Undergraduates don’t usually present research before a national organization of professionals, but that was the unlikely situation a Franklin & Marshall student found herself in this year.

Last May, Elshaday Melakamu ’26 joined Business, Organizations & Society Professor Nancy Kurland in Chicago for a conference of the Academy of Management, considered the most prestigious management association in the world.

“I have never heard of an undergraduate student attending, let alone presenting, at this conference,” Kurland says. “So, it is a big deal that Elshaday did.”

The AOM conference is for management professionals, doctoral students and practitioners.

A double major in data science and business, organizations & society from Ethiopia, Elshaday helped Kurland in summer 2023 with data collection and analysis for a paper examining the teaching of environmental sustainability in American business education.

“There’s so much opportunity here at F&M,” Elshaday says. “That classes are really small helps to build relationships with professors. That’s how I got to know Professor Kurland really well. I emailed her and told her my interest, we got connected, and I started working on the project.”

Working for the professor was only a two-week paid internship, but Elshaday says she became so interested in the connection between the environment and business that she kept working voluntarily (sustained by another paid internship) throughout the summer.

“I became an environmental studies minor because of the research; I decided I really liked that,” Elshaday says.

Inspired, she completed the work for a half-credit independent study that fall and then wrote her own paper. 

“I wrote a separate paper based on her collaboration with me,” Kurland says. “We submitted both, but only the one that had me as first author was accepted for presentation.”

“There’s so much opportunity here at F&M. That classes are really small helps to build relationships with professors.”

— Elshaday Melakamu

We asked Elshaday three questions about her experience:

Why did you become so interested in the research on business courses in sustainability?

During my freshman year, I took a couple of ENE [Earth & Environment] courses to satisfy my distribution requirements. These classes sparked my interest in environmental studies, and as a business major, I could see how the two fields intersected, especially in corporate sustainability. When Professor Kurland offered the chance to join her new SiME [sustainability in management education] research, I knew it was the perfect opportunity to explore this area further. After working with her over the summer, I decided to pursue an independent research project on the same topic in the fall of my sophomore year. I became so interested in the subject that I decided to declare a minor in environmental studies to continue deepening my knowledge in this area. 

What was your experience like in presenting to the conference in Chicago?

AOM is the oldest and largest community of management and organization scholars in the world, and the five-day annual conference I attended was the largest gathering of management and organization professionals. Initially, I felt a bit overwhelmed about the presentation because I was going to present to experts in the field, and I was just a sophomore undergrad. Even during the sessions I attended, when I mentioned that I was an undergraduate, almost everyone was surprised and asked what I was doing there. Over the summer, Professor Kurland and I met on Zoom to practice for the presentation, and she also allowed me to work on my slides independently and that helped me feel confident in what I was presenting. During the presentation, the professionals I was presenting to were very attentive, and I could tell they were following closely, which made the experience easier for me. Their reaction at the end was heartwarming and positive, and they applauded me for presenting as an undergraduate student. In addition to presenting, I was also able to attend several panel discussions and research presentations about business sustainability that I learned so much from. The conference itself had around 6,400 sessions, presentations or panel discussions to choose from. Attending some of those sessions was very eye-opening to me because as a business major working in the corporate world, it is very easy to become blind to what is happening to the natural environment and how much work is being done outside the company you work at.

Is business sustainability something you expect to pursue in your post-graduate plans?

Absolutely. I am very interested in corporate sustainability, and in the long run, I want to creatively combine my business and data science skills with environmental studies to advocate for environmental sustainability in the business world. I believe this area will have a great influence in the future by driving change in how businesses are operated and create a sustainable future. My goal is to contribute my share to new innovations that integrate data-driven solutions with sustainable practices to promote a healthier environment.