What You Will Learn as a Social Entrepreneurship Major

Focusing on business for social change, the Department of Social Entrepreneurship will help you turn your passion for making change into reality with a high-impact career. The major combines entrepreneurial thinking and action; business skills; cutting-edge problem-solving methodologies such as human-centered design; and understanding of current economic, political, cultural, and environmental issues. The program positions you to find—or create—a career applying innovative, sustainable solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.

Rollins social entrepreneurship student reads a book to children.

Global Citizenship

To develop solutions to global problems, you will need to understand the complex dimensions of those problems. The Social Entrepreneurship major integrates global learning and intercultural knowledge into hands-on projects; you will develop social venture ideas applying business and entrepreneurship skills to address problems; learn impact assessment techniques; and co-host a campus-wide poster session, highlighting critical issues and analyzing solutions. The Social Entrepreneurship curriculum also requires completion of a global experience, supporting your development as a global citizen.

Social entrepreneurship student presents their research at a poster session.

Responsible Leadership

You will learn business skills valuable in any field, but our major is not “business as usual.” You will create business models that integrate a core social/environmental impact. The Social Entrepreneurship major requires community engagement coursework and an immersion experience. The immersion is a weekend- or week-long overnight experience with a strong, direct service component promoting civic engagement. We support your development as a responsible leader through teamwork in business plan development, finance and marketing projects, and social pitch competitions, and through ethical reasoning in business and social enterprise case studies.

Social entrepreneurship students work in a small group on a design thinking project.

Productive Careers

We believe that you will learn best with practical applications, so your classroom learning is tied to community practice. This forms a foundation for lifelong learning. You will hone your skills in critical thinking and problem solving, creativity, oral and written communication, information and quantitative literacy as you develop marketing plans for social enterprises; consult for non-profits; design visual forms of communication; and work alongside local social enterprises on projects like alleviating local “food deserts”. The impact of our curriculum is recognized internationally: The Social Entrepreneurship major is AACSB-accredited, and was semifinalist for the 2018 Ashoka U Innovation Award, the most prestigious social entrepreneurship education award globally.

Prepared to Lead

“Rollins social entrepreneurship program gave me the tools that I needed to make a solid business model and pursue my business plan. I was prepared to step out of college and step into a real business.”

Group of social entrepreneurship students in a classroom pitching a social venture

Meaningful Lives

The program will empower you to build a career out of making the world a better place. Our interdisciplinary business major prepares you to use business as a force for good in the public, private, and non-profit sectors; the sky is the limit.

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