Brown students have long had a reputation for wanting to change the world. This semester a course is being offered to help students act on this sentiment - EN 193 Sec. 10: "Social Entrepreneurship." In the class, which includes case studies, guest speakers and a semester-long project, students learn about strategy, fundraising, marketing and leadership for socially conscious businesses.
The course, which has about 150 students, is taught collaboratively by Professor Emeritus of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine, Senior Research Engineer Christopher Bull, Geoffrey Kirkman '91, associate director of the Watson Institute for International Studies, and Deborah Schimberg, an adjunct lecturer in engineering.
"Each of us has a different background, so we each bring something different," Hazeltine said. While Bull and Hazeltine both have backgrounds in engineering, Kirkman has studied social entrepreneurship in the developing world, and Schimberg has primarily focused on the Providence community.
Although Hazeltine and Bull had been thinking about offering the class for a few years, it was one of Hazeltine's advisees, Daniela Saltzman '07, who convinced them that there would be enough student interest.
After taking Hazeltine's popular classes EN 9: "Management of Industrial and Nonprofit Organiza-tions" and EN 90: "Managerial Decision Making," Saltzman started an independent study that she said was essentially a literature review for the social entrepreneurship class. For her final project, she created a proposal that described the importance of the course and its structure. With the input of Saltzman, who serves as a teaching assistant, the four instructors met throughout the summer and discussed the content of the course, something they still do twice a week in the Upper Blue Room.
"The social capital invested in this course is just amazing. Everyday you have three incredibly knowledgeable people at your disposal," Saltzman said.
One of the main elements of the course is the work students perform for an existing organization, which culminates in the creation of a viable business plan for the company. Partnerships range from local to international organizations, including Black Repertory Theater and the Red Cross.
At first the professors contacted companies they thought would be interested, but in the end, businesses were coming to them. "We were really surprised. Most of the businesses said, 'This is a really wonderful idea,' " Hazeltine said.
As students have begun working on their projects, they have also noticed the "contagious zest for doing good," said Herald Staff Writer Ari Rockland-Miller '08. He and Scott Norton '08 have teamed up to work with a company called BookBox.com, a for-profit business that produces subtitled educational materials for students of a foreign language. Serving essentially as the entire marketing department for the company, they have been asked to test the program in Providence, create a documentary about their experiences and ultimately design a plan for the individual consumer market.
Both bring lucrative skills to the company - Rockland-Miller is fluent in English, Spanish and Italian and is learning Hindi, and Norton has extensive multimedia experience. They estimate that they spend as many as 20 hours a week on the project, which includes talking over the Internet to the founder, Brij Kathari, and presenting the materials in focus groups around Providence. In turn, they get the experience of working closely with Kathari and may even have the chance to present a three-minute version of their documentary at a youth entrepreneurship conference at the World Bank on Oct. 27.
Although it was initially envisioned as a seminar for around 30 students, there are currently about 150 enrolled. Hazeltine indicated that the instructors hope to make changes for next year, such as taking a more international perspective.
"The really important thing is to get people to understand that they can do this, to make their hearts beat faster, to show them that they can change the world," he said.
This is a lesson that Norton has already learned. "People want to help us," he said. "They want to do good. They let us come into their homes and work with their children. You can't buy that."
