B.I.S. in Social Entrepreneurship
The B.I.S. in Social Entrepreneurship prepares students to become agents and leaders of social change who will transform communities through innovative startups and existing social enterprises.
Our B.I.S. in Social Entrepreneurship was created not only to tackle the most complex problems, but to help students become better employees, entrepreneurs, and leaders. Students in the program are involved in co-curricular activities and internships that will give them experience working in and interacting with current social enterprises, gaining practical knowledge of the field and exposure to the diverse employment opportunities within the discipline. Students will leave this program with the business formation knowledge needed to launch a social enterprise at any point in their career.
Problems such as loss of ecological resources, lack of education, poverty, healthcare, limited resources, water and food accessibility, homelessness, and volatile energy prices are some of the most pressing issues our society faces today. Our program is aimed at developing the necessary professional and analytical skills within students who have a desire to design innovative and creative approaches to developing sustainable solutions to a range of social challenges.
Students need an entrepreneurial mindset that allows them to solve social problems by not only creating new ventures or business opportunities, but also by improving existing ones. Students will learn how to design and implement a social business plan and how social business is impacting the local, national, and global economies.
Here at AYSPS, we are developing social entrepreneurs. These are the decision makers, leaders, problem-solvers, critical thinkers, and inspiration to others. We encourage students to recognize and practice their role as “change makers,” to develop their own solutions to social challenges while looking to become successful business leaders and creating positive social change.
The B.I.S. in Social Entrepreneurship, combined with participation in co-curricular experiences, will prepare students to:
- Describe social, economic, and environmental issues, and their interconnectedness.
- Assess and employ leadership strategies with the intent to benefit others.
- Explain how to incorporate entrepreneurship and management practices into nonprofits, social enterprises, government and for-profit organizations.
- Explain how to invent and implement novel solutions to social needs and problems and to collaborate across disciplines.
- Apply the process of design, start, manage, and lead enterprises that benefit people and the planet in a financially stable way.
- Design innovative and effective public relations and marketing campaigns for organizations and use appropriate research.
- Create, and implement evaluation plans that measure effective organizations along with desired outcomes.
- Apply the process of problem solving within startups, nonprofits, government, and business.
“The life purpose of the true social entrepreneur is to change the world.”
Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka
The days where the bottom line was solely about profit have disappeared. Today’s bottom line is not only about profit, but about people and the planet too. This trend can best be described as Social Entrepreneurship: an approach to organizations that combines for-profit initiatives with non-profit ideas. It involves businesses meant not only to financially succeed but to also change the world for the better.
Social entrepreneurship is becoming a popular way of conducting business while making a social and economic impact. It differs from other forms of entrepreneurship in that it gives higher priority to social value creation by catalyzing social change and/or catering to social needs than to value capture. Thus, social entrepreneurship utilizes the business expertise to generate profits within start-up companies, businesses, or nonprofits in order to fund their mission of developing and implementing solutions to issues affecting society and the environment.
There are four types of Social Enterprises:
Social Purpose Ventures
- Companies whose vision and purpose are to resolve a social problem. These companies also aim to make a profit.
Social Consequence Entrepreneurship
- For-profit companies that aim to make a positive social impact.
Enterprising Nonprofits
- Traditional nonprofits. These companies have a social purpose that work to make profits to financially support their social goals.
Hybrid Models of Social Entrepreneurship
- An organization with a purpose that equally emphasizes economic and social goals.
Investment in social entrepreneurship is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2020. This growth is fueled, in part, by the limitations of governments to solve social problems and the growing demand to leverage one’s career to achieve both financial security and meaning.
Social entrepreneurs are individuals who work to solve society’s wicked problems with innovative solutions – from poverty, malnutrition, and homelessness to lack of access to education, health care, dignified work, and many other identified needs. Social entrepreneurs are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.
Program Admission
There are no admission requirements above the requirements for admission to the University for enrollment in the B.I.S. program with a concentration in Social Entrepreneurship.
Curriculum Overview
Below is an overview of the degree requirements for the BIS Social Entrepreneurship.
Area A through E: Undergraduate Core Curriculum (42)
Complete descriptions of requirements for Areas A through E of the Undergraduate Core Curriculum can be found in the “University Academic Regulations” chapter of the academic catalog. In Area B, it is recommended that students take PERS 2002: Scientific Perspectives—Social Innovation & Enterprise for Global Problems.
Area F: Courses Appropriate to the Major (18)
Below is a list of prerequisites for upper-level courses in the major or courses relevant to the major.
Required Courses (9)
LGLS 2020 Introduction to Law and Risk: Using Law to Manage Risks
PMAP 2000 Citizenship in the Local Community (3)
SOCI 1160 Introduction to Social Problems (3)
If SOCI 1160 is taken in Area E, any 1000/2000 level course may be substituted.
Electives (9)
Select 9 additional hours of elective courses from 1000-2000 level to complete 18.0 hours in Area F.
Area G: Major Common Core Curriculum (33)
PMAP 3100 Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship (3)
ENI 3101 Entrepreneurial Thinking for Startups (3)*
ENI 3102 The Startup Venture (3)*
ENI 3103 Commercializing the Startup (3)*
ENI 4100 From Startup to Growth Company (3)*
PMAP 3031 Policy Leadership (3)
PMAP 3210 Intro to the Nonprofit Sector (3)
PMAP 3213 Nonprofit Financial Resources (3)
PMAP 3231 Nonprofit Management & Leadership (3)
PMAP 3311 Critical Policy Issues-CTW (3)
PMAP 4941 Internship** (3)
* To register for ENI courses, students must: a) Be in good academic standing; b) Have 45 credit hours; and c) Earn C or higher BUSA 3090 and ENI 3101 to gain approval for additional upper-level ENI courses.
** Internships are required for all BIS Social Entrepreneurship majors. Internship experiences provide students the opportunity to apply concepts and skills associated with their curriculum. This opportunity for professional growth and development requires enrollment in three hours of PMAP 4941. The department’s internship coordinators assist in the search for an appropriate internship opportunity. Students are expected to take the lead in this search. Internship credit requires the completion of 200 hours of work. Students with substantial prior administrative experience may petition to waive the internship requirement.
“C” or better grade is required of all courses in Area G.
Area H: Concentration (18): A “C” or better grade is required for all courses in this area.
BIS majors must choose one of the following four concentrations:
- Economic Development and Cities
- Education
- Global Issues
- Health and Human Behavior
BIS majors must complete six classes, 18 hours, from one concentration. For any concentration, students may not take more than 12 credits in any one prefix. Students may petition the program director to add classes appropriate to the concentration if not listed.
Economic Development and Cities (18):
ANTH 4200 Urban Anthropology (3)
CRJU 4440 Street Crime (3)
ECON 4300 Economics of Cities (3)
PMAP 3011 Policy and Politics in the American City (3)
PMAP 3111 Urban Political Economy (3)
PMAP 3411 Contemporary Planning (3)
PMAP 4041 Policy Data Analysis (3)
PMAP 4401 Urban Demography and Analysis (3)
PMAP 4451 Economic Development Policy and Planning (3)
SOCI 3201 Wealth, Power and Inequality (3)
SOCI 4226 Urban Sociology (3)
SOCI 4279 Metropolitan Atlanta (3)
SW 4350 Economic Justice, Inequality, and Poverty (3)
Education (18):
EDUC 2110 Investigating Critical and Contemporary Issues in Education (3)
EDUC 2130 Exploring Learning and Teaching (3)
EDUC 2300 Introduction to Child Development (3)
EDUC 3010 Introduction to Urban Education (3)
EDUC 3333 Field Experiences in International Education (3)
EPY 2050 Learning, Memory and Cognition in the Real World (3)
LT 3000 Technology, Society and Education (3)
LT 3100 Educational Technology in Africa and the Diaspora (3)
PSYC 4040 Developmental Psychology (3)
Global Issues (18):
ANTH 4040 Race, Class and Gender in Global Perspective (3)
ANTH 4490 Anthropology of Globalization (3)
CRJU 4040 Comparative Criminal Justice Systems (3)
ECON 4220 Environmental Economics and Policy (3)
ECON 4600 Economic Development (3)
ECON 4610 The Economy of South Africa (3)
ECON 4800 International Trade (3)
ECON 4810 International Finance (3)
IB 4100 Introduction to International Entrepreneurship (3)
JOUR 3040 Communicating Environmental Issues (3)
NUTR 3800 International Nutrition (3)
PMAP 4211 Human Resource Management Systems in Public and Nonprofit Organizations (3)
PMAP 4411 Introduction to Law for Public and Nonprofit Managers (3)
POLS 4422 NGOs and World Politics (3)
PSYC 3570 Multicultural Issues in Psychology (3)
PSYC 4030 Cross-Cultural Psychology (3)
Health and Human Behavior (18):
ANTH 3100 Sex, Culture and Sexuality (3)
ANTH 4390 Diet, Demography and Disease (3)
ANTH 4430 Anthropology of Public Health (3)
ANTH 4460 Health and Culture (3)
HA 3900 Introduction to the US Health Care System (3)
HA 3910 Health Policy in the United States: An Introduction (3)
KH 2360 Childhood Health and Wellness (3)
KH 2520 Principles of Physical Activity and Fitness (3)
GERO 4116 Aging and Society (3)
GERO 4200 Health and Older Adults (3)
NURS 2010 Health and Human Development across the Lifespan (3)
NUTR 3100 Nutrition and Health (3)
PSYC 2103 Introduction to Human Development: Individual and Family Issues (3)
PSYC 4510 Community Psychology (3)
SW 3000 Communication/Cultural Diversity (3)
SW 3300 Human Behavior and the Social Environment I (3)
SW 3400 Human Behavior and the Social Environment II (3)
SW 4330 Contemporary Health Challenges (3)
SOCI 3040 Cognition and Society (3)
SOCI 3346 Drug Use and Abuse (3)
SOCI 4230 Sociology of Health and Illness (3)
Area I: Approved Electives (9).
Students may select 9 semester hours (three classes) of electives from lower division 1000/2000 or upper division 3000/4000 level classes appropriate to the major.
Complete information about the BIS Social Entrepreneurship curriculum can be found in the GSU catalog: https://catalogs.gsu.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=4&poid=1256&returnto=552
“Finding meaning in work and life”
One career path for students majoring in social entrepreneurship is starting his/her own social enterprise. In addition, students can work with a social startup enterprise or existent social enterprises. Social entrepreneurs are holistic thinkers and integrate government, nonprofit and profit to design their career paths. Jobs in social enterprises are available in large cities in the United States as well as many international locations in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Many positions in social enterprises offer both financial security and the ability to create a positive impact in the world. It is a field that utilizes innovation and creativity, which allows flexibility when deciding what career path to take.
Some potential careers for BIS social entrepreneurship graduates include:
1 – Established Social Enterprises (e.g. Program Coordinator, business development, marketing)
Working for an established social enterprise, nonprofit, or government entity as a program coordinator is a low-risk way for an early graduate to learn best practices and gain real world experience in solving social problems. Entry level program coordinator positions offer moderate pay and perhaps great benefits. Some positions may offer significant international travel and autonomy, while other positions may be more structured with a 9-5 day to day and limited travel opportunities.
2 – Social Enterprise Startup
Early Stage Employee at a Social Enterprise working for an early stage (startup) social enterprise is an exciting opportunity for a BIS graduate to gain real world experience in social entrepreneurship and take on significant responsibility. If the organization quickly grows, an early employee can find oneself in a leadership role within a couple of years. Positions are likely less structured, requiring the employee to wear many hats and work many hours. Many early stage social enterprises will offer stock options to early stage employees but low pay. Depending on the position travel may or may not be possible.
3 – Social Entrepreneur
A BIS in entrepreneurship, combined with a few years of experience at an early stage social enterprise can serve as strong foundation for an individual to become a social entrepreneur by launching his/her own social enterprise. Becoming an entrepreneur requires a significant time commitment, perhaps offers low pay initially, and the enterprise may fail. But the upside is virtually unlimited, where an entrepreneur can create the future she would like to see in the world.
4 – Intrapreneur
A Corporate Social Innovation Coordinator working for the philanthropic arm of a corporation provides graduates with direct experience working at the intersection of businesses and social good. After a few years, an individual who works in social innovation can create significant impact by helping decide how millions of philanthropic dollars are best spent to improve the world. Jobs within the corporate social innovation sector perhaps offer the highest pay and a consistent 9-5 day to day with limited travel opportunities.
Upcoming Workshop : “Revenue Models for Impact-Focused Businesses”
Friday February 19th, starting at 12 pm
For more information, and to register, please follow this link.
We are calling all GSU students interested in social impact to share their inputs! Please take this quick five-minute survey for the Social Entrepreneurship Club at GSU:
https://forms.gle/RfU6HUuW5Wpv6wL5A
This survey is your chance to define the Club’s activities for Spring 2021. To lead an event or volunteer for the Club, write to the Club President Cara Laurie: [email protected]
Resources and Opportunities for the advancement of Social Entrepreneurs:
Ashoka
Identifies and supports the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, learns from the patterns in their innovations, and mobilizes a global community to embrace these new frameworks and build an “everyone a change-maker” world.
Echoing Green Envirolink
Echoing Green spots emerging leaders and invests deeply in their success to accelerate their impact. The organization provides seed-funding and leadership development to a new class of Fellows every year.
Global Service Venture Competition
Empowers the next generation of social entrepreneurs by providing them with mentoring, exposure, and over $80,000 in prizes to transform their ideas into ventures that address the world’s most pressing challenges using technology for good.
Investor’s Circle
Investors’ Circle is the world’s largest and most active early-stage impact investing network. Has incubated and supported many of the most important social impact organizations and maintains strategic partnerships while leading the field towards a shared vision.
Net Impact
A nonprofit membership organization for students and professionals interested in using business skills in support of various social and environmental causes.
Root Cause
Root Cause uses data, evidence, and generating high performance to improve outcomes, grantmaking, and, most importantly, people’s lives—faster, smarter, at greater scale.
Schwab Foundation
Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is a leading global platform that accelerates outstanding models of social innovation. Working together, we help scale solutions to support millions of vulnerable and low-income people in need.
Skoll Foundation
The Skoll Foundation mission is to drive large-scale change by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs and other innovators dedicated to solving the world’s most pressing problems.
Social Enterprise Alliance
Provides social enterprises with resources they need to succeed, support and grow social entrepreneurship on a national scale and serve as a voice for more sustainable social impact.
Social Innovation Forum
Creates positive change by engaging leaders, strengthening organizations, and building networks.
Social Venture Network
Builds and serves communities of inspired and informed impact investors and business leaders to make social, economic, and environmental change.
Social Entrepreneurship is a diverse field of study and opportunity where passionate people are using their creativity to work toward providing innovative solutions to problems they have identified in society. Social Enterprises can be nonprofit, and they can also be for-profit with a desire to create a positive social impact.
For more ideas on the possibilities of what you can do with your B.I.S. Social Entrepreneurship degree, below are some examples of existing social enterprises:
GiveDirectly is a nonprofit organization that sends cash directly to the extreme poor in emerging economies. Learn more: givedirectly.org
Good Measure Meals is a for-profit social enterprise that delivers healthy meals throughout the Atlanta and Athens areas. 100% of proceeds from Good Measure Meals are donated to an Atlanta nonprofit organization that provides Comprehensive Nutrition Care for economically disadvantaged individuals. Learn more: goodmeasuremeals.com
Hello Tractor is a for-profit social enterprise that allows farmers in emerging economies to rent a tractor over text message. Learn more: hellotractor.com
LendUp is a for-profit social enterprise that serves as an alternative to payday loans. LendUp allows customers to build credit through successfully repaying loans and offers them lower interest rates and fees. Learn more: lendup.com
New Story is a nonprofit organization, founded in Atlanta, that crowdfunds to build homes for families in emerging economies. Learn more: newstorycharity.org
Star-C is a nonprofit organization that provides social services to refugees who live in the same apartment complex that is located in the Atlanta suburb of Clarkston. Learn more: star-c.org
Teracycle is a for-profit social enterprise that, for the right price, will recycle anything. Learn more: terracycle.com
Ushahidi is a Kenyan social enterprise that builds crowdsourcing, mapping, and data visualization software that is employed to assist with election monitoring, crisis response, and advocacy to support human rights. Learn more: ushahidi.com
Curious how you can build a career path to improve the world?
Want to learn more or have questions about the social entrepreneurship major?
Email Dr. Garima Sharma, Director, B.I.S. Social Entrepreneurship, at [email protected].
Meet Dr. Garima Sharma
Director, B.I.S. Social Entrepreneurship
Garima Sharma is an Assistant Professor at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. She holds a PhD from Case Western Reserve University, MBA from Symbiosis Center for Human Resource Development, Pune, India, and Bachelor’s in Engineering from SGISTS, Indore, India. Prior to her appointment at the Andrew Young School, she was an Assistant Professor at the Anderson School of Management, University of New Mexico, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Ivey Business School, Ontario, Canada.
Garima studies how business can solve the social and environmental problems we face today. Business goals are often short term and narrowly defined, but addressing social and environmental problems requires long-term thinking, interdisciplinary collaborations and innovative ways of organizing. Her research focuses on how business and its decision makers successfully manage these tensions. She also studies research impact and how academics and practitioners can collaborate to generate innovative solutions for social and environmental issues.
Her research has been published in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Organization Studies, Journal of Business Ethics and Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. Over the years, she has received several grants to support her research including MITACS and TalentEdge Fellowship, two of the most competitive grants offered for postdoctoral work by the Ontario Government.
GSU students of all majors or experience levels are welcome.
Info Session: Social Entrepreneurship Major
Learn about GSU’s new undergraduate major in social entrepreneurship. Topics include: what is social entrepreneurship, jobs in the social entrepreneurship field, course requirements for the degree including specializations, internships, launching a social enterprise, and co-curricular social entrepreneurship programs.
Social Entrepreneurship Club
Contact:
Jacob Holston: [email protected]
Collaborate with other GSU students to build GSU’s social entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Get Started as a Social Entrepreneur
Do you have an idea that will make the world a better place? Don’t know how or where to begin? This session will help you make progress on your project or organization, by teaching you how to begin and complete the social innovation process.
An organization for students with a passion entrepreneurship. It’s mission is to turn ideas into something. We are a growing group of Hackers, Hustlers, Storytellers, Coders, and Enthusiasts who share a collective passion for creating something we believe in. Our goal is to bring together like-minded, open-minded, and passionate students to foster innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship.
uVenture Challenge
This collaborative competition engages students, industry professionals, and faculty/staff in the discovery of entrepreneurship that is prompted by a local company or non-profit organization. The outside organization challenges student teams to find a business model and associated strategies that will create customer demand, market viability, and/or social benefits. Check out the last uVenture Challenge!
The Center for Civic Innovation is a community-driven research and development lab for local governments, nonprofits, and social entrepreneurs. The Center produces workshops, facilitates investments, and is home to 25 social ventures and over 50 individual social entrepreneurs.
The B.I.S. in Social Entrepreneurship prepares students to become agents and leaders of social change who will transform communities through innovative problem-solving and business approaches.
This curriculum prepares students to work in the field of social entrepreneurship and innovation while also providing the business formation knowledge needed to launch a social enterprise at any point in their careers. While completing the degree, students engage in the social entrepreneurship movement that is developing sustainable solutions to problems on the local, national and international levels.
This interdisciplinary degree draws on the coursework of both the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies and J. Mack Robinson College of Business, spanning the entrepreneurship and social impact worlds. Core courses include entrepreneurship, nonprofit organization and management, and financial resource development, as well as an internship in a social enterprise. In addition, students are able to choose from courses across the university to build concentrations that relate to the social issues of concern to them.
The B.I.S. in Social Entrepreneurship, combined with participation in co-curricular experiences, will prepare students to:
- Understand social innovation and its emergence as a strategy for solving global problems
- Learn conceptual frameworks and analytical techniques aimed at understanding the social value creation process
- Understand the financial, legal and business framework of social enterprises
- Develop the skills needed to both collaborate across disciplines, discovering innovative strategies that address global social problems, and lead in the public sector
“The life purpose of the true social entrepreneur is to change the world.”
Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka
The days where the bottom line was solely about profit have disappeared. Today’s bottom line is not only about profit, but about people and the planet too. This trend can best be described as Social Entrepreneurship: an approach to organizations that combines for-profit initiatives with non-profit ideas. It involves businesses meant not only to financially succeed but to also change the world for the better.
Social entrepreneurship is becoming a popular way of conducting business while making a social and economic impact. It differs from other forms of entrepreneurship in that it gives higher priority to social value creation by catalyzing social change and/or catering to social needs than to value capture. Thus, social entrepreneurship utilizes the business expertise to generate profits within start-up companies, businesses, or nonprofits in order to fund their mission of developing and implementing solutions to issues affecting society and the environment.
There are four types of Social Enterprises:
Social Purpose Ventures
- Companies whose vision and purpose are to resolve a social problem. These companies also aim to make a profit.
Social Consequence Entrepreneurship
- For-profit companies that aim to make a positive social impact.
Enterprising Nonprofits
- Traditional nonprofits. These companies have a social purpose that work to make profits to financially support their social goals.
Hybrid Models of Social Entrepreneurship
- An organization with a purpose that equally emphasizes economic and social goals.
Investment in social entrepreneurship is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2020. This growth is fueled, in part, by the limitations of governments to solve social problems and the growing demand to leverage one’s career to achieve both financial security and meaning.
Social entrepreneurs are individuals who work to solve society’s wicked problems with innovative solutions – from poverty, malnutrition, and homelessness to lack of access to education, health care, dignified work, and many other identified needs. Social entrepreneurs are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.
“Finding meaning in work and life”
One career path for students majoring in social entrepreneurship is starting his/her own social enterprise. In addition, students can work with a social startup enterprise or existent social enterprises. Social entrepreneurs are holistic thinkers and integrate government, nonprofit and profit to design their career paths. Jobs in social enterprises are available in large cities in the United States as well as many international locations in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Many positions in social enterprises offer both financial security and the ability to create a positive impact in the world. It is a field that utilizes innovation and creativity, which allows flexibility when deciding what career path to take.
Some potential careers for BIS social entrepreneurship graduates include:
1 – Established Social Enterprises (e.g. Program Coordinator, business development, marketing)
Working for an established social enterprise, nonprofit, or government entity as a program coordinator is a low-risk way for an early graduate to learn best practices and gain real world experience in solving social problems. Entry level program coordinator positions offer moderate pay and perhaps great benefits. Some positions may offer significant international travel and autonomy, while other positions may be more structured with a 9-5 day to day and limited travel opportunities.
2 – Social Enterprise Startup
Early Stage Employee at a Social Enterprise working for an early stage (startup) social enterprise is an exciting opportunity for a BIS graduate to gain real world experience in social entrepreneurship and take on significant responsibility. If the organization quickly grows, an early employee can find oneself in a leadership role within a couple of years. Positions are likely less structured, requiring the employee to wear many hats and work many hours. Many early stage social enterprises will offer stock options to early stage employees but low pay. Depending on the position travel may or may not be possible.
3 – Social Entrepreneur
A BIS in entrepreneurship, combined with a few years of experience at an early stage social enterprise can serve as strong foundation for an individual to become a social entrepreneur by launching his/her own social enterprise. Becoming an entrepreneur requires a significant time commitment, perhaps offers low pay initially, and the enterprise may fail. But the upside is virtually unlimited, where an entrepreneur can create the future she would like to see in the world.
4 – Intrapreneur
A Corporate Social Innovation Coordinator working for the philanthropic arm of a corporation provides graduates with direct experience working at the intersection of businesses and social good. After a few years, an individual who works in social innovation can create significant impact by helping decide how millions of philanthropic dollars are best spent to improve the world. Jobs within the corporate social innovation sector perhaps offer the highest pay and a consistent 9-5 day to day with limited travel opportunities.
Social Entrepreneurship is a diverse field of study and opportunity where passionate people are using their creativity to work toward providing innovative solutions to problems they have identified in society. Social Enterprises can be nonprofit, and they can also be for-profit with a desire to create a positive social impact.
For more ideas on the possibilities of what you can do with your B.I.S. Social Entrepreneurship degree, below are some examples of existing social enterprises:
GiveDirectly is a nonprofit organization that sends cash directly to the extreme poor in emerging economies. Learn more: givedirectly.org
Good Measure Meals is a for-profit social enterprise that delivers healthy meals throughout the Atlanta and Athens areas. 100% of proceeds from Good Measure Meals are donated to an Atlanta nonprofit organization that provides Comprehensive Nutrition Care for economically disadvantaged individuals. Learn more: goodmeasuremeals.com
Hello Tractor is a for-profit social enterprise that allows farmers in emerging economies to rent a tractor over text message. Learn more: hellotractor.com
LendUp is a for-profit social enterprise that serves as an alternative to payday loans. LendUp allows customers to build credit through successfully repaying loans and offers them lower interest rates and fees. Learn more: lendup.com
New Story is a nonprofit organization, founded in Atlanta, that crowdfunds to build homes for families in emerging economies. Learn more: newstorycharity.org
Star-C is a nonprofit organization that provides social services to refugees who live in the same apartment complex that is located in the Atlanta suburb of Clarkston. Learn more: star-c.org
Teracycle is a for-profit social enterprise that, for the right price, will recycle anything. Learn more: terracycle.com
Ushahidi is a Kenyan social enterprise that builds crowdsourcing, mapping, and data visualization software that is employed to assist with election monitoring, crisis response, and advocacy to support human rights. Learn more: ushahidi.com
Resources and Opportunities for the advancement of Social Entrepreneurs:
Ashoka
Identifies and supports the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, learns from the patterns in their innovations, and mobilizes a global community to embrace these new frameworks and build an “everyone a change-maker” world.
Echoing Green Envirolink
Echoing Green spots emerging leaders and invests deeply in their success to accelerate their impact. The organization provides seed-funding and leadership development to a new class of Fellows every year.
Global Service Venture Competition
Empowers the next generation of social entrepreneurs by providing them with mentoring, exposure, and over $80,000 in prizes to transform their ideas into ventures that address the world’s most pressing challenges using technology for good.
Investor’s Circle
Investors’ Circle is the world’s largest and most active early-stage impact investing network. Has incubated and supported many of the most important social impact organizations and maintains strategic partnerships while leading the field towards a shared vision.
Net Impact
A nonprofit membership organization for students and professionals interested in using business skills in support of various social and environmental causes.
Root Cause
Root Cause uses data, evidence, and generating high performance to improve outcomes, grantmaking, and, most importantly, people’s lives—faster, smarter, at greater scale.
Schwab Foundation
Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship is a leading global platform that accelerates outstanding models of social innovation. Working together, we help scale solutions to support millions of vulnerable and low-income people in need.
Skoll Foundation
The Skoll Foundation mission is to drive large-scale change by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs and other innovators dedicated to solving the world’s most pressing problems.
Social Enterprise Alliance
Provides social enterprises with resources they need to succeed, support and grow social entrepreneurship on a national scale and serve as a voice for more sustainable social impact.
Social Innovation Forum
Creates positive change by engaging leaders, strengthening organizations, and building networks.
Social Venture Network
Builds and serves communities of inspired and informed impact investors and business leaders to make social, economic, and environmental change.
Program Admission
There are no admission requirements above the requirements for admission to the University for enrollment in the B.I.S. program with a concentration in Social Entrepreneurship.
Curriculum Overview
Below is an overview of the degree requirements for the BIS Social Entrepreneurship.
Area A through E: Undergraduate Core Curriculum (42)
Complete descriptions of requirements for Areas A through E of the Undergraduate Core Curriculum can be found in the “University Academic Regulations” chapter of the academic catalog. In Area B, it is recommended that students take PERS 2002: Scientific Perspectives—Social Innovation & Enterprise for Global Problems.
Area F: Courses Appropriate to the Major (18)
Below is a list of prerequisites for upper-level courses in the major or courses relevant to the major.
ANTH 2020 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (3)
BUSA 2106 Legal Environment for Business (3)
ECON 2105 Principles of Macroeconomics (3)
ECON 2106 Principles of Microeconomics (3)
PSYC 1101 Introduction to Psychology (3)
SOCI 1160 Introduction to Social Problems (3)
If ECON 2105, ECON 2106, PSYC 1101, or SOCI 1160 is taken in Area E, any 1000/2000 level course may be substituted.
Area G: Major Common Core Curriculum (33)
PMAP 3100 Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship (3)
ENI 3101 Entrepreneurial Thinking for Startups (3)*
ENI 3102 The Startup Venture (3)*
ENI 3103 Commercializing the Startup (3)*
ENI 4100 From Startup to Growth Company (3)*
PMAP 3031 Policy Leadership (3)
PMAP 3210 Intro to the Nonprofit Sector (3)
PMAP 3213 Nonprofit Financial Resources (3)
PMAP 3231 Nonprofit Management & Leadership (3)
PMAP 3311 Critical Policy Issues-CTW (3)
PMAP 4941 Internship** (3)
* To register for ENI courses, students must: a) Be in good academic standing; b) Have 45 credit hours; and c) Earn C or higher BUSA 3090 and ENI 3101 to gain approval for additional upper-level ENI courses.
** Internships are required for all BIS Social Entrepreneurship majors. Internship experiences provide students the opportunity to apply concepts and skills associated with their curriculum. This opportunity for professional growth and development requires enrollment in three hours of PMAP 4941. The department’s internship coordinators assist in the search for an appropriate internship opportunity. Students are expected to take the lead in this search. Internship credit requires the completion of 200 hours of work. Students with substantial prior administrative experience may petition to waive the internship requirement.
“C” or better grade is required of all courses in Area G.
Area H: Concentration (18): A “C” or better grade is required for all courses in this area.
BIS majors must choose one of the following four concentrations:
- Economic Development and Cities
- Education
- Global Issues
- Health and Human Behavior
BIS majors must complete six classes, 18 hours, from one concentration. For any concentration, students may not take more than 12 credits in any one prefix. Students may petition the program director to add classes appropriate to the concentration if not listed.
Economic Development and Cities (18):
ANTH 4200 Urban Anthropology (3)
CRJU 4440 Street Crime (3)
ECON 4300 Economics of Cities (3)
PMAP 3011 Policy and Politics in the American City (3)
PMAP 3111 Urban Political Economy (3)
PMAP 3021 Citizenship, the Community, and the Public Sector (3)
PMAP 3411 Contemporary Planning (3)
PMAP 4401 Urban Demography and Analysis (3)
PMAP 4451 Economic Development Policy and Planning (3)
SOCI 3201 Wealth, Power and Inequality (3)
SOCI 3340 Population Problems (3)
SOCI 4226 Urban Sociology (3)
SOCI 4279 Metropolitan Atlanta (3)
SOCI 4803 Race and Urban Studies (3)
SW 4350 Economics of Poverty and Public Policy (3)
Education (18):
EDUC 2110 Investigating Critical and Contemporary Issues in Education (3)
EDUC 2130 Exploring Learning and Teaching (3)
EDUC 2300 Introduction to Child Development (3)
EDUC 3010 Introduction to Urban Education (3)
EDUC 3333 Field Experiences in International Education (3)
EPY 2050 Learning, Memory and Cognition in the Real World (3)
LT 3000 Technology, Society and Education (3)
LT 3100 Educational Technology in Africa and the Diaspora (3)
PSYC 4040 Developmental Psychology (3)
Global Issues (18):
ANTH 4040 Race, Class and Gender in Global Perspective (3)
ANTH 4490 Anthropology of Globalization (3)
CRJU 4040 Comparative Criminal Justice Systems (3)
ECON 4220 Environmental Economics and Policy (3)
ECON 4600 Economic Development (3)
ECON 4610 The Economy of South Africa (3)
ECON 4800 International Trade (3)
ECON 4810 International Finance (3)
IB 4100 Introduction to International Entrepreneurship (3)
JOUR 3040 Communicating Environmental Issues (3)
NUTR 3800 International Nutrition (3)
POLS 4210 Politics of Developing Countries (3)
POLS 4422 NGOs and World Politics (3)
PSYC 3570 Multicultural Issues in Psychology (3)
PSYC 4030 Cross-Cultural Psychology (3)
SOCI 3340 Population Problems (3)
SOCI 4050 Global Perspectives on Violence Against Women (3)
Health and Human Behavior (18):
ANTH 3100 Sex, Culture and Sexuality (3)
ANTH 4390 Diet, Demography and Disease (3)
ANTH 4430 Anthropology of Public Health (3)
ANTH 4460 Health and Culture (3)
HA 3900 Introduction to the US Health Care System (3)
HA 3910 Health Policy in the United States: An Introduction (3)
KH 2360 Childhood Health and Wellness (3)
KH 2520 Principles of Physical Activity and Fitness (3)
KH 3000 Personal Health and Wellness (3)
PH 3000 Introduction to Public Health (3)
GERO 4116 Aging and Society (3)
GERO 4200 Health and Older Adults (3)
NURS 2010 Health and Human Development across the Lifespan (3)
NUTR 3100 Nutrition and Health (3)
PSYCH 2103 Introduction to Human Development: Individual and Family Issues (3)
PSYCH 4510 Community Psychology (3)
PSYCH 4520 Environmental Psychology (3)
SW 3000 Communication/Cultural Diversity (3)
SW 3300 Human Behavior and the Social Environment I (3)
SW 3400 Human Behavior and the Social Environment II (3)
SW 4330 Contemporary Health Challenges (3)
SOCI 3040 Cognition and Society (3)
SOCI 3346 Drug Use and Abuse (3)
SOCI 4230 Sociology of Health and Illness (3)
Area I: Approved Electives (9).
Students may select 9 semester hours (three classes) of electives from lower division 1000/2000 or upper division 3000/4000 level classes appropriate to the major.
Complete information about the BIS Social Entrepreneurship curriculum can be found in the GSU catalog: https://catalog.gsu.edu/undergraduate20162017/andrew-young-school-of-policy-studies/#2135-social-entrepreneurship
Curious how you can build a career path to improve the world?
Want to learn more or have questions about the social entrepreneurship major?
Write Dr. Nelson Pizarro, Director, B.I.S. Social Entrepreneurship, at [email protected].
Meet Dr. Nelson Pizarro
Director, B.I.S. Social Entrepreneurship
Dr. Nelson Pizarro, received his DBA in Business Administration at Grenoble Ecole of Management, France. He also received an MBA from the University of Florida and a BBA from Washington State University. His primary research interest is opportunity finding, all forms of entrepreneurship (social, for profit and sustainable). Dr. Pizarro has published in journals, such as Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, New England Journal of Entrepreneurship and Economies et sociétés, He helped start up 6 companies including business consulting, consumer electronics, consume electronics refurbishing, and automatic vehicle location systems. In April of 2012, he launched EcoStatic Inc. He has done business in 46 countries. He also has experience in a corporate environment working for multinational companies such Brother International and Uniden. In the government sector, he worked for Americorps as a full-time volunteer, Miami Dade Community College, and at the City of Gainesville, FL, as the Small and Minority Business Development Coordinator. When he is not teaching he meditates, practice yoga and bikes.
GSU students of all majors or experience levels are welcome.
Info Session: Social Entrepreneurship Major
Learn about GSU’s new undergraduate major in social entrepreneurship. Topics include: what is social entrepreneurship, jobs in the social entrepreneurship field, course requirements for the degree including specializations, internships, launching a social enterprise, and co-curricular social entrepreneurship programs.
Social Entrepreneurship Club
Contact:
Elijah Sullivan: [email protected]
Collaborate with other GSU students to build GSU’s social entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Get Started as a Social Entrepreneur
Do you have an idea that will make the world a better place? Don’t know how or where to begin? This session will help you make progress on your project or organization, by teaching you how to begin and complete the social innovation process.
An organization for students with a passion entrepreneurship. It’s mission is to turn ideas into something. We are a growing group of Hackers, Hustlers, Storytellers, Coders, and Enthusiasts who share a collective passion for creating something we believe in. Our goal is to bring together like-minded, open-minded, and passionate students to foster innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurship.
uVenture Challenge
This collaborative competition engages students, industry professionals, and faculty/staff in the discovery of entrepreneurship that is prompted by a local company or non-profit organization. The outside organization challenges student teams to find a business model and associated strategies that will create customer demand, market viability, and/or social benefits. Check out the last uVenture Challenge!
The Center for Civic Innovation is a community-driven research and development lab for local governments, nonprofits, and social entrepreneurs. The Center produces workshops, facilitates investments, and is home to 25 social ventures and over 50 individual social entrepreneurs.