through the support of the Business & Society Institute along with donors / contributors Reilly Family Fund, The Selma Oritt Foundation, and Robson Program for Business, Public Policy, and Government.

08/06/2026

Our Start:ME Atlanta team collaborated with 21st Century Leaders to welcome 80 students from 63 high schools across Georgia to Emory University Goizueta Business School as part of last week's Summer Youth Leadership Institute (SYLI).

This year's Start:ME NextGen program, an entrepreneurship boot camp for high school leaders, took students from ideas to pitches in a single day.

New startup ideas included AI powered scholarship matching platform, drone assisted sustainable agriculture solutions, and affordable pregame meal kits for student athletes.

A BIG thank you to our facilitator team of Francoise Carroll, Mildred Meza, and Colin Poe and group of committed volunteer coaches for making Start:ME NextGen a success.

The future is bright! 🕶️

29/05/2026

🎙️Our own Professor Peter Roberts recently joined Carla Martin on the Institute for Cacao and Chocolate Research's The Chocolate Conservatory podcast discussing the specialty coffee industry including its history, economics, and opportunity to create a more equitable future.

🎧Listen to podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/numbers-networks-and-narratives-in-specialty-coffee/id1878720693?i=1000763428903

29/05/2026

As the prepares to host matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, nearly 50 undergraduate and graduate students from Emory University and Georgia Tech gathered for two days in April for the inaugural Emory Climate Design Challenge, an opportunity to think boldly about ways the city could use this massive event as an impetus for sustainability (this summer and well beyond).

“Events like this help shift the narrative around climate change from discouragement to possibility by exposing participants to real, implemented solutions.” - Wendy Yu (Emory Student)

“Interdisciplinary work is extremely important for climate and waste. I really appreciated the collaborative event. Climate change is a global challenge, and it is better to work with others to find solutions.” - Justin Le (Tech Student)

A BIG thank you to Emory alums James H. Reilly and Elizabeth M. Morgan of the Reilly Family Fund for making the inaugural Challenge possible-- the event will return again in 2026-2027!

Learn more about this year's challenge on EmoryBusiness.com at https://www.emorybusiness.com/2026/05/20/creating-the-next-generation-of-climate-smart-leaders/

19/05/2026

Emory research isn’t just for those who wear lab coats or have “PhD” behind their names.

Through the Institute's Immersive Learning Directed Study program, Clara Wasserman and other Emory University undergraduate students traveled to Honduras with Professors Peter Roberts and Robert Kazanjian to conduct a case analysis of Hospital de Ojos Fraternidad.

The research project focused on understanding how the initiative to improve access to cataracts surgeries and other ophthalmological services for local residents evolved and scaled over the past 10 years.

“We worked to understand that story, then created a timeline to discover where the inflection points that allowed the initiative to scale are,” says Wasserman.

Learn more about Clara's experience this semester at https://news.emory.edu/features/2026/05/er_whats_next_undergraduate_research_06-05-2026/index.html.

18/05/2026

Congratulations to Team Emory University Goizueta Business School on their participation in 2025-2026 Turner MIINT (MBA Impact Investing Network & Training) Competition which included traveling to the semi-final presentation round at The Wharton School in Philadelphia last month.

Team Goizueta worked closely with WriteSea (an AI-powered career readiness platform built for higher ed and workforce development) throughout the Spring semester, culminating with a pitch on behalf of the company to investor judges at the semi-finals.

Congrats to the both the presentation team of Oseremi Adekoye, Panashe M., Sruthika Senthilkumar, Ornella Adekoye, Pragati Wagle and sourcing / diligence team members Jasia Barrett and Elizabeth Kufour for all of their hard work this academic year.

A shoutout to the team’s coach Sam Moss of GSIC efor mentoring and advising the group.

The next generation of impact investors have arrived. Let’s go.

15/05/2026

Professors Robert Kazanjian and Peter Roberts had a wonderful spring semester working with 30 Emory University students on several immersive learning projects. One worth of two celebrations!

There were trips to Honduras with the Honduran Coffee Alliance and to Guatemala with De la Gente.

And there were five different projects tackled in a series of immersive global citizenship themed Directed Studies – with the EquallyAble Foundation, with Hospital Fraternidad, and with our own specialty coffee and Start:ME Atlanta programs.

Thank you changemaking students and partners. Cheers!