WOFFORD STUDENTS LEARN THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP—
“I believe liberal arts students will conquer the world,” Dr. Eddie Richardson boldly proclaimed after viewing a presentation by Wofford students on social entrepreneurship.
On Wednesday, Oct. 29, Dana Nobles, Katie Pellon, Chie Mushayamunda and Cole McCarty presented to various faculty and staff about a conference they attended earlier in the month at Kanuga Camp’s conference center in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The conference focused on the theme of social entrepreneurship and social innovation. The four explained that social entrepreneurship is the idea of creating for-profit businesses that also aim to be socially conscious. These hybrid businesses are called social enterprises, and seek to generate social value, rather than profit.
But the conference wasn’t all about business; it was more about exploring the concepts of social innovation. Each of the students representing Wofford took part in a different session within the conference. Nobles learned how to combine the passions of her heart with the skill set of her head to produce an influential hustle. Pellon learned about asset mapping, which is evaluating how current assets can help a company in the present and in the future. Mushayamunda learned about facing failures, and McCarty participated in a session that was for students who already had an idea of a project they want to start.
The four are very excited to bring everything they learned back to Wofford. McCarty is applying to the University Innovation Fellows program, directed by Stanford University. This program trains undergraduate students at colleges across the nation to be leaders who bring about change on their campuses, with a special focus on science, technology, engineering and math students.
Students of all majors are welcome, however. University Innovation Fellows also allows up to five students per school to register for the price of one, so two other students who are a part of the Space are applying with McCarty. If they are accepted, they will participate in six weeks of training, and begin to work with national leaders and community stakeholders on real-world projects. All the University Innovation Fellows across the nation report on their projects online.
One question the students left their audience to ponder is how we might incorporate these ideas at Wofford. They want to bring awareness about social entrepreneurship to Wofford’s campus. They proposed adding elements of this genre to already existing programs, such as business degrees. While at the conference, the students had opportunities to talk with professors from all different fields that had already experimented with incorporated these ideas into their classroom. Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida has a five-year program where students can graduate with an MBA in Social Entrepreneurship.
Dr. Richardson informed the students and audience that part of the school’s new strategic plan includes improvements to interdisciplinary collaboration. He advised the students to create specific goals they would like to implement on campus.
Combining these goals with an arousing interdisciplinary atmosphere could be the launch they need to pull other aspiring change agents, otherwise known as social entrepreneurs, out of the woodwork at Wofford College.
