By: Aayush Gupta (22C)

“Most people think of entrepreneurs as risk-takers. I was taught that you have gifts, you have talent, so you invest in those,” said Kevin Rodgers, founder of SHWAXX Laboratories. On…

For two days, students, faculty, staff and community members had the opportunity to dive into the world of entrepreneurship. Goizueta, in conjunction with Emory Entrepreneurship Ecosystem (E-Cubed) hosted the fourth annual Emory Entrepreneurship Summit. One highlight from the event was the micro-entrepreneurship panel presented by Emory Impact Investing Group featuring four local entrepreneurs...

A member of Emory's varsity cross country and track and field teams, Casey Rhode served as CEO of the Emory Impact Investing Group, a student organization that provides loans to entrepreneurs in economically disadvantaged areas.

This year, EIIG worked with an increased number of entrepreneurs and welcomed new team members. EIIG worked with local entrepreneur Eden Fesshazion to help her manage a Metro Atlanta law firm that specializes in immigration. The group was able to close the loan earlier this year. Thanks, in part, to the influx of capital, Fesshazion is reaching out to new clients…

Students are also responsible for raising the seed money, a job they accomplished with the help of Momentum, Emory’s new crowdfunding website. On the site, people can view a wide range of Emory initiatives, from research projects to campus activities, and provide a donation of any size. This year EIIG received almost $17,000 from nearly 90 friends, family, and alumni, surpassing their goal of $15,000…

Emory senior Brandon Walker co-founded the Emory Impact Investing Group, a nonprofit that provides loans to small businesses in economically disadvantaged areas.

The Emory Impact Investing Group (EIIG) is a nonprofit that strives to close the economic gap in historically disadvantaged areas by providing loans to small businesses that could not receive them otherwise. Goizueta Business School Professor Peter Roberts was unable to invest in a coffee shop in Nicaragua due to the risk of overseas investing and thus called for students to implement impact investing on a local scale, resulting in the creation of the EIIG.

“Impact” and “investing” are two common words, but put those words together, and people often struggle to pinpoint the meaning of the term “impact investing.” Impact investing promotes social impact by making debt investments to parties in need such as entrepreneurs, and Emory Impact Investing Group (EIIG) aims to do exactly this in the Atlanta community…