Selected Entrepreneurship Courses: Fall 2008
ENTR 307: Social Entrepreneurship
ENTR 309: E-Commerce
ENTR 390: Leadership in the Virtual Workplace
ENTR 407: Entrepreneurial Solutions to World Poverty
ENTR 420: Seminar in Mentoring
ENTR 307: Social Entrepreneurship (Return to Top)
How might one “do good while doing well?” Non-profit entrepreneurship is an accelerating field of study and practice in today’s world of shrinking governmental services. Do you have a ministry idea, a social endeavor, a non-profit you’d like to start, or work for? Would you like to learn how to start, manage, and/or fund a non-profit?
3-credits, ENTR, fall semester 2008, T/R 1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
Limited to 30, junior, senior status required, all majors welcomed, especially liberal arts.
Upon successful completion of this course students will:
1. Understand and be able to apply business practices appropriately in the non-profit environment.
2. Understand the differences in culture, mission, and operation of the non-profit from the commercial enterprise.
3. Gain personal experience and develop additional marketable, transferable skills through interactions with experienced practitioners from the social entrepreneurship world.
4. Understand the issues facing leaders in the current and future non-profit marketplace and be cognizant of the skills essential to successful leadership in this critically underserved market.
5. Have an initial plan for an idea of their own as a first step in seeking a job or starting their own organization.
Students study highly effective non-profit social enterprises to learn the basics of non-profit entrepreneurship and how to integrate entrepreneurial thought and practice into the non-profit world. Students individually develop an elevator pitch and a feasibility study for a non-profit enterprise of their choice. The best feasibility study(ies) are then selected and completed as full-fledged business plan(s) as a team. Practitioners of existing successful social enterprises act as guest lecturers and coaches on these plans.
ENTR 309: E-Commerce (Return to Top)
The world has moved to the Internet to conduct business, build business and personal relationships, and communicate. This course provides the foundation for understanding the essential components of a successful e-commerce system, including e-commerce strategy, target market analysis, search engine optimization, integrated marketing, web usability, payment processing, security, current technologies, data management and fulfillment systems.
3-credit, ENTR, fall 2008, M 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
Limited to 30, open to all majors, sophomore to senior. [This course is a pre-requisite for ENTR 409 Internet Entrepreneurship.]
Students will:
1. Identify and understand the essential components of an e-commerce system.
2. Learn about the range of e-commerce options that are available to businesses by investigating and analyzing e-commerce applications utilizing a variety of business settings.
3. Gain applicable skills related to the development of e-commerce strategy, e-marketing strategy, and implementation of those strategies in business settings.
Students participate in class discussion, study, analyze and discuss case studies, engage in relevant reading assignments, and conduct practical business analysis of existing applications. Case studies and actual business scenarios will be examined in detail, and students will have the opportunity to explore practical applications in the marketplace. Students will hear from guest speaker/practitioners about their successes and challenges in the implementation and use of E-Commerce.
ENTR 390: Leadership in the Virtual Workplace (Return to Top)
With the digital age upon us, Leadership in the Virtual Workplace will explore how the changes in the workplace (telecommuting, virtual teams, instant access, etc.) will affect the ways we need to lead within organizations. Will current leadership models work in the new workplace? What will it take to lead effectively in the future? This course will examine future trends, the impact of the Internet (including email), policy issues, and leadership in the virtual organization. As a result of participating in this course, students will understand the key leadership issues, different ways of leading in the new workplace and how one best leads in a virtual organization.
3-credits, ENTR, fall semester 2008, W 6:30-9:00 p.m. [For when a class meeting is needed. This is a virtual course.]
Limited to 15, junior, senior status required, all majors
Upon successful completion of this course students will:
1. Understand the implications of changing workplace communication methods and leadership styles for individuals and teams.
2. Understand the changes in work and leadership dynamics that have occurred and will continue to occur in the workplace through a virtual team project and use of virtual communication tools.
3. Gain personal experience and develop additional skills in connection with leadership in the evolving workplace.
4. Understand the issues facing leaders in the current and future workplace, and be cognizant of the skills essential to leadership success in the expanding virtual workplace.
The course will be delivered using on-line classes/discussion via WebCT. A fulltime G.C.C. faculty member will provide “boots on the ground” on campus. Students and the instructors will have a preliminary face-to-face class opening meeting. Classes will be conducted via the Internet using an asynchronous format. Online chats and other technology resources (e.g., teleseminars, web meetings) will be used to expand the online class experience by incorporating “virtual visits” by authors, professors and other guests. Class size is limited to 15.
Leadership in the Virtual Workplace attempts to replicate the virtual workplace as much as possible. All communication during the course will be via virtual communication methods. In addition, students will be given assignments, such as team projects, that mimic the virtual workplace.
ENTR 407: Entrepreneurial Solutions to World Poverty (Return to Top)
Live your dream!
Have you ever dreamed…that God would use your professional skills to accomplish something amazing like:
· Helping an Indian tribe of snake catchers start a tourist center?
· Or starting a business that supports an orphanage?
· Or making a movie to make people aware of the plight of gypsies?
· Or designing a website for an international nonprofit?
· Or earning a living by providing services needed by the poor?
· Or …. ?
3-credit, ENTR, fall 2008, T/R 2:30 – 3:45 p.m.
Limited to 30, open to all majors, sophomore to senior.
Entrepreneurial Solutions to World Poverty is a newly restructured course for students of any major who are:
· Serious about fighting poverty,
· Able to look at familiar problems with fresh eyes,
· Willing to put aside preconceived notions,
· Eager to roll up their sleeves and get the job done!
Upon successful completion of this course students will:
1. Investigate and come to understand poverty and its causes;
2. Learn how to use their professional skills and training to minister to the pressing needs of the world community;
3. Study successes around the world in the rolling back of poverty through entrepreneurial thought and action;
4. Have studied the reasons for this progress and learn where it is happening and how it can be duplicated;
5. Use their own God-given skills on actual projects that reduce poverty!
This course has significant “hands-on” involvement of students through the study of inspiring case histories and working on actual projects in teams. Content will be provided through lectures, readings, presentations from guest speaker/practitioners., case histories, and applied team projects.
ENTR 420: Seminar in Mentoring (Return to Top)
This highly interactive seminar provides students with successful entrepreneurial role models in their chosen field. Tailored to each student, hence the small seminar size, students will develop a special one-to-one supportive relationship with an entrepreneur/practitioner in their discipline. The seminar provides a context for students to discuss and see the real-world application of concepts taught in the classroom. The class meets once a week for six weeks then students meet with their mentor for the remaining time. This is an incredible opportunity to begin developing your own network and professional social capital, one normally limited to individuals in mid-career.
1-credit, ENTR, fall and spring semester 2008-9, TH 10:05 a.m. – 11:20 a.m.
Limited to 15, junior, senior status required, all majors welcomed, especially professional and pre-professional majors. Students will be asked to complete a personal profile in May prior to leaving for the summer to facilitate the matching process in the fall. Spring course students will complete the profile in September.
Upon successful completion of this course students will:
1. Explore the place of faith in their professional life and learn how to be true to their own values while successfully pursuing the career of their choice.
2. Gain personal insight into their career opportunities, how to build social capital, develop a professional network, and work with a mentor or professional coach.
3. Experience a professional mentoring relationship with a successful practitioner in their own chosen field.
4. Begin developing their professional network to assist in the job search and career development.
5. Better understand the issues facing the new professional in seeking jobs, developing their careers, and making choices leading to a balanced life.
Students meet weekly in an interactive seminar format for approximately six weeks. Discussions will be built around articles and readings related to mentoring and their particular field of endeavor. Students will be matched during this time with a practitioner and will begin meeting periodically with that person. Meetings will be face to face and virtual. They will work through a structured process with their mentor. Students may continue their mentoring relationship after the semester or end the relationship at that time.
updated: 03/26/08