GETTING AN A+ IN MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE: SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR PROGRAMS GUIDE STUDENTS WHO WANT TO HELP THEIR COMMUNITIES.

• Author: Caley, Nora
• Position: EDUCATION REPORT

Students who want to make a difference in their communities--and build viable businesses--are finding opportunities to do both. Local colleges and universities are offering programs in social entrepreneurship, also called social enterprise, in Colorado and beyond to meet this evolving student demand.

"It is definitely part of the trend in the millennial generation of wanting to both be able to make a living and make a life," says Rebecca Arno, director of the Barton Institute for Philanthropy and Social Enterprise at the University of Denver. "They want to put market forces to work addressing social issues."

The Barton Institute recently launched the Social Enterprise Fellowship Program, which deploys six teams of graduate students to projects at area organizations. For example, one team will help Access Gallery develop a market for corporate artwork created by artists with disabilities, while another team creates a business and engagement strategy for the barbershop and salon at Emily Griffith Foundation.

Arno says the program attracted graduate students from the law, business, environmental, art, international development, social work and economics schools. The program is co-curricular, which means students get paid but they do not earn credit for the 10 hours a week they dedicate to these projects. "It is over and above their course load and workload," she says.

Students of all academic disciplines want to use creativity and innovation to solve community problems. "When you hear entrepreneurship you think business, but really it's anybody and everyone on campus," says Sarah Engel, assistant director of the Jake Jabs Center for Entrepreneurship at CU Denver Business School. The center offers an entrepreneurship curriculum for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education students.

Engel points to several projects by CU Denver students that have grown into viable businesses. Nokero, which makes solar-powered light bulbs for third world countries to use instead of dangerous kerosene lanterns, is run by a former student and won a business plan competition at the center several years ago. More recently, engineering students who worked on revamping shipping containers into sustainable living spaces in Haiti now run a program called Project [un]Contained. Another group of engineering students is currently working on a smart walking cane that talks to the user.

Students have long wanted to help the community. The difference now is social...