Cornell’s Johnson School and Northwestern’s Kellogg are pushing deep into social entrepreneurship and co-hosting the 2011 Impact Investing Challenge; an invitation only contest challenging teams to put together and defend sustainable investment strategies.  From Stacy Blackman the MBA admissions blogger at US New and World Report Education:

Twelve teams will compete for more than $40,000 in awards on April 8 at J.P. Morgan in New York City. Along with Kellogg and Johnson, other top programs including Columbia Business School, Harvard Business School, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business have teams competing.

This focus on impact investing is part of a much larger trend sweeping business schools. Current students are concentrating not only on traditional courses such as accounting and finance, but also learning how to use their business acumen to bring about meaningful change.

One of the most popular growing fields among b-schools is social entrepreneurship, where students learn about topics ranging from non-profit management to starting businesses that serve underrepresented communities. Many programs now offer specializations in sustainability-centric M.B.A.s, often called “green M.B.A.s,” that focus heavily on teaching environmentally and socially sustainable business practices.

Not a bad move by JP Morgan to host these bright students. Not a bad opportunity for students who fought to get into some of the elite MBA programs.

via The Sustainable M.B.A. – MBA Admissions: Strictly Business usnews.com.