Students Get Real about Social Entrepreneurship in New Lab

This Fall, the Social Entrepreneurship Lab (SE Lab) was piloted at the Robert H. Smith School of Business under the leadership of Professor Christine Beckman and Adjunct Professor Sara Herald. The Lab is an active learning environment where students test hypotheses around the creation of social ventures, and thereby develop a first-hand understanding of how the field works.

Throughout the semester students conducted a series of experiments to test the viability of their ideas. They conducted stakeholder interviews, researched competitive landscapes, built minimum viable products, and tested prototypes. As Chris Frye, Junior Environmental Design major and current SE Lab student put it, “The Lab has really opened my eyes to the power of business to make a difference and have social impact.”

The three-credit course welcomed sophomores, juniors, and seniors from across the University of Maryland with an interest in launching social impact ventures.  For Frye, the interdisciplinary aspect of the course is the best part. “It made our final product that much better, because we all have different backgrounds, perspectives, and skills.”

The SE Lab is a Fearless Ideas Course, a designation created by the Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland to promote courses that focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. As a pilot course the SE Lab will be further evaluated before being listed as a permanent course for Fall, 2015.