Social Entrepreneurship
Fall 2024
Course Description
This is a collaborative, cross-institution course in social entrepreneurship, where student teams ideate and develop models for social enterprises. Social entrepreneurship is the process of building new organizations that offer scalable solutions to social and environmental challenges. Social enterprise can be either for-profit, or non-profit. The course features a global classroom, with students enrolled convening each week in a common zoom space to share ideas. Participating schools include BRAC University in Bangladesh, Al Quds University in Palestine, the American Universities of Central Asia (in Kyrgyzstan) and of Bulgaria, Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia, and Bard. Past certificate courses have incubated powerful social business ideas in Bangladesh and Palestine. The course will culminate in a “shark tank for sustainability” among and between teams from the different universities, with winning teams then competing at the Bard MBA’s annual Disrupt to Sustain pitch competition in December. The course includes readings and discussion 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; 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 course counts toward the Sustainability and Social Enterprise certificate.
Campuses Offering the Course
Al-Quds Bard CollegeAmerican University in Bulgaria
American University of Central Asia
Bard College
BRAC University
European Humanities University
Parami University
Instructors
Alejandro Crawford, Bard College Eliza Edge, Bard College
Eban Goodstein, Bard College
Sebastian Groh, BRAC University
Jacob Maglio, Bard College
Natalia Mikhailova, European Humanities University
Dalia Najjar, Al-Quds Bard College
Evelina Van Mensel, American University in Bulgaria