Classes

 

Intro to Entrepreneurship

ECON 238-01 (Spring, Economics): This course focuses on theories and applications of Entrepreneurship.  Students spend the semester working in teams to identify a problem and develop a solution. For their final project, students present a formal business plan pitch to a panel of entrepreneurs.

Intro to Social Entrepreneurship

INTL 294-02 / SOCI 294-03 (Fall, International Studies/Sociology):  This course focuses on theories and applications of Social Entrepreneurship.  Students spend the semester working in teams to identify a problem and develop a solution. For their final project, students present a formal business plan pitch to a panel of entrepreneurs.

The Evolution of African American Entrepreneurship

SOCI 194-06 /ECON 194-01 (Spring, Economics/Sociology): In 2015, the Census Bureau reported nearly 2.6 million Black or African-American owned businesses in the U.S., up from 1.9 million or 34.5 percent in 2007. In the same year, American Express reported African American women as the fastest growing demographic of entrepreneurs, experiencing 322 percent growth between 1997 and 2015. Currently, Black or African American owned businesses have a sizeable footprint in the nation’s economy generating $150 billion in annual revenue and supporting 3.56 million jobs. Entrepreneurship for African Americans wasn’t always encouraged. After the Civil War, freed slaves were legally prohibited from obtaining business licenses to commodify skills (e.g. blacksmithing, horse training, cooking, etc.) learned during their enslavement. In addition to policies barring African Americans from bringing their services and products to the marketplace, racial violence in African American towns and neighborhoods followed destroying their centers of commerce. This course is largely designed to introduce students to entrepreneurship in the African American community from the time the first West Africans arrived in the U.S. as slaves to today. Students will learn key institutions and systems’ impact on African American entrepreneurship within the African American community, and in the U.S. Some of the specific topics covered include Civil War, emancipation, Jim Crow segregation, racial violence, the Great Migration, economic revolutions, political and social movements, and hip-hop culture. Ultimately, students should gain an understanding the historical importance of African American entrepreneurship and why the future success of the U.S. economy rests on its expansion.

Global Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation

ANTHR 194-03 (Fall, Anthropology): Whether in university halls or technology hubs, government offices or remote villages, entrepreneurship has come to be celebrated around the world in hopes of driving innovation and solving diverse problems.  What exactly do we mean by entrepreneurship, though?  Moreover, what challenges do entrepreneurs face and how do they, in turn, challenge the world(s) we live in?  Moving beyond the buzzword, this course takes an anthropological approach to these questions by investigating contemporary experiences with entrepreneurship across the globe—from Silicon Valley to South Africa.  Combining ethnographic accounts with critical theories of capitalism, work, political economy, and social change, students will examine the broader social and economic worlds that shape and are in turn shaped by the rise of entrepreneurship.

Environmental Sustainability Ambassadors Initiative

This seminar course uses a sustainability framework for considering the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of problems and their potential solutions, followed by a summer internship working in collaboration with an organization looking to address issues of sustainability.  They spend a semester preparing for their work and a summer working collaboration with the organization. For more information: www.macalester.edu/igc/sustainabilityambassadors

Chuck Green Fellowship

During this six-month fellowship inspired by retired Macalester professor Chuck Green, fellows participate in a spring semester Political Science seminar focused on analyzing and addressing community-based issues followed by an on-site project at a community-based organization to implement the recommendations developed in the spring. For more information: www.macalester.edu/politicalscience/studentopportunities/chuck-green-fellowship/