Capstone

Join the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute for a week long Spring Break Cap­stone Trip to Nicaragua

Entre­pre­neur­ship & Inno­va­tion BSBA stu­dents who need to take a senior cap­stone in the Social Enter­prise track can opt to take Pro­fes­sor Shaughnessy’s ENTR4506: Advanced Top­ics in Social Entre­pre­neur­ship in Devel­op­ing Coun­tries cap­stone (CRN: 33750). 

In this course, stu­dents will learn about sus­tain­able enter­prise solu­tions to extreme poverty in rural com­mu­ni­ties in devel­op­ing coun­tries. Stu­dents will exam­ine how extreme poverty can be alle­vi­ated through the use of agri­cul­tural coop­er­a­tives financed and aided by impact invest­ing firms to deliver “fair trade” and organic prod­ucts such as cof­fee and cacao at pre­mium prices to afflu­ent con­sumer mar­kets. From a busi­ness per­spec­tive, stu­dents will ana­lyze and study the trade cof­fee trade in the global mar­ket­place from impact invest­ing firms like Root Cap­i­tal to cof­fee bean pur­chasers like Starbucks.  

Dur­ing this course, our expec­ta­tions are that each stu­dent will: read, write, dis­cuss and debate, present, work in teams, engage in field research, develop a project plan, build finan­cial state­ments, inter­act with peo­ple from a dif­fer­ent cul­ture, expe­ri­ence extreme poverty first-hand, travel to and live in an inter­na­tional set­ting, and par­tic­i­pate in the decision-making process for grant fund­ing, among other things. 

Stu­dents will also have the oppor­tu­nity to travel to Nicaragua dur­ing Spring Break with the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute to put the­ory into prac­tice and visit Cen­tral America’s lead­ing coop­er­a­tives, social busi­nesses, social enter­prises, and inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions focus­ing on improv­ing the lives of the poor. Students will also have the oppor­tu­nity to impact invest $10K towards the orga­ni­za­tions, social enter­prises, coop­er­a­tives, and social busi­nesses vis­ited dur­ing the field practicum. 

The Social Enter­prise Insti­tute will sub­si­dize up to 75% of your travel costs, while the remain­ing cost will be sub­si­dized through reg­u­lar tuition. Stu­dents will pay the dif­fer­en­tial costs through fundraising. 

For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact us at sei@neu.edu