Category: Education

Hugging the wall just outside the Living Well space in the University of Vermont’s Davis Student Center is a long table crowded with tubs of Skippy peanut butter, Marshmallow Fluff, Nutella, assorted jellies and half a dozen loaves of bread.

The table, staffed by a quartet of students and staff brandishing plastic knives and smiles, is meant to be a magnet for hungry, anxiety-ridden students stressed out by final exams – and it’s working.

At midday on Tuesday of finals week, each station has a line, and a steady of stream of satisfied customers is reentering the fray either munching on a sandwich or carting it off in a baggie.

According to Parker Holloway, a program coordinator at Living Well, which offers programming and events designed to boost students’ wellbeing, and the event’s organizer, UVM’s comfort food table is a mainstay of the university’s DeStress Central program. The program, in its seventh year, makes a range of activities available to students – from the PB&J table and Tarot card readings to much expanded drop-in sessions with counseling center staff to mindfulness and yoga to a beefed up therapy dog program – all designed to soothe their minds and buoy their spirits during high stress finals week.

It’s a program that may be especially needed today. The current crop of college students, at UVM and elsewhere, arrived on campus with more anxiety, depression and other mental health issues on board than preceding generations, studies show.

“If students today are maybe wound up five percent tighter because of social media or global politics or financial circumstances, we want to make sure there are plenty of release valves,” says John Paul Grogan, interim director of Counseling and Psychiatry Services at UVM.

More than a sandwich

With about 800 sandwiches made and distributed, the PB&J event, held Monday through Thursday of finals week from 10 to 2, is a centerpiece of that effort. And while the gloppy menu item is important, it’s often the informal, two minute conversation between the sandwich maker and taker that is the real difference-maker.  

“It isn’t just the peanut butter sandwich,” Grogan says. “It’s the opportunity to have an interaction with a supportive, kind, thoughtful person in the midst of an intense timeframe – the idea that someone cares enough about you to make a sandwich for you.”

Senior Psychological Sciences major Molly Humphries, who scored a fluffernutter, is certainly appreciative.

“I’ve essentially been locked in my room all day every day studying for my Psychology final,” she says. “It’s really nice to be able to come and grab a quick snack so you don’t have to stress about food. When you’re doing a lot, little things can be overwhelming, so stuff like this is great. “

Third-year junior nursing student Summer Haverick left the table with a creamy peanut butter and Nutella sandwich in hand and new bounce in her step.

“It is definitely a stressful time,” she says. “Getting a sandwich made for me by someone is just really, really nice. It just makes me feel supported.”

Part of the job

Chatting with students while making sandwich for them is all part of the job, says Harry Chen, executive director of UVM’s Center for Health and Wellbeing, who worked the table on Tuesday and Thursday. 

“If we can connect with students and better understand, what are the ways, what are the strategies we can use to reach them, then that’s good. It’s about connecting. We know that when you connect with somebody in person, that’s beneficial to them. We take every opportunity we can to do that.”

Amy Boyd Austin, director of UVM’s Catamount Recovery program, who staffed the table with Chen and two students one afternoon, is a master sandwich maker, after participating in the program for years.  

“I am definitely an expert-level peanut butter and jelly sandwich maker at this point,” she says. “What I most enjoy is finding out exactly what will make it a comfort food for them. How did Mom make it? What’s your preference? Do you want it thick, do you want it thin? I’m putting love in every sandwich I make.”

 

Source: UVM News

The University of Vermont has announced three new recipients of its Distinguished Professor Award, the highest academic honor that the university can bestow on a faculty member. University Distinguished Professors are recognized as having achieved international eminence within their respective fields of study and for the truly transformative nature of their contributions to the advancement of knowledge. 

Faculty receiving this award in 2019 are:   

• Mark E. Bouton, professor of Psychological Science and the Robert B. Lawson Green and Gold Professor of Psychology. Bouton is considered among the most outstanding experimental psychologists of his generation working on animal learning. Throughout a 39-year career at UVM, he has conducted pioneering research into the role of context in the learning and memory process, resulting in over 130 publications, including some of the most highly cited research papers in the discipline. He is one of the leading experts on associative learning—a core type of learning and memory—and considered by colleagues as the foremost expert on extinction, a learning process that has been demonstrated to be fundamentally important to learning and to the treatment of a number of clinical disorders. 
• Tina Escaja, professor of Romance Languages and professor of Gender and Women’s Studies. Escaja is recognized as the foremost scholar of the works of Delmira Agustini, a Uruguayan poet from the early 20th century, and Ana Rosetti, a contemporary Spanish poet. The breadth of her pioneering research and trans-cultural scholarship, in several genres, is displayed in over 100 works that include books, book chapters, journal articles, reviews, encyclopedic entries, anthologies and artistic productions. Escaja is internationally known for her creative and groundbreaking work integrating poetry and technology (electronic literature), and for her digital exhibits at museums and galleries around the world.
• Russell P. Tracy, professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Biochemistry. Tracy has played a prominent role in illuminating the hematologic aspects of cardiovascular disease. His research, over the span of 34 years at the Larner College of Medicine, has resulted in major discoveries in the molecular, cellular and genetic epidemiology of blood coagulation, fibrinolysis and inflammation. He has produced over 700 publications that have been cited more than 110,000 times, numbers that placed him among the top 1 percent of the most highly cited researchers of 2018. For the period 1996 to 2011, he was recognized as one of the 400 most highly influential biomedical researchers. He has a distinguished record of service at UVM, including ten years as senior associate dean for research and academic activities for the Larner College of Medicine.

The University Distinguished Professor Award was founded in 2009. Only ten individuals may hold an active appointment as University Distinguished Professor at any one time. Faculty holders of this honor may use the title University Distinguished Professor throughout their career at the University of Vermont and wear a medal with their academic regalia signifying this distinction. They will also serve as an informal advisory body to the leadership of the university and receive an annual professional expense stipend to support their scholarly endeavors until retirement or departure from UVM. 

Bouton, Escaja and Tracy join the following faculty currently in the program:  

• Ralph Budd, University Distinguished Professor, director of the Vermont Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases.
• Rex L. Forehand, Heinz and Rowena Ansbacher Professor of Psychology and University Distinguished Professor, director of Clinical Training.
• Major Jackson, Richard Dennis Green and Gold Professor of English and University Distinguished Professor of English.
• Wolfgang Mieder, University Distinguished Professor of German and Folklore.
• Brooke T. Mossman, University Distinguished Professor of Pathology.
• Mark T. Nelson, chairman and University Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology. 
• George F. Pinder, University Distinguished Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering. 

The three new faculty in the program will be honored at the 2019 Commencement ceremony. 

Source: UVM News

The University of Vermont has announced three new recipients of its Distinguished Professor Award, the highest academic honor that the university can bestow on a faculty member. University Distinguished Professors are recognized as having achieved international eminence within their respective fields of study and for the truly transformative nature of their contributions to the advancement of knowledge. 

Faculty receiving this award in 2019 are:  

• Mark E. Bouton, Professor of Psychological Science and the Robert B. Lawson Green and Gold Professor of Psychology. Bouton is considered among the most outstanding experimental psychologists of his generation working on animal learning. Throughout a 39-year career at UVM, he has conducted pioneering research into the role of context in the learning and memory process, resulting in over 130 publications, including some of the most highly cited research papers in the discipline. He is one of the leading experts on associative learning—a core type of learning and memory—and considered by colleagues as the foremost expert on extinction, a learning process that has been demonstrated to be fundamentally important to learning and to the treatment of a number of clinical disorders. 

• Tina Escaja, Professor of Romance Languages and Linguistics. Escaja is recognized as the foremost scholar of the works of Delmira Agustini, a Uruguayan poet from the early 20th century, and Ana Rosetti, a contemporary Spanish poet. The breadth of her pioneering research and trans-cultural scholarship, in several genres, is displayed in over 100 works that include books, book chapters, journal articles, reviews, encyclopedic entries, anthologies, and other venues. Professor Escaja is internationally known for her creative and groundbreaking work integrating poetry and technology (electronic literature), and for her digital exhibits at museums and galleries around the world.

• Russell P. Tracy, Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine and Biochemistry. Tracy is an international leader in the field of biomarkers. His research, over the span of 34 years at the Larner College of Medicine, has produced over 700 publications describing the etiology of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease, other complex chronic diseases of aging, infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and the process of aging itself. Professor Tracy is among the top 1 percent most highly cited researchers of 2018 in his discipline, and has also been recognized as one of the 400 most highly influential biomedical researchers. He has a distinguished record of service at UVM, including ten years as Senior Associate Dean for Research and Academic Activities for the Larner College of Medicine.

The University Distinguished Professor Award, founded in 2009. Only ten individuals may hold an active appointment as University Distinguished Professor at any one time. Faculty holders of this honor may use the title University Distinguished Professor throughout their career at the University of Vermont and wear a medal with their academic regalia signifying this distinction. They will also serve as an informal advisory body to the leadership of the university and receive an annual professional expense stipend to support their scholarly endeavors until retirement or departure from UVM.

Bouton, Escaja and Tracy join the following faculty in the program:  

• Ralph Budd, University Distinguished Professor, director of the Vermont Center for Immunology and Infectious Diseases.

• Rex L. Forehand, Heinz and Rowena Ansbacher Professor of Psychology and University Distinguished Professor, director of Clinical Training.

• Major Jackson, Richard Dennis Green and Gold Professor of English and University Distinguished Professor of English.

• Wolfgang Mieder, University Distinguished Professor of German and Folklore.

• Brooke T. Mossman, University Distinguished Professor of Pathology.

• Mark T. Nelson, Chairman and University Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology. 

• George F. Pinder, University Distinguished Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering.

The three new faculty in the program will be honored at the 2019 Commencement ceremony.

Source: UVM News

Lauren Trumble ‘19 is winding up a stellar career as a UVM student athlete—she’s headed to medical school next year, and capped off her spring track season with a record breaking first place finish in the 1000 meters in the 2019 America East Track and Field Championships.

Trumble entered UVM on a pre-med track, but one of the most influential courses was a first year TAP class “Street Children,” taught by Anthropology Professor Jonah Steinberg. The class examines the desperate experience of children around the world who are abandoned by society and left to survive on their own.

“That opened my eyes to the importance of global and community health,” Trumble said. “Jonah had this phrase ‘If other people have to live it, we should have to learn about it.’ That’s always stuck with me.”

It became a guiding principle for Trumble, who decided to minor in UVM’s anthropology in global health program which uses social science approaches to health care. It also prompted her to volunteer at Fletcher Allen Hospital, which has an inpatient ward for children with serious illnesses.

For two and a half years, Trumble paid regular visits to the hospital, playing with the children, reading to them, often just holding them. The work gave her fresh perspective on her personal challenge of balancing academics with her responsibilities as a scholarship athlete. 

“In college it’s really easy to get sucked into the bubble of ‘Oh, I’ve got two papers and a test this week and how am I going to get all this done?’ Then you hold a really sick child and you realize ‘I’m actually OK.’ That whole experience was valuable for me on a lot of fronts.”

For several summers she also worked at Fletcher Allen as a patient service specialist in the neurosurgery department. She believes her experiences as a worker, a volunteer and a student has given her a broader view of medicine and the health care system. “My mother is a physical therapist, so I think she gave me a really interdisciplinary medicine perspective,” Trumble said.

Finding Balance

Being a Division I track athlete means spending many weekends en-route to and from meets, and Trumble remembers many late-night lab reports finished on bus rides or in airport terminals.

“I learned to be a good time manager, a lesson I can take anywhere. And I received so much support, especially from Cara Calvelli (Pre-Health Program Coordinator at UVM’s Career Center),” she said. “She asks the right questions and makes sure you want to embark on this pre-med journey. She helped me with class advice, when to take MCATS, overseeing the whole committee letter process, which is a big aspect of med school applications.” 

Trumble says track and cross-country practice sessions scheduled early in the morning also helped. She could wake up with her teammates, get in her workout, and have the rest of the day free for a class schedule heavy with science labs. 

“I’m not sure I could have done pre-med while competing in athletics at another school,” she says.

Trumble was a three-sport athlete throughout her four years at UVM, running cross-country in the fall and indoor and outdoor track. Among her athletic highlights was an overall fourth-place finish in the America East Conference cross-country meet last fall, and setting the UVM and America East records in the 1000-meters. She also excelled in the classroom—she was named both the cross country and indoor track student athlete of the year.

With the MCATS behind her, Trumble is looking forward to stepping off the treadmill of training and just running for pleasure, or taking a morning off to hike Mt. Mansfield. UVM’s Larner College of Medicine is on the list of schools she’s applying to this spring.

“I’m  a big believer in giving everything you do 100 percent effort. But I also realize I’m a whole person, and that’s one of the reasons I was so attracted to UVM—I’m a person first, then a student, then an athlete. Now I can concentrate on being a physician.”

 

 

 

 

 

Source: UVM News

The price tag for cutting global emissions may seem expensive, until the human toll of deaths from air pollution and climate change are factored in, new research says.

The new study in Nature Communications reports that immediate, dramatic cuts in carbon emissions – aggressive enough to meet the Paris Climate Agreement – are economically sound if human health benefits are accounted for.

“Reducing greenhouse gas emissions will also reduce deaths from air pollution in communities near the emissions reductions,” says Mark Budolfson, co-lead author from the University of Vermont. “These health ‘co-benefits’ of climate change policy are widely believed to be important, but until now have not been fully incorporated in global economic analyses of how much the world should invest in climate action.”

By adding air pollution to global climate models, Budolfson and colleagues find that economically, the optimal climate policy would be more aggressive than previously thought, and would produce immediate net benefits globally.

The health benefits alone could reach trillions of dollars in value annually, depending on air quality policies that nations adopt, to offset climate investments.

The study, which was supported by a Gund Institute Catalyst Award, helps to justify immediate investments in global emission reductions by showing they will benefit the current generation of citizens while also helping to address climate change for future generations. 

“We show the climate conversation doesn’t need to be about the current generation investing in the further future,” says Budolfson, a Fellow of the Gund Institute for Environment from UVM’s College of Arts of Sciences. “By making smart investments in climate action, we can save lives now through improved air quality and health.”

The team’s work builds on the RICE climate model, which was developed by Yale Economist William Nordhaus, who recently received the Nobel Prize in Economics. 

Researchers considered the costs and benefits of air pollutant emissions, which produce aerosols. Aerosols have never been fully incorporated into this type of modeling, and are important for two reasons. Aerosol pollution worsens human health, but aerosols also act to cool the earth, counterbalancing some of the warming generated by greenhouse gases.

By factoring in these additional co-benefits and co-harms, the researchers identified a climate policy that would bring immediate net benefits globally, both in health and economic terms. The strongest potential near-term health benefits are in China and India, which face among the highest death rates from air pollution.

“Some developing regions have been understandably reluctant to invest their limited resources in reducing emissions,” said Noah Scovronick, a co-lead author from Emory University. “This and other studies demonstrate that many of these same regions are likely to gain most of the health co-benefits, which may add incentive for them to adopt stronger climate policies.”

The researchers find that the dramatic efforts needed to meet the Paris Agreement targets of limiting global temperature rise to 2 degrees C (or 3.6 degrees F) is economically defensible. This is because the health benefits resulting from air pollution reductions can offset the near-term costs. Prior economic studies on this issue did not support such a strict climate target.

“The climate problem has several features that make it particularly difficult to solve,” said Marc Fleurbaey of Princeton University. “Here, we show that accounting for the human health dimension alleviates many of these difficulties: Health benefits begin immediately, occur near where emissions are reduced, and accrue mainly in developing regions with less historical responsibility for climate change. The finding that climate policy may not in fact entail an intergenerational trade-off could completely change the framing of the debate.”

The study was co-led by Mark Budolfson (UVM Dept. of Philosophy), Noah Scovronick (Emory University), Francis Dennig (Yale-NUS College), Frank Errickson (UC Berkeley) and Fabian Wagner (International Institute of Applied Systems). Other authors include: Marc Fleurbaey and Robert Socolow (Princeton University), Wei Peng from Penn State University, and Dean Spears of the University of Texas at Austin.

UVM’s Budolfson is a faculty fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University for the current academic year. 

The study, “The impact of human health co-benefits on evaluations of global climate policy,” will appear online May 7. 

Source: UVM News

On a lunchtime run, colleagues and researchers Mark Nelson and David Warshaw head down Spear Street. It’s a ritual the pair has kept nearly every work day since 1995. It’s more than just a daily workout. It’s a grant-writing workshop, staffing discussion, and science seminar. And as anyone who has run in Burlington knows, it’s a whole lot of hills. 

But no hill compares to the one Nelson just climbed. On April 30, Mark Nelson, chair of Pharmacology and a University Distinguished Professor, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the greatest honors a scientist can achieve.

It’s the latest in a string of honors he’s received over his career – from the National Institutes of Health, the American Society for Pharmacology, and the American Physiological Society, among others. He’s internationally recognized for his contributions to our understanding of the control of blood flow within the brain.  

How do blood vessels ensure the brain’s hard-working neurons get the nutrients they need? One area of Nelson’s focus is the role calcium plays in the complex communication happening among neurons, smooth muscle cells, and other cells.

The “information currency,” Nelson says, of these cells is calcium. “If we can understand what it’s doing, we’ll be able to come up with some new ideas for treatments,” of vascular diseases like strokes and dementia.

Throughout his career, he’s mentored dozens of scholars and researchers. Among them are Osama Harraz, who has worked as a postdoctoral associate in Nelson’s lab for four years and counts himself among Nelson’s grateful trainees, noting Nelson’s continued passion for the work and the “unparalleled scientific environment” in his lab. “He is amazed by how blood vessels deliver what the brain needs for a lifetime,” Harraz says. “One discovery after another, this excitement never fades away, it increases.”

His running and research counterpart David Warshaw, chair of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, was a champion of his election to the National Academy of Science. Candidates must be nominated by an existing society member, and Warshaw’s contact with several members helped lead to Nelson’s election. 

“Mark’s discoveries have set the investigative direction for researchers around the world,” says Warshaw, a collaborator with Nelson on research to better understand the smooth muscle cells that operate without conscious control in the brain and the heart. “His sustained level of top-flight science is evidenced by over 30,000 citations of his work in the most prestigious journals. As a friend and colleague, it was obvious that his international reputation and science was worthy of the National Academy of Sciences.”

Source: UVM News

A machine learning algorithm can detect signs of anxiety and depression in the speech patterns of young children, potentially providing a fast and easy way of diagnosing conditions that are difficult to spot and often overlooked in young people, according to new research published in the Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.  

Around one in five children suffer from anxiety and depression, collectively known as “internalizing disorders.” But because children under the age of eight can’t reliably articulate their emotional suffering, adults need to be able to infer their mental state, and recognise potential mental health problems. Waiting lists for appointments with psychologists, insurance issues, and failure to recognise the symptoms by parents all contribute to children missing out on vital treatment.

“We need quick, objective tests to catch kids when they are suffering,” says Ellen McGinnis, a clinical psychologist at the University of Vermont Medical Center’s Vermont Center for Children, Youth and Families and lead author of the study. “The majority of kids under eight are undiagnosed.”

Early diagnosis is critical because children respond well to treatment while their brains are still developing, but if they are left untreated they are at greater risk of substance abuse and suicide later in life. Standard diagnosis involves a 60-90 minute semi-structured interview with a trained clinician and their primary care-giver. McGinnis, along with University of Vermont biomedical engineer and study senior author Ryan McGinnis, has been looking for ways to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to make diagnosis faster and more reliable.

The researchers used an adapted version of a mood induction task called the Trier-Social Stress Task, which is intended to cause feelings of stress and anxiety in the subject. A group of 71 children between the ages of three and eight were asked to improvise a three-minute story, and told that they would be judged based on how interesting it was. The researcher acting as the judge remained stern throughout the speech, and gave only neutral or negative feedback. After 90 seconds, and again with 30 seconds left, a buzzer would sound and the judge would tell them how much time was left.

“The task is designed to be stressful, and to put them in the mindset that someone was judging them,” says Ellen McGinnis.

The children were also diagnosed using a structured clinical interview and parent questionnaire, both well-established ways of identifying internalizing disorders in children.

The researchers used a machine learning algorithm to analyze statistical features of the audio recordings of each kid’s story and relate them to the child’s diagnosis. They found the algorithm was highly successful at diagnosing children, and that the middle phase of the recordings, between the two buzzers, was the most predictive of a diagnosis.

“The algorithm was able to identify children with a diagnosis of an internalizing disorder with 80 percent accuracy, and in most cases that compared really well to the accuracy of the parent checklist,” says Ryan McGinnis. It can also give the results much more quickly – the algorithm requires just a few seconds of processing time once the task is complete to  provide a diagnosis.

The algorithm identified eight different audio features of the children’s speech, but three in particular stood out as highly indicative of internalizing disorders: low-pitched voices, with repeatable speech inflections and content, and a higher-pitched response to the surprising buzzer. Ellen McGinnis says these features fit well with what you might expect from someone suffering from depression. “A low-pitched voice and repeatable speech elements mirrors what we think about when we think about depression: speaking in a monotone voice, repeating what you’re saying,” says Ellen McGinnis.

The higher-pitched response to the buzzer is also similar to the response the researchers found in their previous work, where children with internalizing disorders were found to exhibit a larger turning-away response from a fearful stimulus in a fear induction task.

The voice analysis has a similar accuracy in diagnosis to the motion analysis in that earlier work, but Ryan McGinnis thinks it would be much easier to use in a clinical setting. The fear task requires a darkened room, toy snake, motion sensors attached to the child and a guide, while the voice task only needs a judge, a way to record speech and a buzzer to interrupt. “This would be more feasible to deploy,” he says.

Ellen McGinnis says the next step will be to develop the speech analysis algorithm into a universal screening tool for clinical use, perhaps via a smartphone app that could record and analyze results immediately. The voice analysis could also be combined with the motion analysis into a battery of technology-assisted diagnostic tools to help identify children at risk of anxiety and depression before even their parents suspect that anything is wrong.

Other study co-authors include Steven P. Anderau and Reed D. Gurchiek at the University of Vermont and Reed D. Gurchiek, Nestor L. Lopez-Duran, Kate Fitzgerald and Maria Muzik at the University of Michigan.

Source: UVM News

Down in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, five students from UVM’s Sustainable Innovation MBA program harnessed their inner Rocky Balboas as they took on some of the country’s top business schools at the Total Impact Portfolio Challenge finals on May 1–2. The team beat out 25 other teams from schools like Wharton, Columbia, Yale and Georgetown, among others, to win first place at the impact investing competition.

The inaugural competition, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Social Impact Initiative, Good Capital Project and Bank of America, is designed to challenge future wealth managers, portfolio managers and investment advisors to build financial portfolios that not only make their clients a profit, but make the world a better place.

UVM’s team—comprised of Alyssa Stankiewicz, Peter Seltzer, Emily Klein, Maura Kalil and Andrew Mallory, all students in the Princeton Review-ranked number one Green MBA program—built a lucrative $100 million investment portfolio for a fictional family office looking to support underserved communities, gender equity, sustainable food and agriculture, impact investing infrastructure, and mitigate climate change.

“When we started this competition back in the fall, if you had told us we were going to win, I think we would have been pretty surprised. The nature of our program is more sustainability focused and we thought we might be a little bit behind compared to other schools in terms of hard financial skills and hard portfolio management skills,” admits Mallory. “But once we started going and really started to utilize our sustainability learning and embed that into our impact analysis and into our portfolio—and with the help of professor Chuck Schnitzlein, our fearless leader—we definitely gained more confidence as the project went along.”

A growing financial trend, impact investing considers how strategic investments across asset classes can be used to improve societal, governance and environmental issues, all while being financially competitive. “It’s trying to do good, but also do well at the same time,” explains Kalil. “Impact investing matters because you can make a financial return on something that’s really bad for the planet or for society, which can have a negative impact on the whole world. I think impact investing is putting an impact lens on the investment industry as a whole.”

While the four other schools that advanced to the finals—Yale, Columbia, Boston University, and Fordham—were strong competitors, their approach to the competition and portfolio were drastically different from UVM’s. “Our entire coursework here is centered in sustainability and I think we entered the competition with a much different perspective than the other universities because of how embedded sustainability is into our coursework,” says Seltzer.

“The way that we looked at impact investing was moving beyond just screening out tobacco stocks or what they call ‘the sin stocks’ from your portfolio. It’s moving toward something that creates net positive impact and allows you to track, within your investments, the positive outcomes and outputs in society and environmental issues that you’re trying to impact,” explains Stankiewicz.

The UVM students stood out among the competition for going above and beyond the challenge. Not only did they create a diverse portfolio of public and private loans and assets, including investment in farmland and timber, they created their own proprietary framework to measure their impact. The SIMBA Score—aptly named after their program—quantifies, on a scale of zero to 100, how well a fund invests in companies that are tackling sustainability issues most material to their industries.

“Multiple people asked us if we had a patent on the framework while we were there,” says Seltzer, who designed the framework when the team noticed that there weren’t many evaluation tools available to help measure impact. The students plan to dive deeper into the viability of their framework over the summer.

Because the competition was incorporated into the Good Capital Project’s Total Impact Philadelphia Conference, the students had an opportunity to network with other teams and industry experts, as well as attend conference discussions and events. They noticed the way speakers, presenters, panelists and professionals in the industry spoke about impact investing and why it matters, and were pleased to see how well-aligned their approach to the portfolio was with thought leaders’ ideas. “It was really validating for the hard work we put into it,” says Kalil.

“All of the teams did a great job explaining the financial analysis that pertained to their proposals. The SI-MBA team displayed creativity and passion. It was such a pleasure to work with this delightful group of students!” says professor Charles Schitzlein, the team’s adviser.

Source: UVM News