MA in Social Entrepreneurship and Change Courses

Classical and contemporary theories of leadership and management will be discussed. The course will then focus on the theory and application of servant leadership as it relates to philanthropic endeavors. While exploring their own life's purpose and passion, students will learn to create a shared vision that inspires many into action to positively impact the world. Issues such as culture, gender, and race will be examined in the context of leadership.

Social entrepreneurship is a process that applies innovative solutions to the world's most pressing social problems. Students will discover ways to create and sustain social value; understand how to design processes to support innovation, adaptation, and learning; and build leadership for creating change with a clear focus on the needs of those being served.

The central focus of this course is on an examination of personal values that guide those engaged in change in their ethical decision making and their motivation to participate in providing essential services to their communities. This examination will be guided in part by a review of historically important and still significant theoretical approaches to ethics. Students will critically examine the role their individual faith and belief system plays that may guide them toward purpose, service, and leadership in change and philanthropy. At the heart of this examination is the role a commitment to diversity and promoting social justice plays in one's approach to philanthropy. Finally, the knowledge acquired in the course will be used to examine contemporary societal issues such as poverty, social justice, famine relief, and crime and punishment.

This course advances knowledge in visioning through designing learning settings that incorporate emergent social concerns and issues utilizing cutting-edge technology. Students explore strategic planning, institutional change processes, and policy issues that influence organizations in a rapidly changing global climate. This course enhances an appreciation for diversity within local and global communities.

Globalization has by most accounts led to increased production and wealth across the world; however, the question remains: "Has globalization enriched or impoverished the quality of life on earth?" This course will examine globalization and its impact on production, creation of wealth, and quality of life. Furthermore, global philanthropic solutions to social problems will be examined. Students will be required to select and investigate globally based philanthropic projects which they will visit in person as part of ESEC 670.

This course encourages students to work alongside and learn from globally recognized international and domestic social entrepreneurs who are addressing some of the world's most pressing social and environmental problems. The global change experience will involve an international trip that focuses on making a difference in communities where bonds are created between people and nations that deepen students' understanding of the world. This experiential learning might include projects such as human trafficking, HIV-AIDS, educational opportunities, empowerment of marginalized women, and environmental conservation that are committed to engaging in building a more just and sustainable world.

Students are introduced, from an experiential perspective, to recent developments in technology and practices in a variety of areas supporting social entrepreneurship. Students will learn about tools which will help them to detect an opportunity and develop an idea of how to create a business for social change. Topics may include websites and apps, project management, social media and dashboards, design thinking, online communities, and virtual organizations.

This course provides a conceptual framework for organizing diverse communities and advocacy work and an opportunity for developing skills useful for persistence in these endeavors. The course focuses on the community organizing and advocacy efforts of people working together to improve their global communities. The course will also introduce advanced social advocacy skills, with an emphasis on lobbying and direct action as tools for social change. There will be special attention given to organizing and advocacy with economically disadvantaged and historically disempowered communities.

This course prepares students interested in social entrepreneurship and change to understand e-commerce, web design, and database analysis with a broad perspective of advertising, marketing research, and promotional skills and abilities. These methods will prepare leaders for operating on a global scale in support of public service and philanthropy that focuses on fundamental and permanent changes to the ways in which problems are addressed.

During ESEC 691A, each student conducts a feasibility study; designs a strategic framework (driving forces, vision, mission, core values, long-term goals); analyzes the size of the market and the existing competition; identifies the critical success factors for the industry; studies the uncontrollable external forces that could have a positive or negative impact (demographic, economic, technological, political, regulatory, and sociological); and creates a detailed operations plan.

The purpose of this course is to prepare professionals to understand "impact thinking" and discern the what and how of effectively measuring impact. Through formulation of learning questions and evaluation hypotheses, students will be able to determine an approach to conducting external research. Students will understand how impact assessment links with performance management. The students will be exposed to real-life social impact evaluation through practitioners and case studies.

The course will identify and examine the key organizational competencies which are essential to the success of a philanthropic organization. Topics such as governance structures, the role of the board of directors, financial management and accountability, budgeting, building strategic coalitions, and advancing the missions of the philanthropic organizations will be discussed. Finally, understanding how to mobilize philanthropists for investing in social change will be explored.

During ESEC 691B, each student develops strategic and tactical marketing plans (including a branding strategy that differentiates the enterprise from its competitors), prepares a budget and cash flow projections, chooses the most promising financing strategies, prepares a complete business plan, and delivers an oral presentation to a panel of judges and a larger audience.