IVMF, Whitman School awarded $854,525 grant to implement management certificate and degree programs for veterans

The Graduate Management Admission Council^® (GMAC^®), owner of the GMAT^® exam and the leading membership organization of graduate business and management schools worldwide, today awarded the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and the Whitman School of Management a $854,525 grant to fund implementation of customized management certificate and degree programs for veterans. The GMAC Management Education for Tomorrow (MET) Fund has awarded more than $7.1 million in grants to 12 organizations across six countries in the second round of its Ideas to Innovation (i2i) Challenge.

The IVMF and Whitman will partner on the grant project to develop and begin the Veteran Employment through Modified Graduate Management Tracks (VET-MGMT), which will run July 2012-June 2015.  Based on input from employers and collaboration with educators across various sectors, the project will design MBA-credit bearing and certificate coursework tracks from colleges and disciplines to leverage veterans’ technical training and leadership experience in development of business leadership skills.

This partnership includes faculty, staff, coursework and operations experience from several of the University’s schools, colleges and programs, including the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism, National Security Studies program, Global Enterprise Technology, Veterans Technology Program, David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, School of Information Studies (iSchool), L. C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science, College of Law, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and University College.

The IVMF and Whitman developed the grant proposal in response to an earlier phase of the i2i Challenge, in which individuals were invited to answer the question, “What one idea would improve graduate management education?” In total, 17 of the 20 winning i2i concepts, announced in January 2011, will be implemented by the organizations that were awarded April 17.

“The collaboration for this project will continue Syracuse University’s leading commitment to veteran education,” says James Schmeling, IVMF managing director and co-founder. “Partnering with each of these programs and colleges allows development of curricular tracks ideally suited to preparing veterans for management across several sectors, and builds on training and education acquired during their military service. Preparing veterans for management careers will enhance their ability to meet the needs of business and industry, and the social and private sectors, while advancing the veteran employment agenda.”

“The VET-MGMT project combines innovation in management education with veteran education, two important and historical strengths of the Whitman School and Syracuse University,” says Whitman Dean Melvin T. Stith. “This collaboration between Whitman, the IVMF and SU’s other schools and colleges provides expanded opportunities and curricular developments that will further benefit current and future SU student veterans and the companies that hire them.”

The i2i Challenge was created and managed by the GMAC’s MET Fund, a $10 million initiative to advance business education around the world. Twenty-five proposals from seven countries were submitted in the second round of the challenge, which ran from January-December 2011. The grantees include business schools and organizations in the U.S., Canada, Spain, Italy, India and Botswana.

“The foundation of the MET Fund has been that GMAC—starting with the GMAT exam and culminating in this phase of i2i grants—should be investing in and giving back to management education and its institutions. And not just giving back, but giving back in order to move management education forward,” says David A. Wilson, president and CEO of GMAC. “The power of these grants is in the implementation of ideas that can reshape and revitalize management education worldwide, and that acknowledge the critical role that management education plays in training and developing business leaders who can have global impact.”

Additional information about the winning entries and organizations is available here. Information about first-round winners and ideas they generated is available here.