Daniels MBA alum uses Social Good Project to fulfill his need to help others
Jack Kelemen (MBA 2025) was already a busy man, working 11-hour days and attending MBA classes late into the night. But something was missing. Giving back was central to his ethos, and he wanted a volunteer opportunity where he could make a difference.
Kelemen did his research. He found an organization that aligned with his desire to help veterans, of whom he is one. That organization was Denver-based Adaptive Adventures, which brings adaptive outdoor recreational opportunities—cycling, climbing, kayaking, skiing and more—to adults and children with physical disabilities, many of them veterans, at no cost.
The problem was that Kelemen—himself an avid outdoor athlete—couldn’t find time to make a meaningful contribution. Oddly enough, that’s where the Social Good capstone project, a requirement of his Professional MBA program, came in.
Every Daniels MBA program features a curriculum that turns students into consultants on real organizational issues. The Social Good Project narrows the charge to taking on a substantive business issue for a nonprofit.
From a uniform to street clothes
Kelemen came to the classroom through the infantry. He earned his undergraduate degree at the College of Charleston, then served for seven years as a U.S. Army infantry officer.
He spent five years stationed in Germany, supporting NATO operations across the Baltics and Eastern Europe. His unit helped establish NATO’s first multinational battlegroups as part of the Enhanced Forward Presence mission to deter regional aggression after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Then he traded his uniform for a business career. After a stint back home in South Carolina, he moved to Denver, joined United Rentals, a large equipment rental provider, and enrolled at Daniels, choosing business analytics as his concentration.
“I wasn’t a tech guru or computer whiz, so I chose business analytics precisely because I wasn’t,” Kelemen said. “A friend suggested that I review my resume, identify what’s missing and deliberately fill in those gaps. For me, that meant building the more technical and quantitative side of my business skill set.”
“You don’t do a lot of financial modeling in the infantry,” he added.
Midway through the program, Interwest Safety Supply, a manufacturer and distributor of roadway safety products, recruited Kelemen to serve as general manager for Colorado and Wyoming, tasking him with leading an underperforming region. The challenge allowed him to immediately apply the finance, analytics and strategy concepts he was studying at Daniels while leading a business turnaround.
Seeking more
“What surprised me most about leaving the military was the void of purpose,” Kelemen said. “But I realized it wasn’t realistic to volunteer while working 50-plus hours a week and spending another 20-30 hours on my MBA. When the capstone project came around, it just clicked—this is a serendipitous opportunity. Why not see if Adaptive Adventures is interested?”
Chelsea Elder, executive director of Adaptive Adventures, was indeed interested and in need of help.
“We’re a small team of 11, but we run 650 programs a year,” Elder said. Keleman calls the impact-to-staff ratio “an absolute mismatch.”
So Kelemen and his four project teammates—Ben Powell (MBA 2025), Nick Damm (MBA 2025), Colton Kinninger (MBA 2025) and Kristin Giles (MBA 2025), all but Powell are veterans —visited the headquarters and asked a blunt question: “Where does it hurt?”
The answer started small. Adaptive Adventures needed a consistent way to track in-kind donations—lift tickets, adaptive bikes, ski gear—that arrived from around the country.
“We didn’t have a consistent methodology for it,” Elder said. “The team built one, and they provided training guidance that we couldn’t develop ourselves.”
And the project grew. The team took on a bigger job: mapping an interactive online community platform Elder had dreamed of—a place to keep lonely, isolated participants, mostly veterans, connected between programs.
“They created a roadmap of all the things that we should think about in phases,” she said. “We launched the platform in May and drew nearly 1,000 active users in the first 11 weeks, likely saving lives in the process by keeping these people connected.”
During the project, Elder invited Kelemen to an Adaptive Adventures family multi-sport day. He not only came but also brought his family and asked a string of incisive questions.
Shortly after, she asked him to join the board.
Keleman started on January 1, just in time to help build the organization’s five-year strategic plan. During a planning session, he cited the budget from memory.
“We were thoroughly impressed by how quickly Jack learned about the organization and contributed in a meaningful way,” Elder said.
“What began as a graduate school consulting project led me to join their board,” Kelemen said. “The Professional MBA isn’t just about earning a degree. It’s about developing yourself, building lasting relationships and creating opportunities to make a meaningful impact long after graduation.”