Social Innovation

Catalog description

This is a class focused on understanding the many forms and functions of innovation for the benefit of society. At a time when fresh solutions to public problems are increasingly coming not just from government, the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, but from collaborations across the three, we will focus in this class on understanding how to understand need and design effective interventions. We will explore how world changers find opportunity, cultivate ideas, define intended impact, understand competition, and collaborate with other actors. At the end of the course, students should have mastered a set of conceptual tools and practices that will allow them to be effective, collaborative problem solvers in diverse settings throughout their careers. The course has four main objectives: 1. To introduce students to the concepts and practices of social innovation; 2. To equip students with the tools to be able to accurately identify and assess innovation and impact in social initiatives; 3. To train students to view the world from a perspective of social innovation; and 4. To empower students to develop their own solutions to address societal challenges around the world. **This course is only available to students in the NEEL program.