Last week, a team of graduate students in the Sustainable Innovation MBA (SI-MBA) program returned home from Philadelphia after securing second place at The Turner MIINT (MBA Impact Investing Network & Training) Impact Investing Competition and winning a $25,000 investment for Brightwater Tools. Hosted by the Bridges Impact Foundation and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the competition tasks 30 teams of top ranked business schools to vie for a potential real-world investment in their presented company. Congratulations to this year’s team including Sam Ghazey, Elliot Stevenson, Apryl McCoy, and Isabel Buenaga Levis. 

 “When they called our name, it felt surreal and took a good hour or two to let what we had just accomplished sink in,” said Elliot Stevenson ’25. “We put so many hours into this project. Placing as a runner up really validated the efforts that went into securing the investment opportunity for Brightwater."

The Rigors of Competition 

“I wanted to challenge myself,” said Apryl McCoy ‘25. “I didn’t come from a traditional business or finance background, so MIINT was a bit intimidating at first, but I knew it would be an opportunity to grow. I also saw it as a chance to explore impact investing in a hands-on, real-world way and apply what I was learning in the classroom.”

Sam Ghazey ‘25 estimated that the 12-week prep time amounted to 400 hours of work for each competitor which consisted of research, analysis, and mock presentations to prepare for the two-day competition where the team presented to a panel of judges inclusive of real-world impact investors and finance professionals. The SI-MBA students were thrown tough questions that challenged their preparation and public speaking skills, but they persevered by trusting their instincts, leaning on their teammates and capitalizing on skills learned from profound faculty mentorship.

As a recent recipient of the Best Presenter Award at Grossman’s 2025 Schlesinger Global Family Enterprise Case Competition (SG-FECC), Ghazey continues to add to his plethora of case competitions achievements for Grossman. "Case and pitch competitions are an incredibly helpful way to apply your in-class learnings to real-world issues and refine your communication and problem-solving skills,” said Ghazey. “One of the most useful skills in life is being able to quickly analyze a complicated problem and communicate the solution in accessible language via storytelling. There is nothing quite like a case competition to help you learn and practice doing just that."

The Small but Mighty MBA Program

The SI-MBA team reached the finals at the Turner MIINT Impact Investing Competition in 2022 and 2024. This string of success is owed in part to the team’s coach, Cairn Cross, the co-founder and managing director of FreshTracks Capital, a premier Vermont-based venture capital firm. “It was critical to have a coach as strong as Cairn who has helped teams over the years and helped them grow their skill-set beyond what classroom learning," said Stevenson. Ghazey echoed Stevenson’s praise for Cross’s mentorship saying, “Cairn is a legend in his field and structured a program for us that started in September and carried us through to success in April. The man has a process, and it should NOT be questioned.”

“Grossman prepared me with the systems thinking and sustainability frameworks we use every day in SI-MBA. But even more importantly, the support from faculty, alumni, and our mentor Cairn Cross made a huge impact,” expounded McCoy. “They helped us sharpen our pitch, refine our messaging, and approach the competition like real investors. It has been the most meaningful experiential learning experience I’ve had in the program.”

Cross was especially proud of SI-MBA’s marked improvement at MIINT over the years. “Most of the best business schools in the world participate in the MIINT competition in Philadelphia including Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia, Wharton, University of Chicago, London School of Economics and Insead,” remarked Cross. “SI-MBA has acquitted itself well in the five years we have participated in MIINT and our students realize that they can hold their own among their peers when it comes to the world of impact investing.”

The Caliber of Experiential Learning at Grossman

The University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business offers a variety of experiential learning opportunities for students to apply their classroom instruction to real world experiences. While students have the opportunity and faculty support to compete in case competitions at other schools like Wharton, UVM’s Grossman School of Business also hosts its own case competitions such as SG-FECC and Dean’s Cup. These competitions challenge students to apply their classroom knowledge in a pressure-laden environment that develops problem-solving, time management, and communication skills through teamwork, all of which are crucial in today’s workplace.

"We poured our hearts and souls into this project, and it paid off,” said Ghazey. "It was great to be able to secure a real investment for a Vermont company that was founded by true change-makers. Beating the best business schools in the world and showing that a small but mighty MBA program centered on sustainability can make a big impact was really special."