Activities

 

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award

The Faber Center partners with Ernst & Young and the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of North Carolina in hosting the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year contest for the Carolinas Region.

The Entrepreneur of the Year Program recognizes successful and innovative entrepreneurs on a world-wide basis, since it is held in 21 countries around the globe. Each summer, regional awards are announced, and those regional winners become eligible to be named Entrepreneur of the Year at the grand finale in Palm Springs, California.

Each May, the Faber Center hosts the judges as they deliberate over the many deserving nominees. The center invites the regional winners to address the student body at The Darla Moore School of Business at an event called the Master Panel of Entrepreneurs. 

For more information on the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year program, please contact the Program Manager for the Carolinas Region, Amanda Dudley, at Amanda.Dudley@ey.com or (704) 331-1925.  

Student Consulting

Each year, the Faber Center facilitates and supervises the conduct of in-depth consulting projects by students in The Darla Moore School of Business who work with entrepreneurial companies throughout South Carolina.

These projects are conducted in classes that are “experiential” rather than traditional lecture classes. Consulting teams of three or four people are formed and, under direction of faculty, these teams work with a small business on a specific problem or project. The projects are driven by the clients’ needs, with the goal of providing a real service in return for the opportunity for students to gain practical experience in researching and solving a business problem.

Students from the graduate programs offered in The Darla Moore School of Business, including International Master of Business Administration (IMBA), Master of Human Resources (MHR), and  Professional Master of Business Administration (PMBA), and from the undergraduate programs, make up the consulting teams.

Some of the companies that our students have had the opportunity to work with include:

Hampton Hill Athletic Club, located in Woodhill Mall in Columbia, worked with a team of Master of Accounting students who assisted in preparing the club for expansion. The students conducted a "business audit," as the Faber Center likes to call it. This provides the entrepreneur with a snapshot of how the business is performing.
Founded in 1978, Southland Log Homes is today the largest producer of custom pre-cut log homes in North America. The Faber Center has had the opportunity to work with Southland on multiple occasions and most recently attempted to identify what values are important to the buyers of log homes.
Screen Tight, located in Georgetown, SC, is a manufacturer of proprietary building products. Its original product, a patented system for screening porches, is stocked in more than 2,000 stores. A group of MBA students worked with the founder and owner, Guerry Green, who himself was a student consultant when he was at USC.