Over the past few weeks, in diverse and unconnected settings, I’ve encountered students who want to start something. They sometimes use the word “entrepreneur” and sometimes refer to organizing activities with a common purpose.
Most are not students in the Business School. Indeed, they are pursuing diverse areas of study. Although they share a desire to build an organization, they don’t always think in terms of a profit-making organization.
I don’t know whether these encounters are the indirect effect of our students looking at perverse job markets or whether they come to their ambitions from the general ethos of wanting to control one’s future.
In any case, they have a common request. They want to acquire skills to help fulfill their ambitions. They want to learn about how one starts something from scratch. They want to be alerted to common traps that founders fall into. They want to learn how to conceptualize a vision in effective fashion to convince others to support their idea. They’re interested in examining different successful models of building a successful organization.
When they look over the curricula of different programs, they don’t see courses they think they need. How do you approach building a staff; what’s a business plan really mean? How can you test out ideas while continuously being wise about risks? Once one has a new idea, for example, a new app that seems interesting, how do you go to the next level?
Many of the students see the boundaries between various schools and programs as unnecessary barriers to combining information. The knowledge sets they need lie across several schools. Why can’t they pursue those interests? How can they get experience in building and effectively working in cross-functional teams, learning from complementary skills of the team members? We are missing a set of courses that provide such knowledge, available to all students who are interested.
I’ve received specific proposals from students.
The Corp is one of the jewels in the crown of Georgetown – a student run enterprise that consists of a set of businesses that offer services to the Georgetown community. One proposal is to provide small venture capital support for new student-built businesses.
Another proposal is to build what Georgetown calls a “living-learning community.” Such communities are sets of students who share interests (e.g., a language, passion about environmental issues) who live together so that their co-curricular lives are integrated with those interests. The proposal notes that such a community built around entrepreneurship could “. . . allow, for instance, an International Health Major in the School of Nursing and Health Studies and a Computer Science Major in the College to partner with a Science, Technology, and International Affairs Major in the School of Foreign Service and a Marketing Major in the McDonough School of Business to create an app that locates nearby clinics for citizens in developing countries. Together, each of these students could accomplish much more than any one of them might have achieved individually.”
In meeting Georgetown alumni around the country, I’m very impressed with how many have built new enterprises, started something from scratch, or assembled new ways of doing things. Our current students have the same desires. We should help them develop a set of skills that propel them to success in doing so.
Dear Provost Groves,
Thank you for this post. I agree with you – Georgetown students are an incredibly passionate and creative group, and both academically and institutionally, we can do more to support them in their entrepreneurial efforts. I would like to focus on group in particular: Georgetown students who wish to “start something” that serves a larger social good.
I currently serve as the Executive Director of the Georgetown Social Innovation and Public Service (SIPS) Fund, a student-led endowment fund that supports innovative student ventures with a social impact. Made possible by student contributions allocated in the SAFE Referendum of last year, SIPS accepts proposals from both current Georgetown students and alumni, and has already provided support – both financial and advisory – for a range of projects. Recently, for example, we helped to fund the expansion of the Hilltop Microfinance Initiative (HMFI) – incidentally, another fantastic example of Georgetown students’ efforts to build an enterprise from scratch and, in doing so, to serve a larger social purpose.
You are right in saying that Georgetown can do more to help our students acquire the skills they need to bring their ideas to fruition, particularly in the social innovation space. Part of the problem is a lack of consolidation of resources on campus for budding social entrepreneurs. There are plenty of spaces which encourage social entrepreneurship on campus: The Center for Social Justice, which – in conjunction with a dedicated Board of faculty, students and alumni – provides advisory support for SIPS, offers a multitude of resources for students who wish to make a difference in the DC and wider community. In a different vein, the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative, run out of the MSB, has a number of resources for student entrepreneurs, including a start-up summer incubator for student-run businesses. On a more grassroots level, student-run organizations such as Compass Incubator work to help Georgetown students get their social ventures off of the ground.
What we lack, however, is a wider community built around social entrepreneurship – one that encourages dialogue between these disparate organizations and helps students to make the connections they need to be successful. Something like the “living learning community” you mention in your post, albeit on a much larger scale!
To me, Georgetown’s commitment to developing “men and women for others” makes it the perfect place to develop a community of students dedicated to social innovation, entrepreneurship and public service. On behalf of SIPS, we are eager to work with you on building a campus culture that fosters such a community.
Sincerely,
Kate Anthony
It would help if the Computer Science Department would offer applied courses in such subject as developing websites, data entry, computer illustration, etc. that would appeal to non-Computer Science majors. The Department seems to have concentrated on theory to become well established and respected, but now should serve the needs of all the main campus students. In particular they should develop a cooperative relationship with the business school.
Also the business school should offer at least introductory undergrad elective courses in management of non-profit organizations and small businesses, preparing business plans, etc.