Social Entrepreneurship

This is a collaborative, cross-institution course in social entrepreneurship, where student teams ideate and develop start-up businesses models designed to solve pressing social and environmental problems. Social enterprise solutions can be either for-profit, or non-profit. The course features a global classroom, with students convene each week in a common Zoom space to share ideas. Past certificate courses have incubated real business start-ups at BRAC University in Bangladesh, Al-Quds University in Palestine, and Bard College in New York. The course culminates in a “shark tank for sustainability” among and between teams from the different universities. The course includes readings and discussions focused on social issues related to entrepreneurship: drivers of change, from decarbonization to AI; delinking growth from material throughput; urban-based innovation ecosystems; social obstacles to risk-taking; working on multi-disciplinary teams; language, power, and gender dynamics in entrepreneurship; and deconstructing the archetypes of entrepreneurship. The practice of social entrepreneurship explores the full suite of liberal learning: critical analysis, persuasive writing, oral communication, quantitative reasoning, design thinking, and group social dynamics.

This network course includes an online section that is open to enrollment to GHEA21 students across the network. Please visit the GHEA21 Online Courses for further information.

This course counts toward the Civic Engagement and Sustainability and Climate Solutions certificates.