Call for nominations of students for Excellence in Civic Engagement Medallion of Distinction--
deadline for applications is October 31, 2003

About the Civic Engagement Initiative | Our Projects | Contact us for more information

FIU's College of Business Administration's Civic Engagement Initiative is coordinated by Dr. Bob Hogner, Associate Professor of Management and International Business. Currently, there are several major projects that provide outreach opportunities to our students and faculty and that highlight the important aspects of service and community leadership both within and outside the university's community.

Civic Engagement is a key way in which the College may share its knowledge, expertise, technology, and resources with the local community. Through projects that center the importance of sharing, community, and reciprocity, closer ties are developed between the university community and the neighborhoods of Greater Miami. Partnerships are developed that can bring about growth, change, and collaboration between students and faculty in the College of Business Administration and the local communities that provide the great majority of our students and future business leaders.

Civic Engagement opportunities are integrated in the College's curriculum-in management, accounting, and real estate courses, and in a Service Learning course (GEB 4993), which is the only business school course in the country dedicated entirely to service learning. Civic engagement opportunities also are a part of the Weekend BBA program, largely through The Miami Benefit Club.

Our Projects

• Dress A Child for the Holidays

• ASB in Bangkok - March 2005

• Partnering & Serving With The Miami Benefit Club

In the Fall of 2001, the College of Business Administration joined forces with the Miami Benefit Club which was founded in 1999 as a charitable fund at the Dade Community Foundation. Since joining with FIU in 1999, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, the Club has been able to provide the community with close to a thousand hours of service, including service activities such as the Community Partnership for the Homeless project, the City of Miami Neighborhood Enhancement Team, Adopt-a-Classroom, and Habitat for Humanity. Here are photos and web sites from some recent projects:
 
• WBBA Group 13 provides 'Tools for School'
• Daily Bread Food Bank--WBBA Group Twelve Fighting Hunger in South Florida
• Homeless Assistance Center--WBBA Group Eleven Holiday Party, December 2002
• Habitat for Humanity Project--November 2002
• Habitat for Humanity Project--November 2003

• Partnering and Serving at Miami-Jackson High School--The Miami-Jackson Senior High School project began in 2000 with a small group of students in a Business Ethics class. Working in groups, these students began a mentoring project with students at Miami-Jackson Senior High School, a magnet school located in Brownsville/Liberty City, a low-income, predominantly African-American neighborhood of Greater Miami. The FIU students worked one-on-one with Miami-Jackson juniors on college preparation skills, helping them to prepare a strategic plan for college admission, study for the SAT, and compose entrance essays.

While Florida International University is an Institutional Member of the Academy for International Business (AIB), the College of Business Administration sought to engage the philanthropic arm of the AIB, the AIB Foundation which places its emphasis on the funding of projects which advance the cause of international business. In the Fall 2001 semester, the Miami-Jackson outreach project became the perfect avenue in which to do just this. The AIB Foundation already was working with the International Business magnet program at Miami-Jackson.

In addition to providing a valuable opportunity for CBA students to get intimate connection with the practice of civic engagement, the initiative also provides an opportunity for the CBA faculty to foster a closer relationship with the AIB at Miami-Jackson and to recruit these students for the College's International Business program. In addition to the college preparation and mentoring projects already in place, the College hopes to launch an introductory course in business and in international business at Miami-Jackson Senior High School.
 
• Partnering and Serving with the IRS's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Center (VITA)

  It's tax-time. Those words precipitate groans from the average American. However, for low-income earners, the phrase can be downright ominous. The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program was established by the Internal Revenue Service to help low-income earners complete their tax forms. David Lavin (Accounting) spent much of last fall and this spring preparing more than 50 CBA undergraduates as VITA volunteers. The training, which began in November and continued through April of 2003, included instructing these students on how to use TaxWise, a software program, and how to prepare the various forms. Lavin, who normally does not teach tax courses, said that preparing the students was a successful and rewarding but time-taxing effort. He especially is grateful to CBA undergraduate students Nadika Charran, Raul Tome, and Pablo Bravo (pictured below) who went the extra mile to coordinate the program.

  The VITA program requires that students complete an open-book qualifying examination before assisting with the returns. The CBA's VITA program at FIU began with Myron Lubell in the 1980s. Beta Gamma Sigma also has run a VITA program in the past. Please visit www.fiu.edu/~vita for more information.

  
  From left to right--David Lavin, Pablo Bravo, Nadika Charran, and Raul Tome.

Click here for the VITA program photo album.

Contact us for more information

For more information on how FIU's College of Business Adminstration is involved in engaging and serving the South Florida Community, please contact Professor Robert Hogner (Dr. Bob). A form is provided, below, for your convenience.

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