Curriculum

The Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative (IEI) encourages you to build your graduate degree curriculum based on your unique interests and goals and the requirements of the master’s or doctoral degree program you're pursuing at The New School. These curricular resources are designed to guide and support you as you decide how to incorporate entrepreneurial skill-building and social innovation strategies into your New School education. 

Required First-Year Fellowship Courses

Accepted fellows must request permission from their advisor and the co-directors to register for the fellowship section of these courses. The two-year fellowship structure is outlined at the start of the fall semester in the first required course of the fellowship:

• The Impact Entrepreneurship Fellowship Cohort Course in the fall introduces students to key concepts associated with social entrepreneurship and explores entrepreneurial approaches to social problems in the United States and abroad.
• The Venture Lab in the spring helps graduate students and upper-level undergraduates develop financially sustainable ventures with the potential for scalable impact.
• At the end of the spring semester of the first year, all fellows are required to submit a roadmap for their self-directed work in the second year.
• Fellows must attain a grade of B or above in both courses to move on into the second year of the fellowship.

Transition to Second Year & Scholarship Renewal

After the Venture Lab course, students must pass an assessment to continue into year two of the fellowship and receive the second round of scholarships.

Capstone Integration & Project Continuity

• Students are encouraged to use their IEI project for program capstones to maximize MVP development.
• Shifts based on testing and experimentation are welcome.
• If students are still undecided, professors will assess project viability and timeline fit.

Team Changes
Team changes are allowed if milestones (set with mentors) are still acheivable.

End-of-First-Year Requirements
Fellows must submit a roadmap for summer and year two self-directed work for approval and attain at least a B average or higher to continue.

Second-Year Fellowship Milestones

There are two mandatory milestones in the fall semester of the second year.

Fall: Two PING (Progress, Needs, Goals) presentations

• Present updates on your roadmap at two designated ELab meetups for feedback and support.
• Offer advice and support to first-year fellows on making the most of the fellowship.
  

Spring: Apply to the Narwhal Experience to participate in a final start-up pitch event.

• Participate in two required preparatory workshops.
• Present your impact venture with a tested MVP, clear next steps, and a request for valuable feedback from a panel of experts and audience.

Fellowship Participation and Expectations

Second-year fellows must:

• Join the Parsons Entrepreneurship Lab
• Attend events
• Support The New School's entrepreneurial ecosystem
• Mentor first-year fellows
• Engage with alumni and external affiliates

Learning Outcomes

The fellowship prepares students to launch impact ventures while they learn. By the end of the fellowship, students should:

• Understand design for equity approaches to engage with communities in the context of social or impact entrepreneurship.
• Understand how to create a shared understanding of a complex system using design methods
• Engage a team or community around a venture, which could include community advisors, co-founders, mentors, advocates, etc.
• Measure and communicate social, environmental, and financial impact
• Relate the narrative of the change a community seeks to make and create a case for support (or investment)

Graduate Minor

The graduate minor in Impact Entrepreneurship provides students with an opportunity to further develop their entrepreneurial knowledge, skills, and mindsets so that they can identify opportunities to create positive social impact in our rapidly changing world.

Drawing on interdisciplinary courses that engage with their interests, students learn to take a collaborative, design-driven, systems-oriented approach to addressing unmet social needs. They explore potential pathways for scaling wide (addressing a large population of people) or scaling deep (addressing the causes of problems and strengthening local community relationships). Students develop diverse skills in areas including cross-sector leadership, management, venture development, design research and prototyping, fundraising, finance, marketing, and social responsibility.