Exploring Social Entrepreneurship Application at Hampshire College

Our independent study will focus on laying the groundwork for a long-term project that will span multiple semesters aimed at creating a Social Entrepreneurship Resource Center at Hampshire College. One of the course objectives will be to explore potential curriculum content by implementing a required reading list. For discussion of the texts, we will create a group open both to students who are participating in the indpendent study and those who aren’t. We will have weekly meetings with and without our faculty sponsor to continually reassess and review our work. We hope to increase our presence on campus and educate the population of Hampshire on our mission. In order to do this, a strong concept plan is essential. Therefore we will be creating a new concept plan and promotional strategy to aid us in promoting and ensuring the program endures. Keeping with our goal to increase knowledge of social entrepreneurship on campus, we will create a resource list that would provide students with a list of classes around the valley, possible internships, and eventually other resources that will aid students in their Social Entrepreneurship education. Part of this will be hosting at least one or more events on campus focusing on social entrepreneurship. We may explore bringing different speakers and workshops to campus. We will be evaluated on our completion of these goals/projects listed above.

We have set up a core page for that will become a directory for everything related to Social Entrepreneurship and intend to collect resources and post them all to Social Entrepreneurship Resources.

As of now our working definition of Social Entrepreneurship is as follows: "Social Entrepreneurship is the use of business and entrepreneurial practices to achieve beneficial change in society."

(From: A modification of a definition used in the 2004 NCIIA Conference)

Also for anyone who would like to be added to our email list for upcoming events or have any questions, please email us at SEARCHampshire@gmail.com

Pitch Competition Hosted by SEARCH
The Entrepreneurship Initiative is a branch of the HGCF. Each year, Mr. Grinspoon provides monetary awards to students who demonstrate the “entrepreneurial spirit” and who have a strong desire to own their own businesses.

As part of this initiative, a competition is held between participating area colleges at an annual entrepreneurship banquet. Participating institutions include American International College; Bay Path College; Elms College; Greenfield Community College; Hampshire College; Holyoke Community College; Mount Holyoke College; University of Massachusetts (School of Engineering &amp; the School of Business); Smith College; Springfield College; Springfield Technical Community College; Westfield State College; and, Western New England College.

At the banquet, one student representative from each institution has the opportunity to sell his/her idea to investment bankers who serve as judges via a ninety second “Elevator Pitch”. Award winners for first, second and third place, for $1,000, $500 and $250 respectively, are chosen that evening. The Competition:    The HGCF Entrepreneurship Initiative is grateful to the following community banks which have sponsored the Elevator Pitch since its inception:                           Bank of Western Mass                         Berkshire Bank                         Country Bank for Savings                         Florence Savings Bank                         Peoples Bank                         United Cooperative Bank                         West Bank &amp; Trust Co. Round 1: Each college or university has a system in place to choose the candidate that will compete on its behalf. Some colleges run an elevator competition on campus with an independent panel of judges who choose the best candidate to move to the live elevator pitch. Others vote through their students organizations. For information about a specific institution’s protocol, contact the Faculty Advisor at the institution of interest. Judges evaluate pitches based fifty percent on "fundability" (demonstration there is a need or market) and fifty percent on the quality of the presentation. Round 2: The main competition at the annual entrepreneurship banquet is considered Round 2. It is being held on Wednesday, April 29, 2009, at The Log Cabin in Holyoke, Massachusetts. At the live competition, students will be called in random order to give their elevator pitches. Again, each student will have ninety seconds only. In Round 2, the judges are area investment bankers who are accustomed to making decisions regarding financing new business ventures. Judges will be choosing winners based solely on the caliber of the ninety second pitches. This means participants are  not  allowed to use note cards, technology, handouts, or props. Contestants will have ninety seconds  only .  The finalist and a guest will receive free admission to the banquet. Students who participated in Round 1 are also encouraged to attend the banquet to support their institutions’ representative and hear some excellent speakers. The cost per ticket is only $10 per person. Students interested in attending the banquet should register through the faculty advisor form their institution.    Eligibility:
 * Undergraduate or graduate students enrolled full-time at one of the participating institutions during the current academic year
 * Individuals or teams of two students
 * Students who, if chosen to represent BPC at the banquet, are available to deliver their pitches in person in Wednesday, April 29, 2009, at The Log Cabin

For more information please visit this website: http://www.hgcf.org/entrep/index.php?page=6015

'''The Hampshire round of the competition will be held on the first and the second of April. More information such as times and signup will be posted soon.'''

A pitch workshop will be held on March 12th for all interested.

SEARCH Plan of Action

 * The SEARCH Plan of Action encompasses everything we need to do in order to create SEARCH. Please feel free to comment on our plans and ideas by clicking on the "discussion" tab at the top of the page.

02-24

 * We are going to support the Useless campaign, and perhaps sponsor speakers - if so, we need to coordinate that now!


 * Asa is going to coordinate advertising for the pitching contest


 * Ananda will send out readings by Friday


 * Henry has been looking into readings, is interested in sports entrepreneurship, will send readings to Ananda


 * In the next SEARCH meeting announcement, Asa will encourage members to send in interesting topics/readings in advance

02-17

 * Questions concerning non-profit versus for-profit entreprise creation, in need of clear explanations of all the expenses (taxes, especially) associated with eac, and how to incorporate
 * We need to concentrate on concrete information for people who truly want to begin their own social enterprises, and build resources that work to that end; a perfect example is the student who came in with the above questions
 * Asa's readings: "The Ascent of Money," by Niall Ferguson - introduction discusses how economic crisis was not about banks, but that there were not enough quality loans. Naked Economics- Introduction, Chapters 1,2, and 8
 * Brendan will email me the list
 * Henry hasn't really read anything on these topics, so had nothing to bring in
 * Priorities: Events, Pilot Program, student group work, resource building
 * Brendan and Asa will catalogue the library this week
 * Ananda will put together readings and send them out on Friday. the readings will be topics-based

02-10

 * Hampfest: will table, collect emails, spread the word, etc


 * Pitch Competition: Winner (w/ runner ups) needs to be chosen by April 6th, can do Brendan's workshop before Spring break (begin advertising at end of February), and competition after Spring Break. Brendan will check the dates and choose them for the next meeting. Need to post rules + info on Hampedia, do online signups. Andrea+ Asa will make a flyer, mailbox


 * Everyone will look at SEARCH Plan of Action for next week, edit/update/comment on it (What's missing?), and decide on what projects they want to undertake


 * Send info to Glenn periodically, for Design Conspiracy email list, about SEARCH + projects


 * SEARCH student group will meet at 6pm Tuesdays, in the Lemelson classroom. Introductory meeting will be next week Tues (create pitch for SEARCH). Student group coordinator needs to order food, advertise on daily digest/other mediums, hand in RFPs, keep track of budget, plan meeting - Brendan will take this role


 * Everyone will bring in three chapters/articles they areinterested in discussing to next week's meeting. What do we want to study? Social entrepreneurship as a niche in today's economy, is capitalism sustainable, "how to save the world" - burstein


 * Need to prioritize items in plan of action, helps ensure that we are concentrating on items of greatest importance


 * Andrea will start encouraging alums to come in and speak

01-27

 * SEARCH could set up a pitching competition, winner would go to tournament by the Grinspoon foundation


 * We have the tshirts in


 * Already have to speakers for the spring: Cynthia Barstow, and Stephen Kiernan (won't be able to until after March)


 * Brendan wrote up a pitching workshop


 * Lemelson is getting put up on GuideStar, to get nonprofit funding


 * SocEnt library is growing. What do we want to do in the long term? Perhaps we can make them part of the Library, but have a sticker in the inner jacket that says it's part of the SEARCH library


 * Asa has an IPod nano that he is willing to give to someone who wins a competition


 * Sam won't be here in the Spring, he'll be in CO, but will continue to work with us


 * In the spring it will be Asa, Henry, Brendan, Ananda, and possibly Andrea/Madeleine (Sam is CO correspondent)


 * Colin won't have much time to work with us in the spring, but he'll approve everything


 * Ananda will get in touch with John McGill


 * Asa and Brendan will schedule meeting with Colin
 * We will meet either Monday or Tuesday at 5pm, depending on schedules
 * Andrea will be meeting with alums who have social enterprises, and wants to talk with them about SEARCH, and ask them if they'd like to come in and be speakers/otherwise help out
 * Need to work on outreach!!
 * "Stirring it Up: How to make money and save the world" - good book to add to the library, by Hampshire alum

01-12

 * Toolbox is largely finished, Asa needs to finish putting some info up


 * Stephen Kiernan- writing book on social entrepreneurship, Asa is working with him


 * Meeting with Cynthia Barstow in process of being set up


 * Maybe get president of Say Yes to Education to come in and talk, Asa knows her


 * We got our t-shirts, more on the way


 * Brendan and Asa are doing on independent study over JanTerm, its goal is to develop some seminars and invite at least 3 speakers for the spring seminar. They will also develop master lists of possible speakers and seminar topics


 * Brendan will get the pilot program outreach drafted and sent out to all of us by the end of the week


 * Need to get list of alumni and figure out how network will work, how profiles will work, etc


 * For the spring... The SEARCH student group would meet every week or two, have students come in with ideas, get advice, along the lines of Design Conspiracy. Maybe every month or so, have meetings to discuss X social entrepreneurship book. Have group indie study meet before/after student group meetings


 * Start looking for topics and readings for a possible EPEC course in the future. Possibly do readings with the student group, like CBD.


 * For spring, for the group independent study going to try to do regular readings. Encourage interested students to join student group, do readings with them as well

11-13
Brendan and Asa will make schmoozing guide (firm handshake is important etc.), we will also put up all resource links that we found at conference. Email Brendan Ciecko.

Asa- Continue resource blurbs, email Cynthia Barstow

Brendan- Finish email

Ananda- Take free online entrepreneurship classes and present next week

11-6
Obama Wins!

Asa will continue his blurb stuff on resources

Sam will set meetings with KP, rework

Ananda when the time comes will email stuff about making student group, continue work from last week

Brendan applied for list serv, and will write email rough draft for peeps (for in the email : how often email? (at least monthly), thank them, provide them with links, short description of where we are headed.

Henry will work on logo, send new flyer, upload to gmail.

10-30
For Next Week

Brendan- Mission Statement, Vision Statement, Better Definition, Three sentence blurb about basics, add resources from internet

Sam- Set meeting with KP about accepted students day, continue working on website, contact artist group/ set meeting, come up and send blurb to Zena clift about SEARCH, check on tour guide blurb

Henry- Fix Flyer, Finalize Logo, come up with tag line, finish reading art of the start Ananda- Start work on encapsulating ideas/progress/long term goals into single document (pull it together)

Asa- Start reading through resource list and make summarizing blurbs

General Long Term Work Talked about social venture fund and its implications, Come up with project for social entrepreneurship class, Start List of Books Come up with list of harvard case studies we want to buy

Pamphlet Work Space
Definition of Social Entrepreneurship: Social Entrepreneurship is the use of business and entrepreneurial practices to achieve beneficial change in society.

The rest will soon be uploaded to Hampedia.

10-23

 * Discussed pamphlet, revised and edited it. Will be finalized today.

10-16

 * Discuss contents of the pamphlet for parents weekend.
 * Contents of Pamphlets- Front:Picture of Flyer               Other Pages: Blurb about SEARCH Cans (Brendan), Definition of Social Entrepreneurship (Asa), Blurb about independent Study (Ananda can do this, it's just taking the present blurb and modifying it a bit), Our contact information, Group contact information, Blurb about Hampedia (Ananda if you are ok with this one you know the most-sure, no problem)) and upcoming website(Sam), Reading list (Asa), Future Goals of SEARCH...(List on going and everyone will add this week)
 * Flyer is fixed and will be put on Hampedia soon.
 * Everyone still learning how to use Hampedia.
 * Add More survey questions.
 * Sam Judelson will talk to Zena Clift about meeting with Div 1 advisors and continue working on the website.
 * Asa Hyde will talk to Lemelson Student and Alumni Board about Social Entrepreneurship.
 * Everyone will Add more survey questions.
 * Organize what we need to become an official student group.
 * Everyone will start reading The Art of The Start by Guy Kawasaki.

10-2

 * Table in the Lemelson Center during Parents' Weekend with pamphlets, to raise awareness of SEARCH.
 * Create pamphlets for the above event!
 * Defining social entrepreneurship - emphasis on being socially and environmentally aware
 * Discuss survey questions.
 * Everyone will get on Hampedia and begin learning how to use it.
 * Asa Hyde will look into getting an independent study grant from Lemelson Center.
 * Read all of the scanned documents.
 * Add to Social Entrepreneurship page. Asa Hyde will transfer info from Gmail to it; if it is copyrighted he will provide bibliography info. Ananda Valenzuela will put up scanned documents.
 * Sam Judelson will talk with Donna, work on webpage, look into getting search.hampshire.edu (Ananda will ask around as well).
 * Henry is fixing the flier.
 * Soundbite for tourguides: "As Lemelson reassesses its goals and plans for the upcoming years, one of the areas it intends to strengthen is Social Entrepreneurship. There is presently a group of students creating a plan for a Hampshire Social Entrepreneurship Center, which will provide resources to students interested in learning about social entrepreneurship or beginning their own socially responsible businesses." If anyone has more questions about it, please look up "Social Entrepreneurship" on Hampedia.

9-25

 * Everyone will look at the documents on the Google group and brainstorm and add to discussions concerning the definition of social entrepreneurship, as well as this project's concept plan (emphasize how it's student-driven), description and blurb for tour guides (when talking about Lemelson Center).
 * Ananda Valenzuela will scan and put up documents from last semester's Social Entrepreneurship course, set up Social Entrepreneurship Hampedia page(s).
 * Sam Judelson will talk with Donna about how to get our message out to all the advisors so that they can deliver it to their advisees, and talk to Karen about how she can help us and how we can get the tour guides to talk about our program.
 * Brendan Sweeney and Asa Hyde will put up all the readings from this semester's social entrepreneurship course onto the social entrepreneurship page. Begin working on surveys with Sam Judelson as well.
 * Henry Hyde will be making fliers.
 * Colin is working on getting us a list of alumni contacts.
 * Everyone will begin developing a reading list, collect a list of all the courses on social entrepreneurship that have been given at Hampshire, speak with those professors and learn more.

Long-Term Goals and Ideas

 * Continue oragnizing regular events
 * Coordinate our work with Lemelson Center, as we will hopefully be funding them later on
 * Look for Div3s that we can help out, with information/man-hours, begin flyering/figuring out how to help and reach out
 * Do surveys to figure out what people want from us
 * Expand our membership
 * Coordinate with the Social Venture Fund to support student projects and increase participation in SEARCH, which will have the added benefit of establishing a more regular meeting time

Mission, Vision, Definition, and Short Explanation of Current Program
Mission Statement :

SEARCH’s mission is to provide Hampshire College Students and members of the Five College community with tools, skills, and resources to better their knowledge of Social Entrepreneurship and to learn to apply what they’ve learned to a special project or social venture.

 Vision Statement  :

To create positive change in society in moral and ethical ways by providing students with the education necessary for them to do the same. We hope to work with students instead of for them to facilitate personal exploration of one’s interests, and we hope to be a sustainable program that will live on for future students.

 Better Definition  :

Social Entrepreneurship is the practice of using for-profit or non-profit enterprise, entrepreneurial methods, and ethical business practices to create positive influence or change in society. Social Entrepreneurs look for problems in society and finds new, innovative, and sustainable ways of changing those problems.

 Three Sentence Summary  :

We are a group of students who have come together to create a Social Entrepreneurship Aid and Resource Center at Hampshire. Currently we are an independent study, but plan on transforming into a program that will aid students in their pursuits of entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship and the application of these concepts. We plan to provide students with educational resources, seminars, and workshops to teach them about Social Entrepreneurship, but also to provide them with internships, sources of funding, and mentoring opportunities to help them create their own social enterprise.

Relevant Hampedia Links
Social Entrepreneurship

Social Entrepreneurship Resources

SEARCH (Social Entrepreneurship Aid and Resource Center at Hampshire)

SEARCH Plan of Action