We’ve always been agents of change here at the New School, so it pleases us to no end that we have been officially named “changemakers.”
I’m very proud and excited to announce that The New School has just been selected to be part of the Ashoka Changemaker Campus Consortium. Only four other universities were chosen this year to form this remarkable partnership -- The University of Colorado at Boulder, Tulane University, College of the Atlantic, and Babson College. Not only is this news exciting to us, but the Ashoka announcement has already been picked up and blogged about by popular social change blog, Change.org.
Ashoka, “the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs,” is based in Washington DC, and has teams, fellows, and staff located all over the world. Together, they’ve created the Changemaker Campus Initiative, with the aim of bringing together “students, faculty, and staff from across campus to transform their university into a hub for social change.” Specifically, this partnership with Ashoka and other universities represents “an effort to share best practices and bridge the gap between theory and practice” in the field of social entrepreneurship. In addition, the New School joins the ranks of last year’s four Changemaker Campuses – Cornell, George Mason, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Maryland .
The Ashoka initiative presents so many extraordinary opportunities for the New School -- and I can’t wait to see what results will emerge. Teaching social entrepreneurship across divisions has been on the agenda at this university for some time now and has evolved rapidly over the past 10 years. We are uniquely positioned to offer courses that draw upon the strength of various divisions (namely, the Graduate Program for International Affairs (GPIA), Eugene Lang College
The New School for Liberal Arts, Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy, and Parsons The New School for Design at the New School) that bring people together to work creatively and innovatively to solve problems. Such courses include Parsons’ Design Workshop, Milano and Parsons’ Social Entrepreneurship through Design, Milano’s Community Development Practicum, and the 2009 International Field Project in Guatemala that linked GPIA and Parsons’ students.
Over the years, more and more students have expressed interest in social entrepreneurship and we have recently added a great new faculty member, Michele Kahane, who will serve as Professor of Professional Practice of Social Entrepreneurship. Michele has been very instrumental in taking the initiative on the Ashoka Changemaker Campus Consortium at The New School, and will work to further develop it on our campus.
While the term social entrepreneurship itself is so challenging to define, what I find most intriguing about the Ashoka Consortium is that it will help us examine the ways in which the field intersects with so many aspects of our lives and social problems. The partnership will allow us to continue to explore new options for students, faculty and staff from numerous disciplines and departments to deepen and broaden teaching and practice in social entrepreneurship. Additionally, the initiative will allow us to strengthen the university’s contribution to the field both here and abroad, and thus expand our network.
I look forward to increased focus and dedication to social entrepreneurship on our campus – the ideas, thought-provoking discussions, and changes it will produce. I’ll try to keep you updated about developments with Ashoka as we move forward in this new initiative.
Be well-