Arizona State University
AshokaU

Arizona State University has developed a new model for the American research university, creating an institution that is committed to excellence, access and impact. ASU pursues research that contributes to the public good; and ASU assumes major responsibility for the economic, social and cultural vitality of the communities that surround it.

Eight design aspirations guide ASU’s transformation into the New American University, including “value entrepreneurship.” By breaking the mold, ASU has become a place where local solutions have global impact.

Arizona State University and Social Entrepreneurship
ASU is suffusing social entrepreneurship into the fabric of the university and making entrepreneurship resources widely accessible. We have developed a distributed model for entrepreneurship that has over a dozen mini-centers that are housed in disciplines across the university, allowing us to create an entrepreneurial culture. ASU faculty and students from more than 100 majors are using social entrepreneurship as a means to identify local and global needs, articulate how to meet them, and move forward with implementing entrepreneurial solutions.

The Arizona State University Approach Across the Six Elements of Excellence:

1. Teaching/Curriculum
ASU offers 89 courses in entrepreneurship and many include modules, discussions, and activities related to social entrepreneurship. InnovationSpace, ASU’s transdisciplinary education and research lab, is an entrepreneurial joint venture among the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering and W.P. Carey School of Business that teaches students how to develop products that create market value while serving real societal needs and minimizing impacts on the environment.

The Master of Healthcare Innovation in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation offers a futuristic, multidisciplinary approach to the development of healthcare. Students learn new processes to develop innovative, immediate solutions to existing or potential healthcare problems in both traditional and non-traditional healthcare organizations.

Starting in spring 2011, undergraduate students in the College of Technology and Innovation will have the option to specialize in social entrepreneurship coursework that emphasizes technological solutions to problems such as education, energy, health and clean water in underserved populations. Recent examples of students projects include the creation of non-polluting cooking fuel for those in the Base of the Pyramid, providing microfinancing resources for budding entrepreneurs and developing cell phone applications to increase learning in inner city schools. Engineering Projects In Community Service (EPICS) GOLD is a series of three one-credit classes that engage teams of multi-disciplinary students to work on projects that solve engineering and technology-based problems with nonprofit community agencies, schools and government units.

Additional social entrepreneurship courses include Nonprofit Leadership and Management: NLM 410 (Social Entrepreneurship) and NLM 568 (Social Entrepreneurship—graduate level). Global Resolve is a 3-course social entrepreneurship series that empowers students to develop sustainable entrepreneurial projects for developing countries.

2. Research
ASU houses the ASU-Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation, one of the top nonprofit academic centers in the U.S. conducting research on nonprofit organizations, led by Dr. Mark Hager and Dr. Lili Wang. Dr. Gordon Shockley specializes in social entrepreneurship and all other forms of what he terms “non-market entrepreneurship,” as developed in his edited book Non-market Entrepreneurship: Interdisciplinary Approaches (Edward Elgar, 2008).

Resident faculty in the College of Technology and Innovation, School of Sustainability, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, the School of Social Transformation, the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts conduct research that touches on or is directly related to social entrepreneurship.

3. Applied Learning and Apprenticeship
The Arizona State University Innovation Challenge seeks undergraduate and graduate students from across the university who are dedicated to making a difference in our local and global communities through innovation.

Students can win up to $10,000 to make their innovative project, prototype, or venture ideas happen. Funds are awarded to two types of ideas:

• Entrepreneurial projects, prototypes, or ventures that resolve local and/or global challenges;
• Intrapreneurial projects, prototypes, or ventures that resolve local and/or global challenges by partnering with and bolstering the social mission of an existing organization in our communities.

4. Resources
ASU has a continually expanding number of resources for students, as well as faculty and staff who wish to build social entrepreneurship programs. Each year more than $250,000 is granted to students to launch their ideas. The Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative provides student teams with up to $20,000 in funding to launch a venture. Many past ventures have had a focus on social entrepreneurship and this will be a greater focus in the future.

Faculty and staff may apply for Pathways to Entrepreneurship Grants for projects that change the way ASU students learn about and experience entrepreneurship and innovation. Last year, eight faculty and staff projects were awarded with these grants, totaling more than $175,000.

5. Role Models
Our students are inspired by success stories of our alumni, like Courtney Klein, the founder and former CEO of New Global Citizens. The ASU Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative was instrumental in the launch of her nonprofit organization which educates, equips and mobilizes young people to help solve challenges in partnership with grassroots organizations around the world. Courtney shares her experiences through presentations in ASU classrooms and meetings with budding social entrepreneurs who. Charis Elliott, a graduate student in Social Justice, founded a fair trade nonprofit organization, Las Otras Hermanas (LOH), in March 2008 with support from the EDSON Student Entrepreneur Initiative. Charis serves as a member of the ASU Ashoka Changemaker Campus Advisory Board.

ASU invites other leading social entrepreneurs to campus to meet with students and support faculty and staff in the development of effective programs. Last year, Jacqueline Novogratz, author of The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World and founder and CEO of Acumen Fund came to speak at the ASU-Lodestar Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Innovation.

6. Community and Culture
ASU supports existing university champions for entrepreneurship and cultivates new leaders during twice annual workshops convened by the Office of University Initiatives. Fifty faculty, staff, students, and administrators representing over 20 different academic units gathered together for the all-day workshop this past spring semester. Workshops provide program leaders with resources to help them scale and sustain their efforts, as well as encourage networking and brainstorming through various activities.

To learn more about entrepreneurship at Arizona State University please visit http://entrepreneurship.asu.edu/.