Universities as Agents of Change

Hi everyone, glad to get this started and look forward to the conversation! We're constantly on the look-out for successful and innovative examples of what's out there, so feel free to share resources, stories, ideas, and personal examples of what you're doing with universities, or alternatively, what you think is missing.

I've been reaching out to universities for more than a decade, and find that one of the biggest obstacles is that most faculty are already involved in "something" and are reluctant to take on new projects. Obviously, this would change if I were a wealthy donor, or were able to bring money with me, when I was asking for their involvement.

Thus, the message and the messenger have always been one of the obstacles. However, I've been chipping away at this and in the past three years have received interns from Hong Kong, India, Korea and the US via universities such as Michigan, IIT, Indiana, Northwestern and DePaul. In the groups at http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/groups you can see work that has been done, and in the http://nututormentor.ning.com you can see how we're working to build a community of support from Northwestern. We'd like to be duplicating that from other universities.

Several years ago, when I first started participating in Social Edge discussions, a group from Oxford was talking about a project they started. The question I asked, was "what happens when you leave school?" Is the project continued by the next class of students? Do you continue to support it as an alumni? This let me to set up a project I title the Business School Connection. You can read about this at http://boardfellow.wikispaces.com/ . So far this is just an idea that different interns have helped me move forward. Perhaps this forum will spark some new interest.

To me the answer to engaging universities lies in finding the self-interest of the university, its students and its alumni. The projects I'm focused on are knowledge-based. Anyone wanting to end poverty through education can draw from the knowledge on my web site to innovate their own forms of involvement. When universities realize that they can use the massive amounts of knowledge that they host to support the on-going involvement in social benefit issues, in ways that keep their alumni, and their donors, connected to the university, while building the reputation of the university at the same time, more and more of them will take on the intermediary role that I'm piloting from a non profit basis.

I'll look forward to hearing what others have to say, and hope that some of the students from different universities will browse the opportunities on the Tutor/Mentor Connection site and want to put this discussion to work through their own involvement.

Your point about matching your work to the interests of the university is spot-on, especially where money is concerned. Alumni are eager to support young change leaders, and to see that their money is going to more than building a new walkway. Demonstrating that programs like Tutor/Mentor are built into the core of the university (and supported accordingly) is also the best way to recruit top-level students, who increasingly aren't satisfied with simply learning about the problems facing the world, but want to be able to do something about them.

The question of what happens to projects after students graduate is also a key one. I agree that institutionalization in some form or another is essential--whether by having the university or department adopt it as its own (as in, it appears, the suggested case of the Business School Connection), or by simply creating an active network of mentors/advisors to help students ensure their efforts don't die out with their graduation.

Earlier this Fall, Ashoka launched the Changemaker Campus Initiative, as a way to partner with select universities to develop new models for fostering social entrepreneurship education and participation across campus. Our teams of students, faculty, and staff at George Mason, the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins, and Cornell are working on many of the very same issues you raise. For example: seizing on the inherent intellectual and knowledge-based expertise available in universities to develop new courses addressing social innovation and social entrepreneurship in different departments and disciplines; highlighting the stories of changemakers on and off campus to provide new role models; and mapping out resources, allies, and opportunities to get involved so that people simply know what's out there, and are less likely to reinvent the wheel. http://www.ashoka.org/changemakercampus

We've found that it's often less about creating new activities or course offerings, but rather improving what's currently available, and connecting people and services to one another. I think this helps answer your first question about how to work with new faculty (or any of the countless impassioned but already over-committed people on campus): in that same way that it's necessary to understand the university's interests, it helps out to identify potential collaborators based on how your work fits with what they're already doing and fulfills an existing need or otherwise helps to advance their own cause.

Easier said than done, we realize, and would love to learn about what others are doing, and any systems and tools you're using to help make that happen.

I can lend some thoughts here because my experiences in college as an aspiring social entrepreneur led me to start Sparkseed, a nonprofit organization that supports college social entrepreneurs.

While at Boston College I was passionate about social justice, but thought traditional student activist tactics were not effective enough. The business school seemed to teach people efficiency and the school of arts and sciences taught applied ethics. There was not a healthy confluence of the two.

While at Yale I launched Sparkseed, but found more academic than real-life resources. The key to entrepreneurship is getting your hands dirty. Rather than more classes on social entrepreneurship, what I needed was funding, mentors, connections, and simple tools. Today, that's what Sparkseed provides to college social entrepreneurs.

For universities that want to incubate social entrepreneurs, there are a few things that students need:

1. Funding, but also help creating a real business plan 2. Mentors - not just professors, but also practitioners. 3. Work space - don't scare students with patentable ideas off campus with IP policies. 4. Connections - don't tell students to look up alumni. That won't happen. Introductions are needed.

How wonderful to hear about the practical and simple insights you have for addressing this challenge. We have talked to many students who are interested in "getting their hands dirty" and are frustrated they haven't found concrete outlets to (1) explore how their passions can turn into a venture idea, and (2) beyond that how to make their idea on paper a reality in the world, and (3) once launched, how to evolve and scale their model over time.

Some people might say that some of the student supports are already addressed by the multitude of business plan competitions that have been springing up related to social entrepreneurship, some of them fully focused on ventures with social impact (like the Global Social Venture Competition) and some with tracks on Social Entrepreneurship within a traditional for-profit competition (at Harvard, Yale, Brown, MIT, and many others).

Business plan competitions can be helpful in giving social entrepreneurs prestige and some momentum with financial and legal resources. But you have hit the nail on the head when you talk about what rich array of tailored resources that are needed to create a community of people that can be nurtured as social entrepreneurs. The needs go well beyond the the structure and timeline of a competition and the writing of a business plan. In the end the business plan competition is only one piece of a larger and longer-term effort to connect promising young leaders with ideas and the necessary resources to be successful.

Ashoka has found that there are many factors that contribute to the development and insights that lead social entrepreneurs/Ashoka Fellows to launch their ventures. It is not that one day they walk down their street and are hit by the need to launch the newest movement to fight HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. It is the cumulative effect of their life experience and the combinations of "triggers" that get them to start taking action. They often start taking action from a young age and develop the aptitude for leadership and making change, and this becomes a pattern throughout their life, only each time with more impact and insight on the best levers of change to use.

So how can we use these ideas for university programs? How can we induce the "triggers" that awaken in students the ideas that may have been latent for what they might do in the world? How can we provide rolemodels that show them career paths they might not otherwise have thought possible? And just as Mike brought up, for those that are eager to get into social entrepreneurship, what is the best ladder of engagement for them to become more and more effective at reaching impact?

Mike, perhaps you can write a concrete example of a student who benefited from your program with the resources you mention (funding, mentors, work space and connections). Also, how do you differentiate the benefits you offer from a business plan competition or classroom venture incubator?

I believe that two problems that the universities must address are the grading system and a poor Government grant systems. At the moment many students are not taking courses that they need for fear that they will get a bad grade. Also some professors are giving good grades in subjects that the students don't need or in subjects that the students feel have poor scholastic content, just to fill up their classes. In addition, the Government is giving out research grants to those professors and students who will tell Government officials what they want to hear. I realize the tenure system is supposed to correct these problems. I don't believe relying on the tenure system is enough. If a professor is offered a $30M grant to tell the Government what they want to hear and very little otherwise, many professors will be "practical". If a student can keep his scholarship only by taking easy courses, many will be "practical". The best indication of a needed course, is when the grades are low and many students still take the course. You will never have graduates with a socially entrepreneurial mindset in their work unless the universities improve, in my opinion.

I have seen first-hand the challenge of Social Entrepreneurship (or related) courses being graded either too harshly or too leniently, and either one of those has negative effects. It ends of being perceived as a "fluffy" class which only attracts those who want an easy A and don't really have what it takes to launch and successfully manage a venture. Or it ends up scaring off action-oriented folks if it is too academically rigorous and graded accordingly. It is a tough challenge to achieve the best of both worlds

be rigorous enough to attract students who are committed and serious to learning about the topic, but not have so many barriers that it becomes an exclusive domain.

I don't have much experience with government grants so can't speak to that - could you give a concrete example of how you have seen this plaiyng out, and also mention which country you are writing from?

I think the other major element to add to your comments is the effectiveness of the teaching and the reputation and perceived value of the course. I know many students would take a course that is graded toughly if they think it will teach them the skills and if it has a highly effective teacher at the helm. There is currently wide variance in the perceived effectiveness of Social Enreprneneurship courses. I have heard that some course evaluations of social entrepreneurship courses consistently report that students' lives have been changed because of the course content. While others have been turned off of Social Entrepreneurship because they were so disappointed by their classes.

So the issues can go far beyond grading...what do you think?

Marina I have taught in a University and have been a Government contractor (I am considered an expert in the field of Business Processs ReEngineering). I am currently retired and am starting projects in the Department of Cordoba in Colombia and in Malawi. In the past, I have worked with economists from Afghanistan, Egypt, Russia, India, etc (see http://home.comcast.net/~prigter/site/ ). The type of expertise that I feel in most important in working with BOP farmers is agriculture engineering (in particular, tropical and arid land agriculture, micro irrigation, tropical fruit trees, moringa, chaya, modern backyard poultry and pig raising techniques, SRI, etc. see http://www.echotech.org/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=148&Itemid=156). Since many personnel at the BOP are subsistence farmers, it is necessary to have an understanding of what they need if you want to be effective. Providing microloans helps if the necessary supplies are available which is often not the case. Many Government grants are given for policy studies and not enough grants are given for creating supply chains needed by subsistence farmers. The Gates Foundation PASS program is trying to correct this problem in Africa. In urban areas, there also is a supply chain problem that causes many BOP businesses to fail.

Good day! I just finished my thesis on social entrepreneurship to explore factors affecting organizational performance. Two of my respondents were school-based so I just thought of sharing some observations. One of the factors determined was the existence of a supporting office to help the social enterprise develop into a full-blown venture. But the initiative to sustain social mission should come from the primary stakeholders such as the students for the supporting office will only provide the necessary means for the enterprise to take off such as training and capacity building. The role of the office (university) and the social enterprise should be clear to provide an integrated framework that captures realization of both social program and business activities. It is also seen that interdenpendence is highly important and should be emphasized for students/alumni might have tendency to be highly dependent on the university since it has resources.

Social mission should also be part of the Universities' educational mission for it would be easier to develop relevant programs for students / alumni who want to venture into social entrepreneurship. Based on my study that is Philippine-based, there is no common model on social entrepreneurship as it emerge depending on how social entrepreneurs integrate social program and business activities so this conversation is a good start in sharing commonalities and finding common strengths to pursue social entrepreneurship. Thanks.

Hello there! Thank you very much for your comments and congratulations on completing your thesis.

It sounds like you are based in the Philippines, so I wanted to mention to you that there are a few great programs relating to social entrepreneurship based in universities there. Maria Lisa Dacanay at the Asian Institute of Management in Manila has been working on social enterprise issues for many years and has a Masters Program in Entrepreneurship for Social and Development Entrepreneurs. Also, Tony La Vina works as Ashoka's country representative for the Philippines and also has has a role at the Ateneo School of Government, where they teach Social Entrepreneurship courses.

Here in Virginia, The Phoenix Project has been experimenting on working with universities across the state to train their top students to understand social entrepreneurs and the rewarding career path that it provides. Our statewide Nonprofit Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship Program engages students from a variety of backgrounds and both graduate and undergraduate students from dozens of universities.

A few of things that we've found to be critical to the process:

*Multi-disciplinary focus

allows students to gain knowledge in subject matters that might be their regular course of study. It is powerful to see the different opinions and problem-solving approaches social work students have, as compared to, say business or law students. We generally feel that social entrepreneurs need to understand, at a minimum, parts of traditional nonprofit theory, business, law, and politics to be able to address social challenges in the most innovative and impactful manner -- and be able to move in these various circles of influence. For the field to grow, we will need to branch out well beyond the business schools where many of the programs are currently housed in the US.

*Instruction by experts and hands-on engagement

social entrepeneurship isn't something that you can learn from a book, you have to engage with people that understand the work because they've lived it and you need a chance to live it yourself. Our program engages people as pro bono consultants to nonprofits and social entrepreneurs in an economically distressed community where they live and work for six weeks. All classes are taught be experts and seasoned professionals work with each team of students as they complete their projects.

*Independence

Finally, I would add that for us being an independent nonprofit, rather than an official part of the university structure, has allowed us to be extremely flexible and collaborative. We have benefitted from the best ideas and thinking of leading faculty members at institutions throughout the state; they have helped to inform and shape our program since it was piloted in 2006 and each takes some sense of ownership in ensuring the success of our work moving forward.

How universities best prepare future social entrepreneurs is a timely and necessary conversation and one that must be continued both online and off. Towards that end, there will be a session for students and faculty members at the upcoming Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship Conference (www.aseconference.org), a national conference that we are co-convening with the Corporation for National and Community Service on May 4, 2009 in Washington, DC. Ashoka's North American Division President Lucy Perkins is participating, along with several universities. We hope that more students and faculty interested in this topic will also join us either in person or online through our webstreaming options.

Hi David. Thank you for your post. We are looking forward to joining you at the Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship Conference in May.

The work of the Phoenix Project is notable, especially in the way that you are able to engage students in distressed communities where they live and work. One comment that we have heard on multiple occasions is that an effective social entrepreneurship education must support students in understanding their context and how to be mindful of the community. With the economic crises hitting small town and big cities alike throughout the U.S., we must put our creativity and ingenuity to practice in our own back yards. During this process, it is also essential to get feedback from constituents and to be held accountable for the level of impact and results. Do you have any recommendations of how can this type of partnership approach be adapted in other university contexts across the country? Or for universities internationally that may be interested in partnering with their local communities?

I was also struck by the call for a multi-disciplinary focus, which is something that was discussed repeatedly at the University Network for Social Entrepreneurship meetings prior to the Skoll World Forum. It seems to me that we have a field-wide recognition of the need to collaborate across the curriculum, but the challenge is in aligning the incentives for meaningful collaboration. The incentives for aspiring social entrepreneurs seem more clear to me to gain skills in business, law, politics and theory that can be directly applied in their ventures. But how can we successfully involve more faculty and staff from across the curriculum to embrace social entrepreneurship

in a way that advances either their research goals or leadership in their own academic field? For starters, I think we can learn from the stellar work of our colleague and advisor Kirk Hanson at the interdisciplinary Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara. Have you seen any other good practices for encouraging impactful inter-disciplinary collaboration at all levels?

Thanks, Erin. I would point to two leaders of the field in North Carolina - Duke and UNC Chapel Hill - but not for what is happening at their renowned business schools at CASE (though obviously superb in their own right), but rather what is happening at the undergraduate level.

Duke has started an Entrepreneurial Leadership Initative (http://www.pubpol.duke.edu/centers/hlp/programs/eli/index.html), a multi-stage process for undergraduate students that starts with an introductory course, followed by a summer experience supporting community partners in Durham, and then a capstone course that helps students to develop their social enterprise business plans. The top students can benefit from a social entrepreneurship incubator that provides both technical and financial support to to launch these enterprises.

At UNC, the university has developed a cross-disciplinary entrepreneurship minor for undergraduate students. The minor includes a special track for those interested in social entrepreneurship (as well as art entrepreneurship and science/technical entrepeneurship tracks). Together, undergraduate students from both universities have joined together to create a student-led organization to support social innovators on both campuses called SEEDS (http://seedstudents.org/). These are solid and cutting-edge efforts that provide both context and facilitate a multi-disciplinary approach that spurs innovation and helps to cultivate the network necessary to support these emerging leaders.

Hi David,

I'm glad to see you here. Please tell everyone about the on-line forums you'll be hosting for people who can't make it to DC for the Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship Conference.

In my work, I'm trying to engage students, faculty, and alumni, from all sectors of a university, in what I call a "network of purpose". The link goes to a concept map illustrating different groups of people who might join together in efforts to help kids born in poverty rise through k-12, then college, and then jobs in companies led by alumni. http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/servlet/SBReadResourceServlet?rid=1238727620187_1161977397_30241&partName=actualhtmltext

The hub of this wheel represents the "vision" for why such people would connect, and stay connected to each other.

Creating such a vision, and sharing ownership with a wide range of stakeholders is the glue that might create the ideal form of engaged university that we might want.

Marina, Erin, Lennon: Thanks for initiating this critical conversation.

I'd like to share our experience in running Engineers for Social Impact (http://www.e4si.org), a unique fellowship program connecting top university talent to credible social enterprises driving market-based approaches to development in India.

As students, we launched E4SI rather audaciously in late 2007, putting together an advisory board of experts, while firmly convinced that we could best understand and access both the university and social enterprise networks. I first shared the idea at http://www.nextbillion.net/blog/2007/09/16/talent-strategy-for-nextbillion-enterprises, while writing for NextBillion.net, a project of the World Resources Institute.

Since then, we've run 2 editions of our fellowship program: driving a new paradigm of the development sector for thousands of students at 15 universities, and matching the top 7% of our applicants (28 Fellows) with challenging summer internships at partner social enterprises.

Our total budget so far? Under $300.

Our values make us different, as we choose to address a void in the "fellowship" market:

Local Talent: We chose not to create another program aimed at Indian diaspora abroad, but focus on local talent, who might get acclimatized sooner and have a stronger incentive to remain engaged; we didn't want to stops at driving awareness of social change, but to drive a new paradigm in how top talent looks at the sector.

Market Paradigm: We would only work with those social enterprises that are applying business solutions to create social impact. Our partners (http://www.e4si.org/portal/our-network) typically: -have commercially viable models -have scalable models for tangible impact -offer entrepreneurial assignments with strong access for Fellows.

High-Yield Model: We didn't have the luxury of a large endowment, and didn't want to depend on donations. This challenged us to create a high-yield, facilitator model in which we convinced enterprises to invest in their long-term talent strategy: paying our Fellows competitive stipends, and paying us a nominal marketing fee. We do not augment these stipends, committed to provide our Fellows a realistic view of the sector.

Our Value Proposition to Fellows: Highly Entrepreneurial Experience Unprecedented Access: Working with leading social entrepreneurs over the summer, and attending a workshop at the ISB, Hyderabad to share your ideas with thought leaders * Unparalleled Cohort Benefits

Our Future Strategy: Through a close-knit, highly engaged community... We will help our Fellows develop strong personal brands in development through enterprise, and share relevant resources with the broader youth community... ... all while focusing on with very actionable outcomes.

For more information, please feel free to contact us or to visit Engineers for Social Impact at http://www.e4si.org

Hi Nitin, glad to have you with us! Engineers for Social Impact sounds like a terrific program, and a model that could be applied well outside India.

Are you all based within a university? I would love to learn how you keep your own costs so low, as we've found that one of the biggest challenges out there is the match-making process. As it sounds like you've found, demand from students and post-grads (and increasingly, executive education programs and senior volunteers) for meaningful internships far exceeds the supply of organizations with the capacity to provide the sort of engaged and valuable experience you're looking for. Our Africa offices in particular have looked at creating a similar system for locally-based intern placements with Fellows, out of recognition of the immense amount of untapped local talent and in part to foster a "give-back" culture amongst college-age youth. We also have a partnership with Artemisia (http://www.artemisia-international.org/) and AIESEC (http://www.aiesec.org), placing AIESEC students with social business ventures. It's been a huge success, but because of the substantial vetting required on both sides, it requires a significant time investment/placement and a full-time coordinator.

For E4SI and other readers with similar programs, what kinds of support do your Fellows typically provide? And how do you support them outside of the placement, both before and after their stay? What are the key challenges to scaling your efforts?

For those of you in the field, what are you looking for from student interns, service opportunities, or universities more generally? We often emphasize the value proposition for the visiting Fellow, especially as a way to encourage top talent to consider the social sector and to expand their understand of today's "nonprofits" --- yet there's a danger in sending those who simply want to "help" half-way around the world (or even into the other "world" on the other side of town) ill-prepared, or into placements that lack the capacity to accommodate them. Not only can it discourage those students or volunteers (regardless of age) from getting involved in the future, but it can cause organizations to view even culturally sensitive and well-prepared students with skepticism and hesitation, and from the university's standpoint, discourage them from providing financial resources and support services for future students. What are the challenges you've seen, and what have been your best experiences with students or college groups? Along the same lines of the earlier threads, what can we do to scale such placements: to match those with resources to those with needs, and to do so in a way that's valuable for all sides?

I am requesting your participation for a dissertation in social entrepreneurship.

This brief Social Entrepreneurs' Value Assessment asks about your understanding of social entrepreneurship while also assessing your own personal values.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=o0FLBe7_2fvm0ULcKGAqJQFg_3d_3d

Unless you provide your contact details for future correspondence regarding this and future research, your response will be completely confidential.

The survey should take approximately 15-30 minutes to complete depending on how long you contemplate your own personal values.

Please contact me directly via email or phone with any questions; and thank you in advance for your participation and social awareness.

Laurie.McCabe@cox.net 757-343-8545

Thank you for your request, Laurie. I am sure many in the community would be interested in filling out your survey. My personal opinion is that personal values are critical in guiding the work of established social entrepreneurs - and in charting out new opportunities for aspiring social entrepreneurs and changemakers in society.

Could you tell us a little more about your thesis project and where you are studying? How did you become interested in this topic area and what type of support have you had for your PhD? How do you hope to use the research results?

Here's a new resource the Tutor/Mentor Connection has just launched, which aims to help universities, hospitals, faith groups and businesses become more strategic about where they engage with organizations in their communities. http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/AssetMap.aspx?map=College

Since so many colleges have diversity strategies in their strategic plans, and talk about creating "pipelines" of youth through their school and into careers, this map can help each college in Chicago develop a strategy that connects one end of the pipeline to kids starting elementary school in high poverty neighborhoods and the other end to alumni who are looking for workers or who want to solve some of the problems caused by poverty.

At http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com you can read articles showing how we think people can use these maps.

Hi All –

I work with Net Impact, an international nonprofit organization whose goal is to make a positive impact on society by growing and strengthening a community of leaders who use business to improve the world. We offer a portfolio of programs to educate, equip, and inspire more than 10,000 members to make a tangible difference in their universities, organizations, and communities.

Until two years ago, Net Impact worked primarily with MBAs and professionals. In 2007, we began a pilot program for undergraduate students at a dozen campuses across the United States and Canada. As awareness of business as a means for social change spreads, we realize that it is crucial to involve undergraduate youth who want to know how they can translate what they learn in the classroom into tools they can use as socially responsible professionals. We now have a growing presence at over 30 undergraduate campuses.

I agree that we need more accurate information about learning outcomes and how well programs are run in order to increase social impact and create a more effective, efficient sector. Net Impact is currently conducting its second major survey of undergraduate students to learn more about their perspectives on corporate responsibility and their social impact career prospects. We are asking students whether they believe colleges and universities are currently preparing them to work toward the betterment of society, and whether their undergraduate studies are giving them a practical foundation for their post-graduation interests. Please feel free to contact me to learn more!

Best, Alejandra Villalobos Strategic Projects Manager Net Impact www.netimpact.org

At Colorado State, we have started a program specifically targeted toward an international group of people who want to use entrepreneurial approaches to work on our global challenges. Students and faculty work on both enterprise projects (trying to plan and launch a venture) and research projects. www.csugsse.org

It isn't perfect by a long shot, but we are seeing progress on both fronts. More faculty are getting involved, more students want to enroll and more companies/NGOs want to do projects.

For an example, one GSSE project, Powermundo, was covered in an article today: http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090414/BUSINESS/90413043

The NCIIA is also working on DR100, an idea from Paul Polak, to get 100 universities around the world to offer courses in "Design for the Other 90%". They plan to offer resources to universities to help them offer these courses and projects.

My parting comment: part of social entrepreneurship is "changing the rules" and it is unlikely that there is going to be widespread change in universities from the top. It will more likely be the result of many experiments, and sharing what works and what doesn't.

I co-edited a book a while ago that included a chapter titled "Raising Mice in the Elephants Cage." It was written by a longtime IBM exec, Jim McGroddy, and it described the challenges of being a technology "intrapreneur" within a large corporation. The title sort of says it all, but the paper is still worth reading. (URL below.)

From what I have been able to figure, making social entrepreneurship happen on a college campus is also alot like raising mice in the elephant's cage. The elephants, of course, have a tendency to worry about the mice. And the mice--to be specific here, student social entrepreneurs and the programs that support them--have a tendency to feel fundamentally unwelcome when surrounded by Departments and Disciplines; as a consequence they may quite naturaly come to the conclusion that their best approach is either to lurk in corners, drawing as little attention to themselves as possible, or to leave the cage altogether.

Motivated by our participation in Ashoka's Changemaker Campus program and benefitting a combination of great partners and fortuitous timing, a few of us wee little mice at George Mason University (inspired and led by Paul Rogers, an English Professor, and Alex Gudich-Yulle, a senior at Mason) are giving a go at dancing with the elephant. Working with the university leadership (relatively nimble Proboscidea in this case, fortunately) we have put together what appears to be a first-in-the-nation plan to make social entrepreneurship a core part of the college experience at a major university. (Are we wrong? Others? We want to know.) The proposal, titled "Social Entrepreneur and Social Innovators: 21st Century Leaders of Change" is one step away from being adopted by Mason's leadership as the core of the quality enhancement plan (QEP) that will guide undergraduate education for the next 5 years.

What is interesting about the QEP is that the plan ultimately adopted will be linked directly to the university's accreditation process. That means (1) it consists of binding commitments and (2) it is supported with real funds, (3) it cuts across all activities related to undergraduate education.

Our dance with the elephant isn't done of course. Our proposal is one of three "finalists." But the QEP committee, and subsequently the Provost and the President of the University, have yet to choose the proposal that actually will form the core of the University's plans.

But if all goes well, we're just getting started... Anyone got steel-toe ballet shoes in a size 0.1?

BTW: The QEP committee has invited input from inside and outside the Mason community via the topic selection survey at . If you think that it would be interesting to see a 30,000 student university situated within 30 minutes of the White House focused on social entrepreneurship for a half decade, then this would be a good opportunity to share that view with Babar ....

And thanks Marina, Lennon, and Erin and other friends at Ashoka for all your help, advice, and support through our Changemaker Campus year!! What a great experience we (http://www.ashoka.org/GMU-team) have all had this year.

URL for McGroddy paper: www.hks.harvard.edu/sed/docs/k4dev/mcgroddy_techrisk_2001.pdf

... Mason's QEP topic selection survey is at qep.gmu.edu . URL is missing in above post.

I like the anology of mice and elephants. I use a reference to John the Baptist who, according to the Bible, spent time wandering in the desert proclaiming the coming of a Messiah. He ended up losing his head. I,and probably many other innovators, often feel like someone pointing to a Messiah, which is also like "tilting at windmills". We're just trying to survive, or keep from getting stepped on by elephants.

So much for that..

In the link on the QEP site the survey seems to only request imput from people affiliated with the university.

In my own comment, I think all three ideas have merit, but to me, are missing one really important opportunity. Problems take a long time to solve. If the university stimulates student involvement in a social problem, can they support that student, with the resources of other students, alumni and faculty, as the student continues to develop the ideas over the 20 to 40 years after that student leaves campus.

I feel that when universities cultivate alumni for more than donations they will open a vast vault of opportunities for ways they can serve as intermediaries, or engaged universities, helping people solve real-world problems by providing ideas, manpower, and even dollars to those people and places where the work is being done.

Maybe this long-term support idea is in the plan?

Thank you for the correction regarding the QEP survey! An earlier round invited comments from both inside and outside the university community. Not so this round! Apologies to any others who made an effort to share their thoughts. In the unlikely event you would like to offer comment on this plan, please feel to email Kim Eby who chairs the QEP committee. The university will reach a decision within the next 10 days.

"For current nonprofit practitioners, philanthropists, business leaders or government officials, how could universities better support you and your present work?"

Two phenomenon are concurrently developing that will aid both nonprofits and universities. First, interest in social entrepreneurship is growing rapidly, and the literature is showing signs of a consensus for a definition. Though no standard definition exists, I prefer the following which incorporates many of the elements within the literature: social entrepreneurship is the effective progress against social problems by seizing opportunities through innovative, entrepreneurial leadership.

Second, universities are racing toward the concept of service-learning which engages students in community service while allowing them to learn a specific discipline or major. The President’s emphasis on service along with the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll has prompted more universities to adopt a service-learning model within their curriculum.

As these two phenomenon merge together, it could result in tremendous benefit for both universities and nonprofit. Nonprofit practitioners should be aggressively developing relationships with local and area universities to secure a working partnership. Nonprofits have the opportunity (a key element in social entrepreneurship) to harness skilled labor from universities for no cost. Universities should continue to develop service-learning programs that send students into the community to provide innovative ideas to local nonprofits.

Service-learning is a great way for nonprofits to exercise social entrepreneurship. This is a win-win for both.

I think it would be helpful if University personnel examined the current job needs of the NGO community. They are posted on the UN reliefweb website at http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/res.nsf/doc212?OpenForm, the Interaction website at http://www.interaction.org/jobs, and the Nextbillion website at http://www.nextbillion.net/

My impression is that the Universities should train more personnel that actually can provide services and training to BOP personnel in trades such as agriculture engineering, animal sciences, medicine, etc and focus less on general policy studies.

Justing, I think you're right that there are tremendous opportunities. However, I think there is one huge hurdle that we need to overcome. That's the issue of funding. The non profit can't be as good a partner to the university if there are not consistent operating/innovation dollars for the NPO expenses.

I've started groups on Ning to try to build involvement from universities, with a goal of attracting alumni to donate to the NPO, not just to the university. You can see one of these groups at http://nututormentor.ning.com

In the groups at http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com you can see a couple of similar efforts in this strategy. Both are aimed at building shared commitment, in which students become alums and stay involved with the cause, supported by the college and the NPO.

"For current nonprofit practitioners, philanthropists, business leaders or government officials, how could universities better support you and your present work?"

Two phenomenon are concurrently developing that will aid both nonprofits and universities. First, interest in social entrepreneurship is growing rapidly, and the literature is showing signs of a consensus for a definition. Though no standard definition exists, I prefer the following which incorporates many of the elements within the literature: social entrepreneurship is the effective progress against social problems by seizing opportunities through innovative, entrepreneurial leadership.

Second, universities are racing toward the concept of service-learning which engages students in community service while allowing them to learn a specific discipline or major. The President’s emphasis on service along with the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll has prompted more universities to adopt a service-learning model within their curriculum.

As these two phenomenon merge together, it could result in tremendous benefit for both universities and nonprofit. Nonprofit practitioners should be aggressively developing relationships with local and area universities to secure a working partnership. Nonprofits have the opportunity (a key element in social entrepreneurship) to harness skilled labor from universities for no cost. Universities should continue to develop service-learning programs that send students into the community to provide innovative ideas to local nonprofits.

Service-learning is a great way for nonprofits to exercise social entrepreneurship. This is a win-win for both.

Hi All - For the past 3 years I've had the real joy of teaching a class entitled "Social Entrepreneurship" at Clark University in Worcester, MA and have found that young adults from nearly every college ( physics, business, geography, international development, psychology, etc.) within the university want to enroll because of a simple desire: they want to know how they can use whatever personal skills or academic training they have to make some measure of difference in the world ! It's that simple - we all need to feel our lives have some value which transcends merely "making a living" and young people of college age - I believe - are in search of some higher meaning. This is precisely where a university plays such a crucial role; opening young people up to the possibility of a new didactic and real world experiences. This past term we statred our first SE Field experience ( an advanced Directed Study class for serious SE students) as an extension to my class and 8 students traveled to Ghana to work with a social entrepreneur there who is changing the paradigm in the education of disabled children in her country. Other of my SE students want to start a TV show ( loosely based on an MTV format) which would bring social entrepreneurs from around the world to college students via television and internet. Can universities serve as change agents in terms of exposing young - smart - talented - and priveleged ( in relative terms when compared to their counterparts at the Bottom of the Pyramid) individuals to means which conflate their own experiences and talents to some local or global social good ? Absolutley ! We just need to have full faith in our college students that they seek to "do well and do good" and offer them the opportunity to discuss and debate ways in which Se can serve as ONE vehicle to make an impact on humanity. College professors - we need to get off our backsides and get "creatively disruptive " ourselves inthe teaching of SE to those many students who desperately want to know how they can make a difference in life. Dr.D.A. Jordan, Social Entrepreneur-In-Residence, Clark University ( Worcester, MA).

In my view there are at least three major steps required for the universities to prepare their graduate to be future soscial enterpreneurs.

1. Preparing and strengthening students' theoretical foundation and develop their understanding on the empirical realities on social enterpreneurship by offering the the subject. During the learning processes, give them opportunities to see and observed how the theory translated into practice in the on-going social enterpreneurs projects. By doing so, those who have the talent to be social enterpreneurs gain more confidence to enter the world of social enterprenership.
2. Facilitate and guide each of them to develop a "dream" project that they would like and committed to do when they finish their study. During the process of developing the "dream project" of their own, facilitate them to communicate the idea with the prospective partners who possibly interested to finance the activity, so they get necessary feed back to improve the idea and make it closer to the real needs.
3. Providing financial support scheme for selected best project, so that they can do a pilot implementation and gain actual experiences which can be used to further improve the project idea and design. The financial support scheme could be provided by the university in cooperation with other organization interested to foster the development of future social enterpreneurs.

At my department, we planning to offer a subject on Social Enterpreneurship in Agribusiness Development. The course directed toward preparing human resources to help develop small-scale agribusiness for poverty alleviation (we called it "people agribusiness"). I am in charge to develop the subject/course. It is rather new to me/us even though in the past I am already carried out or involved with some activities with social enterpreneurship in characters. We are currently preparing the materials and designing the learning processes by which we could help those students with the talent to be future social enterpreneurs. I greatly appreciate if anyone can share their experiences, materials and advises so that we can prepare and provide better learning experiences for the students, and for that I would thank you verymuch.

Helmi. Department of Socio-Economic of Agriculture (Agribusiness Field of Studies) Faculty of Agriculture, Andalas University - INDONESIA. (e-mail address: helmi59pdg@yahoo.com)

Talk of change in university education is not new. However, there are significant drivers of change today that did not exist in the past--even a decade ago. A number of these are wonderfully summarized in the "Did You Know?" video that has been making the rounds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY

Henry Kelly, President of the Federation of American Scientists, has a very compelling vision for a technologically-enriched future of undergraduate education, offered in an essay recently published in Innovations journal:

http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/itgg.2008.3.3.133

Finally, the New York Times has an overheated op-ed today that ignores much that is understood about the sociology of knowledge creation (see e.g. the many contributions of Ron Burt) but nonetheless offers a some sensible, if not particularly novel, thoughts on ways forward, such as the desirability off creating problem-focused programs within universities:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html

(By the way, when John Holdren, Iqbal Quadir and I started Innovations Journal [mitpress.mit.edu/innovations] three years ago, the idea was to create an academic journal focused on entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges. We saw this as one small step toward increasing the fraction of the effort in universities directed toward developing solutions in the public interest.)

Finally, there is President Obama's 3/10 speech on education,

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/03/10/obamas-remarks-on-education-2/

in which he stated

"I am calling on our nation’s Governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don’t simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity."

When you combine the content of this speech, the President's recently launched initiatives on service learning, and technology-driven enhancements to education that Henry Kelly is talking, you get a sketch of what might be the future of undergraduate education.

Hey everyone! My name is Austin, and I am currently a Social Entrepreneurship major at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. Belmont just added the major two years ago, and it's growing rapidly. I had never heard of the term "Social Entrepreneurship" until they added the major here, but once I found out about the program I was hooked.

I don't know of any other schools that actually have a major in Social Entrepreneurship, but I think the idea of behind it is becoming popular. With companies like TOMS shoes (http://www.tomsshoes.com) drawing the attention of university students, the idea of business with a goal of social change is gaining a following. We are realizing that we can turn our creativity and innovation into something that benefits others. For many of us, our definition of success is turning from having a BMW and a six figure salary to leaving our mark and making an impact in the world.

Since this is a new field for us, there are no doubt many changes that will need to be made to the program but there a lot of aspects to Belmont’s program that I have really learned a ton from.

As a SET major we take alot of standard business and entrepreneurship courses along with sociology and specific SET courses. In the Intro to Social Entrepreneurship course we have presidents of local non-profits come in to speak to every week. As a student I feel that I have learned so much from having these speakers come in. After they talk about their organization we always have time to ask questions and really pick their brains about what works and what doesn't. I have made so many contacts in the non-profit world through this aspect of the class alone. Another part of the class that has proved invaluable is the service learning portion where we are required to go out into the community and work with a local non-profit.

There is a huge difference between hearing about the "real world" in class and actually participating in it. I think many university students (myself included) have at some point fallen into the rut of learning things in class and missing how they apply to the real world. I think it's absolutely key for students to be involved in service learning of some sort whether they are in a Social Entrepreneurship program or not. There are ways to incorporate this with every field of study.

Belmont has done a great job of having faculty in many departments that strongly encourage social innovation. We have a chapter of SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise) that has done a great job of allowing business students to create projects that develop economic stability for poverty stricken people groups in the area. Many other departments have enacted some sort of service learning as a requirement for their courses as well. As a result, students have begun taking initiative and starting their own programs and social entrepreneurships with the active support and encouragement of the faculty. I have one friend that did a study abroad in South Africa, saw a need, and ended up setting up the framework for a music academy while he was there and now supports it from Nashville. Another friend started a successful campus wide initiative called "United for Change" that used donation boxes set up around campus to raise money for three local, national and international non-profits. Both of these programs were ideas formed by students and then supported by the university faculty.

I think there is definitely a willingness among students to help out in the community and a passion to use our creativity for "the greater good" we just need to be pointed in the right direction.

Thanks all for the great insights shared.

In southern Africa an initiative has started to establish a network of universities focused on student social entrepreneurship.

A portal framework has been set up on Wikiversity:

http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Portal:Social_entrepreneurship

The main focus at the moment is to develop a curriculum:

http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Portal:Social_entrepreneurship/Curriculum

and grow the university network.

Contributions and comments on the curriculum and ideas for collaboration are welcome - right here or on the wiki portal referred to above.

Challenges include:

• engaging educators (e.g. locally in southern Africa) facilitating knowledge sharing across the globe - local solutions and innovations drawing on global knowledge resources, and catalysing synergies among networks of networks.

Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful posts and idea-sharing! As a culmination to this month's discussion, we're taking our conversation over to Twitter, where we'll share the points that have been raised thus far, and see what universal lessons can be drawn.

Join us, students and faculty from each of our Changemaker Campuses, and other leading thinkers and doers in the filed for today's #SocEntChat from 4-6pm. See you there!

For directions, see http://www.squidoo.com/SocEntChat