Social Entrepreneurship equips students with the process, skills, and knowledge they require to design and apply innovative ideas that address obstacles or opportunities for improved well-being.
Four Core Classes
The four course classes serve as foundational pillars carefully crafted to cultivate and enhance your essential skill set.
1. 4010/6010 Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship
- An end-to-end introduction to the methods and skills required in social entrepreneurship.
- Semester-long class project guided by lectures that introduce key concepts.
2. 4011/6011 Strategic Storytelling
- A focus on identifying needs for an individual or community and bringing those needs to life through empathy and the telling of authentic stories.
- Semester project is identifying a social need, gathering evidence related to the need, translating that evidence into a grounded, strategic story, and sharing that story to shine the light on the need.
3. 4051/6051 Social Impact Communication
- A focus on methods used in ideation and prototyping as well as coalition building to gain support for your idea.
- Semester project is taking an identified need, developing a realistic yet innovative idea, designing at least one solution related to the need, estimating the odds of success, and persuading others to join you in pursuing the solution.
4. 5011/7011 Social Entrepreneurship Capstone
- And end-to-end capstone project to demonstrate mastery of the social entrepreneurship process and establish the student's reputation in their chosen domain post-graduation.
- Semester project that shines the light and solves the riddle for the sudent's chosen topic.
Your Chosen Focus Area
Select courses from across campus to build your knowledge and expertise of an area in which you would like to focus. Your focus area allows you to tailor your degree sheet to match your career goals while establishing your own pathway to achieving your goals. You can either create your own set of classes or use current UGA certificates to define your focus area.
Examples of focus areas using certificates:
- Social Entrepreneurship + Sustainability Certificate
- Social Entrepreneurship + Nonprofit Management & Leadership Certificate
- Social Entrepreneurship + Learning Design & Technology Certificate
- Social Entrepreneurship + Environmental Ethics Certificate
- Social Entrepreneurship + Entrepreneurship Certificate
- Social Entrepreneurship + Disability Studies Certificate
Students choose 12 hours for major electives from any available course across campus and 9 hours from courses offered in FACS. They will work with their advisor and program faculty to select the courses that will best prepare them for their intended area of work.
A Variety of Careers
Social Entrepreneurship is more about passion than profit. They are agents of change who see what is and what could/should be very clearly. They are never constrained by conventional wisdom or the way things have been done. Instead, they seek better ways that create win-win solutions that improve quality of life for all involved.
- Strategy or strategic planning
- Research associate (Think Tank)
- Marketing, brand or employee research
- Media relations
- Social impact work
- Experience or product design
They can also start their own business or nonprofit.
Job Titles
UGA graduates majoring in Social Entrepreneurship have found employment in a variety of areas including:
- Public relations for a child/family related organization such as the Children's Health Care of Atlanta
- An Event Planner at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta in the Sports Network Department
- Editor of the Entertainment page at CNN.com
- Freelance work for ESPN, CBS, and other major networks.
- Director of Public Affairs, Communications, and Tourism, City of Conyers
- Marketing Manager, Betty Crocker Appliances
- Marketing Assistant, Savannah Foods and Industries
- Channel Development Representative, Business Objects America
- Partner, International Stream (streaming media consultants)
- Conference Planner, Continuing Education Department, Medical College of Georgia
- Owner, The Quadrillion (full service marketing, training, and image development firm)
- Creative Coordinatory, Savannah Bananas
- Production Secretary, Disney Animation
- Events Manager, Georgia Center for Continuing Education, University of Georgia
- Community Relations Coordinator, Celtics Basketball, L.P.
- Associate Director of Development, Terry College of Business, University of Georgia
Requirements
Requirements include completion of the core courses to build skill in design thinking for consumer well-being plus courses from across campus related to the student's chosen focus area to build domain expertise. The major includes 4 hours of core courses, 15 hours in the focus area, 9 hours from FACS, 12 hours of major electives (with 6 from FACS), and 13 hours of general electives.
Faculty Members
Yilang Peng
Assistant Professor
Dee Warmath
Associate Professor
I chose the Social Entrepreneurship major in FACS because I wanted a major that allowed me to combine my love for non-profits and education. This major has four core classes structured around learning about social enterprise and the depth of social problems. This program also allows for the student to choose their own non-profit focus area, so I chose education access and advocacy.
I chose this major because of its interdisciplinary nature. I loved the idea of being able to hand-select my classes in a way that would reflect my specific interests. Thus, the opportunity to take classes in both Grady and FACS enabled me to broaden my array of knowledge, and ultimately allowed me to find a passion for governmental affairs and policy through this journey.