Ashoka
“There is this yearning among students to be engaged in meaningful work that makes a difference,” says Matt Nash, Executive Director of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship and change leader of Duke’s Changemaker Campus team. “But the problem is that our students either haven’t yet encountered social entrepreneurship, or they know about social entrepreneurship, but don’t know what to do next.”
Duke University is working to ensure that students encounter clear pathways to learn more about and engage with social entrepreneurship, for their own good and for the benefit of all future innovators. “Trying to help move the field of social entrepreneurship education forward is what motivates me,” Matt continues, “Duke University is committed to building credibility for the field of social entrepreneurship in academia. We want to raise all boats.”
In its first ten years, Duke’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship Education (CASE) focused on providing thought leadership for the growing field of social entrepreneurship and on building a robust MBA Program to enable students and alumni to focus their business skills on social impact. Through this work, CASE has become a force in the new field by providing intellectual leadership through publications, conference presentations, and convenings of leading practitioners and educators.
Such efforts have established CASE as a recognized thought leader in the field of social entrepreneurship, providing individuals and organizations with the knowledge and skills they need to pursue social impact. In all of CASE’s knowledge creation efforts, CASE strives to bridge entrenched divides between business and the social sector, and between theory and practice, so that knowledge can be translated effectively for use by front-line social entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and philanthropists alike.
Spotlight on the Research Collaboration with Ashoka’s Globalizer Program
Over the last year, the Ashoka Globalizer program has been working to create the underlying infrastructure that can allow social innovation to travel rapidly. Duke University and the Ashoka Globalizer program will collaborate to match Duke’s expertise on how to scale ventures with Ashoka’s field knowledge with Ashoka Fellows to advance more efficient and effective scaling of the Fellows’ social change solutions.