Texas State’s Net Impact chapter recognized as finalist for Chapter of the Year

SAN MARCOS, Texas — The Net Impact student chapter at Texas State University's McCoy College of Business has been named a finalist for the 2024 Undergraduate Chapter of the Year award.

Net Impact is a global organization committed to using business as a force for good. With over 60,000 members across 300 plus chapters, including McCoy College's gold chapter, the organization motivates members to take on projects focused on sustainability and social responsibility.

"We've been working very hard as of late, so it's a big honor to be considered for the undergraduate chapter of the year, especially since there are so many undergraduate chapters across the U.S.,” said Gaven Ham, senior management student and the organization's president. “It's just a great pleasure to be nominated for it."

Ham and Landon Ash, a junior management major and the chapter's vice president and treasurer, said their work on projects like Net Impact's Up to Us competition — a nationwide leadership program designed to help increase the public's understanding of the fiscal and economic issues in the U.S. — and the Circular Plastic Challenge helped earn them recognition as a finalist.

The chapter was recognized as one of a handful of finalists across five categories: U.S. undergrad, U.S. grad, U.S. professional, international student, and international professional. Net Impact judges selected winners based on their leadership, community service, and commitment to Net Impact's values.

Trevi Kelly, assistant professor of instruction in the Department of Information Systems and Analytics and the chapter's faculty advisor, said the recognition reflects the students' dedication to environmentally sustainable and ethical business practices.

"It's huge," Kelley said. "It's great, and it's exciting to see them honored for all the effort and work they put into it, especially since we're a small group. We don't have a huge number of members."

Kelley, who stepped into the advisory role in August of 2024, said the chapter, like many other student organizations, still feels the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted recruitment and retention.

"The pandemic kind of wreaked havoc on all student organizations," she said. "It's not just Net Impact. So many students now are less engaged because they spent those formative years behind a computer screen."

Despite reduced membership, Ash said their efforts to engage and retain new members remain steadfast.

"I think overall, just seeing how we've overcome since COVID as a group and as we've operated as a small project team, we've tried to just overcome attendance challenges and retention since then," Ash said. "We usually just try to execute the best as we can with the people that we have and learn together and move forward. We want to just bring awareness of what a sustainability organization can provide for McCoy students and everyone involved."

The chapter's leadership team plans to build awareness beyond McCoy College by working with other colleges across campus and focusing on more local, community-based projects.

"We would like to reach out to all the other participating colleges on campus because you can always get much greater insights from having very diverse people on your team," Ham said. "We'd like to participate more with the community going forward. We've done these larger challenges which focus on national issues but they feel disconnected from the community, so we'd like to engage in more community events."

Ash said this initiative is essential, providing an opportunity to develop diverse and innovative sustainability solutions within the chapter.

"We want to kind of bring in people from all backgrounds," Ash said. "We've been known to be very broad in majors and the students that we bring in, we kind of cater to all so finding [a] way where we can enter other colleges inside of Texas State has been an ongoing action that we're trying to take, not just centralizing on the business side of McCoy College. It all intertwines and is a sustainable act."

Ham said Net Impact’s sustainability efforts align with a contemporary movement of businesses shifting their operations to include more environmentally and socially responsible policies.

"Business is a great chance for change and especially in the modern business setting," he said. "It's definitely become a lot more prominent and even required by stakeholders nowadays for businesses to engage in such values and sustainability initiatives."

The group plans to collaborate with other student organizations within McCoy College for a community-focused Earth Day event and is in the process of submitting its project for the Circular Plastics Challenge later this month. ✯