Entrepreneurship as Advocacy Cluster

About the Entrepreneurship as Advocacy Cluster

Total number of credits in this cluster: 9

The Entrepreneurship as Advocacy Cluster empowers students to utilize the process of entrepreneurship as a form of advocacy to improve the human condition and enhance public life. Students conduct rigorous research and are encouraged to think critically and argue effectively about the role of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship in promoting, for example, economic justice, physical and mental health and well-being, racial and gender equality, and civic engagement. The cluster offers an alternative to the paradigm of "maximize shareholder value" to encourage students to create non-profit and for-profit organizations that can be a force for positive change in society.

Students who complete this cluster will be able to create a non-profit or for-profit venture based on the iterative vetting of an original idea rooted in careful and rigorous research; examine the impact of that venture and the resulting services and/or products on themselves, employees, customers, the environment, and local, national, and/or global communities; understand how the ecologies of successful non-profit and for-profit liberal arts ventures operate; and articulate best practices of successful Liberal Arts startups and organizations in relation to founder roles and relationships, fundraising, public presentation/pitching, market analysis, product differentiation, financial projecting, sales and marketing strategies, and scaling.

Students who successfully complete this cluster are able to:

Create a non-profit or for-profit venture based on extensive vetting of an original idea rooted in rigorous primary and secondary research as well as customer discovery
Apply principles of Lean Startup methodology to the creation of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for their venture
Articulate parallels between "ways of thinking" and "ways of doing" within the Liberal Arts and purpose-driven entrepreneurship
Critique normative definitions and practices of entrepreneurship in the contemporary U.S. in regards to gender, class, and race
Investigate the economic, political, social, historical, and/or rhetorical factors that shape the ideation of Liberal Arts ventures
Envision innovative services and products designed to ameliorate urgent problems that impact the quality of public life and the human condition

Preferred Sequence of Courses for the Cluster

The Entrepreneurship as Advocacy Cluster in the ENTI Minor includes three courses worth a total of 9 credits. All students in the minor also take three core courses.

Core Courses

To meet the prerequisite requirement for MGMT/IST/ENGR 425, you must take:

(ECON 102 or ECON 104 or ECON 14 or MGMT 215; an ECON course is not required for the ENTI minor) and (CAS 100 or CAS 137T or EMSC 100S)

Cluster Required Courses

Cluster courses must be taken in this sequence. L A 403 and L A 424 can be taken concurrently.