Social Entrepreneurship

​All-Gender Course; Prerequisite - Completion of Algebra II and one year of high school social studies; Fall semester or Full-year course
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Social entrepreneurs envision and manage the future by tackling the existential environmental, social and political issues of our time. In this class, students discover what it means to be a successful social entrepreneur as they learn how to define problems, devise solutions for impact, identify opportunities to affect change, envision the future, and turn their ideas into action. Students learn about the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as they select an environmental or societal problem they want to address. In their capstone project, students put their new entrepreneurial skills into practice by researching and proposing a potential solution to one of the grand challenges they have identified. The primary objective of this course is to equip students with the skills and approaches to navigate and be change agents in a rapidly changing, complex future. 
WHAT STUDENTS SAY

“I really enjoyed this course. I knew about entrepreneurship because I have taken a class on it before, but I never knew the nuances of social entrepreneurship and what it was. This course has inspired me to think about solutions to problems in our everyday lives that impact my community and beyond. The skills I have learned from this course and the entrepreneurs I studied in this course I will apply and use in my life.” 
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“I had an amazing time in this course. I not only learned about traditional and social entrepreneurship but I was able to apply what I learned to real-life problems through the projects and assignments we were given. I will definitely use what I learned in this course in my life going forward because I want to go into the entrepreneurial field when I am older and I am also doing my Gold Award for Girl Scouts that involves creating a business.”

WHAT STUDENTS DO
Learning is an active process at One Schoolhouse. Students design, create and apply. And, they engage with classmates and connect with their teachers through discussions, video conferences, and projects. Specifically, in this class students will:
  • Set goals that drive their learning. Students reflect regularly on their growth, and meet on video chat with their online teacher to review progress towards their goals.
  • Have choice in how they learn new content and practice new skills. Students are given agency to determine the best ways for them to learn.
  • Apply what they are learning to the real world. Learning is meaningful and connects to concepts outside the classroom.
  • Practice constructive engagement in a diverse and changing world. Students interact with classmates from across the country and around the world.
  • Gain academic maturity. Online learning takes greater discipline and independence than a traditional face-to-face classroom. Teachers support students to build this skill.
MEET A TEACHER FOR THIS COURSE
SIGNATURE ACTIVITES
Examples of signature activities and projects for this course are:
  • From the United Nations to Main Street:  In this project, students select one of the UN’s 17 Sustainability Goals to tackle in their home town, school, or family.  Using the principles of design as their structure, students devise an actionable, small-scale solution within their control that changes localized behavior on an intractable global problem.  The goal of the activity is to effect change at the grassroots level.  
  • Social Entrepreneurship Capstone:  This project, due in December, is the culmination of the fall semester.  Students apply the tools they have learned to propose a large-scale solution to the grand challenge they are most passionate about solving.  
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE SECOND SEMESTER?
​Students wishing to pursue a social entrepreneurship project may enroll in the course for the full year.  For students continuing into Semester II, the course shifts into personalized, project-based work, where students engage in deep, sustained inquiry, authentic and iterative research, critical analysis, and rigorous reflection, revision, and assessment as they journey through a self-designed, long-term activism, design or research project on the topic of their choosing.  Guided by a One Schoolhouse teacher, students pursue individual study/self-assessment or collaborative seminar/peer-review. Pathway options from which students choose include:
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  • Spring Activism Seminar: In this seminar, students identify a need and create a plan to effect economic, environmental, political, or social change in a target community.  Utilizing a social science approach to research and evaluation, students are guided through the process of planning the deployment of a novel idea and identifying markers of success.  Students may create a strategic plan for a club or non-profit or design an artistic product in this seminar. 
  • Spring Design Seminar:  In this seminar, students design a technological solution to a real-world problem.  Through the engineering design process/scientific method, students gather and analyze data to determine the effectiveness of their model or the accuracy of their hypothesis.  Students may prototype and produce a public product in this seminar. 
  • Spring Research Seminar:  In this seminar, students answer a theoretical or ethical question.  Utilizing the social science/humanities tools for source evaluation, students collect, critique, and evaluate artifacts or primary source documents to explore their thesis.  Students may create a written or multimedia product in this seminar. 

Upon completion of their inquiry-driven project, students will have gained academic maturity and expanded their ability to engage in a diverse and changing world.  They will be able to draw and defend conclusions from theoretical underpinnings, contextual background, and mathematical analysis or source evaluation. Finally, they will have created and tested something useful of their own design or will be able to defend a position based on their own research. Check out the video below to hear from the facilitators and learn more about your seminar project!
​Kathleen Brennan
Social Sciences Teacher
BA St. Peter’s University
MA Rutgers University