Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship Education in Virginia

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Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship Education in
Virginia
A Presentation to The State Council of Higher
Education for Virginias Private College Advisory
Board May 12, 2008
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Todays Presentation
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What is Social Entrepreneurship?

• Innovative, sustainable and scalable approaches
  to social change
• Using business concepts and tools to solve social
  problems
• The aim of social entrepreneurship programs is
  that graduates will subsequently add value in
  their individual endeavors in the social sector
  and help advance systemic change where existing
  economic and political structures have failed or
  are under-developed.

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What is Social Entrepreneurship?
Social entrepreneurs are not content just to
give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not
rest until they have revolutionized the entire
fishing industry. -Bill Drayton, Founder, Ashoka
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Why Top Institutions Teach It
Students are demanding social entrepreneurship
coursework and extracurricular activity. -- At
Columbia Business School the incoming class of
2006 identified Social Enterprise as the 2 area
of interest, second only to Finance. -- MBA
students have formed interest groups like Net
Impact which today has over 11,000 paying
members at 115 chapters around the globe, all
with a strong social enterprise focus. --
Harvards Social Enterprise Conference drew over
1000 participants in 2008 Practitioners and
educators are eager to learn more. --
Professional conferences around the world are
expanding exponentially in number and size,
including Social Enterprise Alliance and the
Skoll World Forum -- Academic and practitioner
journals such as Stanford Social Innovation
Review, McKinsey Quarterly and the California
Management Review regularly focus on social
entrepreneurship issues -- Mass media
publications such as Time, Fast Company, Fortune,
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal
have published featured articles about social
entrepreneurship
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Why Top Institutions Teach It
Leading universities around the world have
attracted significant funding for Social
Entrepreneurship. ?   Harvard University was
awarded 10M to establish a social
entrepreneurship fellowship by the Catherine B.
Reynolds Foundation (May 2005)?    NYU was
awarded 10M to establish a social
entrepreneurship program by the Catherine B.
Reynolds Foundation (June 2005)?   Pace
University was awarded 5M to establish a social
entrepreneurship program by Boston-area
entrepreneurs Helene and Grant Wilson (July
2005)?    Said Business School at Oxford,
Stanford Business School, and Dukes Fuqua
Business School have received similar awards in
recent years.
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Why Top Institutions Teach It
Leading Business Schools are responding to
student demands, and the next wave of SE
instruction will come from the liberal arts. ? A
recent Ashoka survey identified more than 80
major schools teaching social entrepreneurship
around the world. ? Each of the top 10 business
schools in the US (Harvard, Stanford, Wharton,
Sloan, Kellogg, Tuck, Haas, Chicago, Columbia and
Ross) has developed at least one course in SE
most have more, notably Stanfords Center for
Social Innovation has 20 faculty attached.?
Undergraduate liberal arts programs are now
incorporating SE into their curricula as a
complement to civic engagement and
service-learning opportunities. E.g., Berea
College Entrepreneurship for the Public Good
(7.5 million endowment)
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Virginia Taking the Field

• Several initiatives have already taken shape in
  VA
• Darden School of Business at UVA
• Innovations Journal, collaborative project of
  MIT Press, Harvards Kennedy School of Government
  and George Masons School of Public Policy
• Lynchburg College offers undergraduate courses
  in Social Entrepreneurship, supported by the
  Kauffman and Bonner Foundations
• At least one VA institution is developing a
  Civic Engagement and Social Entrepreneurship minor

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When We Succeed

• There will be a vibrant landscape of social
  entrepreneurship majors, minors and centers
  throughout Virginia higher education.
• Centers will be a destination for and a producer
  of passionate and savvy graduates committed to
  improving life in Virginia and beyond.
• Higher education will play a leading role in
  meeting Virginias economic and social challenges
  with innovative, creative approaches.
• Stakeholders throughout higher ed will regularly
  exchange best practices and replicate successful
  models.

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About The Phoenix Project
To accelerate social entrepreneurship in Virginia
as a strategy for ameliorating poverty.

• University-Community Partnerships
• Example Deep and balanced partnerships between
  anchor universities and severely economically
  distressed communities using social
  enterprisePetersburg (VSU, WM, RBC), Southeast
  Newport News (CNU), Lorton and Route 1 in Fairfax
  (GMU)
• Statewide Academic Programs
• Example Annual summer program in social
  entrepreneurship in 200830 top students from 17
  universities for six weeks in a severely
  distressed community with 50 leading faculty, for
  six credits
• Statewide Conferences with All Sector Leaders
• Example March 19th, 200 public, private,
  nonprofit and academic leaders Gov. Kaine and
  Lt. Governor Bolling as cohosts developing a
  statewide network.

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Admissions Update

Nonprofit Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship
Program

• 30 Students
• 17 Colleges and Universities
• Average GPA of 3.5
• 1 MBA Student
• 2 MPA Students
• 1 MSW Student
• 6 Graduating Seniors
• 10 Rising Seniors
• 10 Rising Juniors

Majors

• Healthcare Administration
• Business Finance
• Public Policy
• Social Work
• Economics
• Sociology
• Theatre
• Health and Human Services

• Psychology
• Environmental Geography
• International Relations
• African Studies
• History
• Religion
• Geology
• English

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Curriculum Update

Nonprofit Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship
Program

• 40 Classes divided approximately evenly over the
  4 ingredients for successful social
  entrepreneurs
• Nonprofit Theory
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Toolbox of Skills and Relationships
• Poverty Our Context
• Draft Curriculum to be reviewed by H.E.A.T.
• Invitations to go out to potential faculty

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Contact Information
Greg Werkheiser Executive Director The Phoenix
Project Phone [phone]Fax (866)
894-7413Email info_at_phoenixproject.org Mail PO
Box 2304, Springfield, VA 22152 Thank you for
your time and attention.