Diener Scholars Fund Helps Entrepreneurs Make Real Impacts at Michigan Ross

DIENER SCHOLARS at ZELL LURIE INSTITUTE

Discovering the Diener Difference

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“Diener Scholars exhibit an entrepreneurial spirit, strong leadership skills, as well as a personal drive that matches the innovation objectives of the Zell Lurie Institute. These students excel – inside and outside of the classroom – inspiring their peers and professors alike.”

- ZLI Leadership

uilding a better world through business. It’s an ambitious mission, but one we take pride in achieving every day at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. The Zell Lurie Institute at Michigan Ross achieves this by placing students in entrepreneurial environments where they can work on real problems with real people in real time — making real impacts in the real world.

Since being established in 2015, the Diener Scholars fund has played an integral part in carrying out this mission at ZLI. By providing scholarship support to high-potential, creative, and impact-focused students, you are helping mold the future of entrepreneurship.

Together, our efforts are garnering national recognition. U-M recently landed in the Top 10 of two prestigious rankings:

#4 BBA Entrepreneurship Programs The Princeton Review and Entreprenership Magazine

#6 BBA Entrepreneurship Programs U.S. News & World Report

ZLI’s resources and integrated methods, combined with Ross’ worldclass management curriculum, effectively prepare students for entrepreneurial careers — whether leading their own firms, investing in new ventures, or creating value in more traditional career paths.

Diener Scholars

Benjamin Rathi Eric Katz Howard Sobel Alexander Angerer Jordan Golshan

Briana Feng Jordan Katz Danny Sheridan Alexander Gonzalez Serena Brown Jack Griffin Lakin Vitton Fabio Cesar Gabrielle Decoster Nicholas Becker Nikkita Mikkilineni Jerod Clover Emma Grife Garrett Wilson Anthony Jonikas

2015-16 2015-16 2015-16 2015-16 2016-17 2016-17 2016-17 2016-17 2017-18 2017-18 2017-18 2017-18 2018-19 2018-19 2018-19 2018-19 2019-20 2019-20 2019-20 2019-20

Jack Griffin, BBA ’19, Diener Scholar

Briana Feng, BBA ’18, Diener Scholar

How Diener Scholars Are Impacting the World

“Receiving the Diener Scholarship was a critical turning point in my academic and professional career. It gave me the courage to not only continue my entrepreneurial work while attending the University of Michigan but to go full-time with my social enterprise after graduation, a decision I couldn’t be happier with and that also led to my organization aiding 300,000 food-insecure Americans who lost their jobs due to COVID-19.”

- Jack Griffin, BBA’19 While attending high school, Jack Griffin, BBA ’19, was inspired to create a tool to connect those facing food insecurity with local pantries. What began as a teenage aspiration is now an awardwinning tool in the fight against hunger. FoodFinder is a secure mobile and web app that gives food insecure children and their families a way to find free food assistance programs quickly.

Upon launch in 2014, the FoodFinder platform included only a few dozen food programs near Griffin’s hometown in Georgia. Today, FoodFinder has the information for more than 50,000 food pantries in all 50 states and is used by more than 300,000 people across the country. The expansion to a nationwide reach was made possible in July of 2019 when Griffin received a six-figure grant from the Walmart Foundation.

During the first four months of 2020, FoodFinder connected 115,000 people to food—compared to 14,000 people in the same period last year. This spring, the volume of users surged to 3,000 a day, up from an average of 700 before the COVID-19 crisis.

The FoodFinder database includes food assistance programs in all 50 states, including more than 1,000 food pantries in Michigan. It also lists nearly 30,000 Summer Food Service Programs from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provides free meals to kids and teens in low-income areas.

“My experiences with the Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies (ZLI) are by far what I’m most thankful for throughout my time at Ross,” Griffin said. “Every entrepreneur-in-residence and faculty member of ZLI is an extraordinary person, not just because of their expertise but also for their treatment of me and other student founders. The guidance I’ve received and interactions I’ve had with the ZLI team—in addition to other entrepreneurial students—have been truly enjoyable.”

As a sophomore, Briana Feng, BBA ’18, applied to the Dare to Dream grant program at ZLI, receiving an assessment phase grant to continue work on Cheekycase, an e-commerce startup she launched in high school.

“Receiving a Diener Scholarship while I was a student inspired me to think limitlessly about what I wanted to do in the future,” said Feng.

“This scholarship reminded me that despite all the challenges and risks that entrepreneurship naturally presents, I had supporters to help reaffirm that I should continue pursuing my interests.”

Feng rounded out her entrepreneurial experiences by participating in the 2017 Michigan Venture Capital Investment Competition. Her student team won the competition at U-M and then went on to compete in the regionals.

“I also joined a newly launched U-M student organization called Wolverine Crypto Trading, where I was a financial analyst,” she said.

“Our fund is the first student-led cryptocurrency investment fund at Michigan Ross, and maybe in the world.”

In the fall of 2017, Feng started doing research on cutting-edge technology companies and joined as a co-founder of Reasi, a real estate app where you can make an offer on a property, pay for it, and receive the deed completely online. “By digitally integrating legal documents with money deposits, we’ve streamlined and encrypted the offer-to-close process, resulting in real-time transparency and lower cost-of-service,” says Feng.

Feng continues to develop Resai as a side project while working for Hana, a subsidiary of CBRE, which provides shared office space and workspace for entrepreneurs and businesses in New York.

Thank you for supporting Michigan Ross entrepreneurs through the Diener Scholars fund!