Study Business Not as Usual
Major in social entrepreneurship, the business of changing the world.
While studying social entrepreneurship, you will acquire key business knowledge and skills in economics, accounting, statistics, finance, organizational behavior, marketing, leadership, entrepreneurial thinking and action, and strategy. These skills are useful in any field. The social entrepreneurship major is forward-thinking and prepares you for where the world is heading. Your coursework is consistently applied to social issues and creation of social impact. You will also learn human-centered design thinking and experience highly interactive, project-based learning.
Real-World Projects
Your social enterprise classes take you beyond the classroom, developing a broad and deep array of skills and preparing you for multiple career paths.
Consulting
Help local social enterprises and non-profit organizations solve problems, improve operations, and measure social impact.
Marketing
Collaborate with social enterprises to develop a marketing campaign for events on and off campus. Develop marketing plans for local non-profits.
Poster Presentations
Learn how to design and print a professional poster based on your research, then present and spread awareness at a campus-wide poster session.
Business Plan Development
Develop a business plan from the very beginning. Learn the Lean Canvas, Social Lean Canvas, and Business Model Canvas approaches. Consider customer segments, unique value proposition, solution, channels, revenue streams, cost structure, key metrics, and more! You can put your plan into action and start a social enterprise, non-profit, or small business before leaving Rollins, as some of our students do, or hone those skills for later on!
Human Centered Design Thinking
Develop your ability for creative problem-solving through this cutting-edge process. Examine the true needs of customers by interviewing users and experts. Learn to prototype potential solutions and test them!
Mock Trial
Strategize the most effective way to win the case for your client, playing various roles on opposing legal teams.
Social Venture Project
Work in teams to investigate one social change issue of choice, conducting research, exploring the notion of empathy, creating a problem statement, proposing a solution, and applying ethical and legal principles to the proposed social venture.
...and more! Connect with the social entrepreneurship faculty to learn more about the real-world projects embedded into your coursework.
Pitch Competitions
Want to launch a social enterprise either for-profit or non-profit in nature? Want to compete for funding? Social Entrepreneurship majors obtain a lot of practice developing business models and pitches, and often win pitch competitions! In 2018, a team of three SE majors and 1 SE minor won the Rollins Hult Prize competition and the Regional Hult Prize competition in San Francisco; one of the 50 finalist teams around the world, they are spending 6 weeks in London in summer 2018 at a Social Enterprise Accelerator, moving toward competing for $1 million USD. Their social enterprise BatterEase is designed to provide better energy access for millions of people in poverty. Read more about their social enterprise here.
Classroom Social Pitch Competitions
Our social entrepreneurship classes enable you to think about your own social enterprise/business ideas and also develop effective communication skills. You will “pitch” your business idea in class. The class has an opportunity to vote on the best pitch! In some of our classes, social entrepreneurs from the community will be judges.
Ideas for Good Challenge
Rollins competition encouraging students to submit innovative solutions to social challenges of their own choosing and pitch their ideas to win a cash prize. Students passionate about social innovation and entrepreneurship can develop a solution or social enterprise idea.
Hult Prize
The largest global competition for social enterprise start-up ideas. Compete in teams to solve the planet's biggest challenges with innovative ideas for sustainable start-up enterprises. Annual Hult Prize winners can make their ideas a reality with the help of $1 million USD in seed funding. Learn more about a Rollins team that went after the Hult Prize.
Networking
Guest Speakers
Learn from the leaders of change and CEOs; frequent guest speakers in your classes help you get an inside scoop on lessons learned from successes and failures, and internship or career opportunities you may never have thought about.
Site Visits
See social enterprise operations in action, get involved, and see what CEOs and employees do on a daily basis.
Conferences
Apply to attend the Catalyst Leadership Conference or the Sullivan Foundation Impact! Summit, and meet other college students, faculty, and social entrepreneurs from around the world.
Social Impact Hub
Be an Ambassador and connect the campus community to changemaking opportunities and learning experiences on and off campus. Develop your leadership skills at the same time! Learn more about the Hub.
Student-Faculty Collaborative Research
Not many universities enable undergraduate students to co-author professional papers with their faculty, but Rollins does! The Student-Faculty Collaborative Scholarship program is a competitive program where students and professors team up to conduct research, write a paper together, present this research at an academic conference, and aim to publish it in a professional journal.
November 14, 2024
Parsloe and Boland ’25 Awarded Best Theoretical Presentation at 2024 Communication Conference
Communication professor Sarah Parsloe and Danielle Boland ’25 were awarded best theoretical presentation at the 2024 Florida Communication Association (FCA) Conference.
October 03, 2024
Discovery Channels
During summer 2024, students and faculty partnered on groundbreaking research aimed at tackling real-world issues.
June 05, 2024
Cohen ’25 and Pool ’26 Named Ginsburg Fellows
Alexandria Cohen ’25 and Joseph Pool ’26 have been selected as 2024-25 Ginsburg Fellows, a scholarship and mentoring program for students passionate about social justice.