Social Entrepreneurship Course Syllabus
(Fall Semester, 2024-25 Academic year, Grade 9)
Course: Social Entrepreneurship
Teachers/Facilitators: Darcy Au-Yeung, Matthew Alessi-Friedlander
Course Description
Social entrepreneurs are change agents who challenge the status quo by using
enterprise and innovation to address existing social problems where the government,
private sector, and traditional non-profit sector are failing to make a significant impact.
They effect change through their own ventures and from within companies and
organizations across every industry. Social entrepreneurship requires not only
commitment to a social issue but the knowledge and skills for launching a business
venture.
This course provides students with a knowledge and understanding of the principles of
social entrepreneurship and past and current efforts in social entrepreneurship. It will
take a global perspective, including organizations from Beijing, China, and abroad. The
course will include 12 distinct sessions over 15 class periods, through which the parts of
a business proposal will be developed and it will be built around the Venture For
Change program, which is scheduled to take place in March 2025. Course reading will
be distributed to students prior to each session. Sessions will loosely follow the format
1 2
of content presentation and discussion, workshop. The final deliverable will be a
3 3
business plan for a social venture.
Learning Outcomes
● Understand and remember the concepts, opportunities and challenges
associated with social entrepreneurship.
● Understand the characteristics of successful social entrepreneurship and engage
with experienced social entrepreneurs.
● Analyze perspectives from mentors and colleagues to develop a deeper
understanding of the scope and depth of a chosen social issue.
● Understand the needs of a target community and the impact of solutions through
empathic communication.
● Learn and apply skills related to business planning and management to develop
a plan that addresses the pain points of a target community.
● Evaluate options for academic and professional careers in social
entrepreneurship including developing their own social enterprise, or acting as an
intrapreneur in existing organizations across private and public sectors.
Course Outline
# of
Date Theme Content (SI competency) Deliverable
periods
Reflecting on past Projects
for Change and examining 1
real world social enterprises
of different scale.
Social Write a
9.4 (SI-I-EI-b Choose to be
innovation personal CV
resilient by tapping into
personal strengths and
support systems to withstand
adversity)
Case studies in social
entrepreneurship: hearing
from social entrepreneurs
Find contact
from different backgrounds
information for
and who took different paths.
Entrepreneurial and reach out
9.11, 18 (SI-B-D-a Recognize and 2
role models to a role model
communicate personal
or source of
interest and passion about
inspiration
various local and global
issues connected to the UN
SDGs)
Learning about the skills and
abilities that are required to
become and survive as an
entrepreneur and self-analyze
Online survey
to see how you display those
Entrepreneurial on the
9.25 qualities.
mindset entrepreneurial
(SI-I-EI-b Choose to be
characteristics
resilient by tapping into
personal strengths and
support systems to withstand
adversity)
10.9 Networking Finding like-minded people Short list of 1
and making a commitment to team members
a common goal. Identifying and team
core business functions and options
assigning roles based on the
strengths of each person.
(SI-C-SI-a Actively develop
and nurture local and global
connections with a shared
sense of purpose who
possess and/or can
contribute diverse talents and
resources to affect positive
social change
SI-C-SI-c Demonstrate the
ability to take on a variety of
roles within a collaborative
group both as a leader and
supporter)
Meeting with team members
to determine the common
experience, talent, or passion
that defines the team as an
organization and thinking
about a broad mission for the
Forming an organization. Team
10.16 1
identity (SI-I-DT-c Combine divergent organizer
and convergent thinking to
generate non-conventional
design ideas and prototypes
that are creative, innovative,
and grounded in sound
practice)
Investigating organizations
and agents that are doing
similar work or have similar
products to differentiate.
Agreeing on the specific
social issue that makes you a
social venture.
Viewing the Landscape
10.23 (SI-I-SC-a Identify complex 1
landscape organizer
systems; map the systems;
zoom out to understand how
one system interacts with or
impacts connected systems;
consider the impact of a
broken, unbalanced, or
harmful system)
11.6 Market Differentiating the target Market 1
market from the community
being supported. Practicing
empathy to step into the
user’s shoes to determine
target users, gapes in the
market, and size of your
analysis analysis
target market.
organizer
(SI-C-EL-b Listen with the
intent to understand the
whole picture - the
complexities of a system, its
various components, and
their interconnectedness
Deciding what is and isn’t
valuable to users and
imagining a user experience.
Thinking about business
Business
models that go beyond
model canvas Business
11.13 charity and are sustainable. 1
and value model canvas
(SI-B-D-b Utilize persuasive
propositions
skills to inform and inspire
others to develop systems of
support and affect positive
change)
11.27 – Presentation event
Evaluating and incorporating
feedback into your plan
(working with an adviser).
Learning from (SI-B-I-c Reflect upon
12.4 success and mistakes and use gathered (none) 2
failure feedback to make
adjustments and
improvements for future
actions)
12.11 Prototyping Building variations of the Plan for 1
and building a solution to test with users and building and
sustainable considering costs and testing the
MVP revenues for the solution that MVP
can lead to sustainability.
(SI-I-DT-c Combine divergent
and convergent thinking to
generate non-conventional
design ideas and prototypes
that are creative, innovative,
and grounded in sound
practice)
Thinking about the
implementation and risks of
delivering the solution, how to
extend the impact, and plan
for change.
(SI-I-SD-a Analyze the
Scaling the Map of growth
sustainability implications
12.18 venture and its strategies and 1
within the 4 pillars of
impact targets
sustainability (i.e., social,
human, economic,
environment) to determine
the sustainability of a project
focusing on project impact on
target community)
Understanding and
evaluating different ways to
fund the venture and
forecasting the inflows and
outflows of money. Financial plan
Financing the
1.8, 22 (SI-I-SD-b Specify qualitative and executive 1
venture
and quantitative criteria and summary
constraints for sustainable
solutions that meet local or
global challenges; determine
how impact will be measured)
Incorporating feedback and
progress into a plan and
report for stakeholders and
financiers
(SI-B-I-a Demonstrate a
belief that one's abilities can
1.8, 22 Workshop change as a result of effort, Appendix 2
perseverence, and practice
SI-B-I-b Demonstrate realistic
optimism by maintaining a
positive outlook in the face of
adversity without denying the
constraints posed by reality)
Work product
By the end of the course or shortly thereafter, each team will have produced a business
plan including the following sections:
1. Executive summary
2. Company description
3. Market analysis
4. Organizational structure and management
5. Description of product/service
6. Marketing & sales strategy
7. Financial plan and growth plan
8. Appendix (including description of prototype testing/MVP)
Course Resources
1. Martin, Roger L., Osberg, Sally R., Getting Beyond Better: How Social
Entrepreneurship Works. Harvard Business Review Press, 2015
2. Chahine, T., Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship. Boca Raton, FL: CRC
Press, 2015
3. Guo, C., & Bielefeld, W., Social Entrepreneurship: An Evidence-Based Approach
to Creating Social Value. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2014
4. See Something, Do Something, Yale School of Public Health
5. VentureLab Flagship Curriculum, VentureLab, 2021
6. Johnson, Anna, Papi-Thornton, Daniela, Stauch, James, Student Guide to
Mapping a System. Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, 2019
7. Venture for All, Columbia University, 2019
Academic Integrity
A student may be subject to disciplinary action according to the Daystar Academy
Academic Honesty Policy if they in any of the following forms of academic misconduct:
● Cheating - Including but not limited to copying work, using unauthorized materials, or
illegally obtaining test papers or answers prior to a test
● Plagiarism - Representation of the ideas or work of another person as his/her own.
● Collusion - Supporting malpractice by another student by allowing work to be copied
or submitted for assessment by another.
● Duplication of work - Presentation of the same piece of work for different assessment
components and/or requirements.
● Data fabrication - Manufacturing data for a table, survey, or other such requirement.
