“I’m excited to be involved in CGIU to meet student-leaders from around the country and around the world, and to hear about their ideas and projects,” says Amanda Yuen, MBA’13. Her “Comittment to Action” project to launch a middle school Science Bowl in Missouri is one of four Olin student projects selected to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative at Wash U April 5-7.

Amanda hails from Oklahoma where she earned her undergrad degree at the University of Oklahoma in special education and social sciences. She worked as a special ed teacher before coming to Olin’s MBA program.

“My initial reason  to get an MBA was I wanted to make a larger impact in education. I wanted to create a community center and connect that to special education teachers, and create a camp for kids with disabilities, and create this whole community of support to connect kids in urban areas with kids with differences,” says Amanda.

Science Bowl is a fast-paced buzzer competition that focuses on a variety of science subjects, including Life Science, Physical Science, Earth and Space Science, Energy, Mathematics , and General Science.

While tutoring and volunteering in St. Louis during her first year of business school, Amanda realized that Missouri did not have a Science Bowl competition for middle schoolers. She loves to share her enthusiasm for science and get students excited about science-related careers and set out to organize the Missouri Science Bowl (MOSciBo)for middle school students.

The first regional competition was held in March at the St. Louis Science Center and the winning team will represent Missouri at the national competition this month in Washington D.C.

Amanda is comitted to staying involved in the MOSciBo after graduation. She will be moving to Memphis, TN where she has landed what she calls “a perfect position” to combine her teaching and new business skills. She will be Director of Operations for the Achievement School District that was created by the Tenessee department of education to focus on the bottom 5% of schools in terms of achievement and raise them to the top 25%.

In addition to her new job, Amanda says she wants to launch another regional science bowl for western Tennessee and spread the enthusiasm she has created here with the MOSciBo. Watch video about MOSciBo on CGIU site.

Good luck Amanda! We’ll be following you on Twitter during the CGIU and beyond!    #MOSCIBO