Innovation & Social Enterprise Minor

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The Innovation & Social Enterprise (ISE) minor aims to inspire and equip students to start and operate their own ventures. As defined here, a social enterprise is any organization (non-profit or business), event or initiative that is largely motivated by a desire for social change or impact. This minor compliments any major and seeks to develop student-driven initiative, creativity, teamwork, experiential learning, and practical solutions to real-world challenges. Courses offer the basic fundamentals of crafting a vision and coordinating stakeholders and resources as required to sustain new and growing organizations. This field of study has a natural bias toward international development and sustainability issues, product/service development, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and grassroots leadership. For more information, please contact Stephanie Antonucci, Program Manager, Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.

Required Courses

ISE 305 - Introduction to Social Enterprise Credits: 4
ISE 306 - Innovation - Understanding How to Innovate Credits: 4
ISE 425 - Internship Credits: 4
ONE of the following:
ISE 308 - Foundations of Nonprofit Organizations Credits: 4
ECB 374 - Small Business Management Credits: 4

Electives

The electives for such a minor can be drawn from all over campus, particularly drawing on existing (or new) courses that have a bias toward:

Global issues
Environmental sustainability
Female entrepreneurship
Particular courses (education, healthcare, disaster relief, urban issues, poverty, etc.)

Students will work with advisors to select at least TWO additional courses that are coherent with the student’s ambitions and customized plan for completing the minor. Only ONE of these electives can be within the student’s chosen major.

Examples of past electives completed: