Brown Social Enterprise Club

Being the state with the highest index of philanthropic organizations per capita we recognize that a great wealth of expertise in this dynamic sector of civic engagement exists on a local level. The critical focus of the Brown Social Enterprise Club is to develop a robust understanding about the field of social entrepreneurship among all levels of the Brown community by hosting educational events and having students get involved in practical engagements. At the end of our theory of change is the desired outcome to diversify the post-Brown career track.

Social entrepreneurship bridges the gap between non-profit and for-profit work by using business and entrepreneurial acumen to solve social problems. Here at Brown, we aim to foster this bridge as well as educate students and administrators about the power of social enterprise.

In the 2007-08 academic year, BSEC accomplished the following at Brown University:

• Started Brown Career Group with Brown’s Venture Consortium to help interested students search for and pursue a socially responsible career path
• Consulted the Dean of Faculty on the importance of intergrating Social Entrepreneruship into course offerings
• Collaborated with the Career Development Center (CDC) to bring socially conscious organizations to the Spring Career Fair
• Brainstormed with the heads of the CDC to provide more fair representation between for-profit and not-for-profit/non-profit companies
• Made reccomendations to the CDC to revitalize and strenghten it’s Careers in the Common Good initiative
• Spearheaded communications with relevant career counselors and university department heads to educate them on how to better serve student interests
• Executed a movie screening of The New Heroes, a documentary of 14 social entrepreneurs who are changing the world
• Planned a delicious social that brought together students, social entrepreneur professionals, and department heads to speak about social enterprise
• Co-sponsored lectures with other organizations on campus for social entrepreneurial lectures
• Fundraised enough money to cover registration for fourteen Brown students to attend Harvard Business School’s Social Enterprise Conference

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Beginning Spring 2008 the Brown Social Enterprise Club (BSEC) will become the Social Innovation Innitative (SII) to elevate its institiutional prominence at Brown. Please visit us at our new site: http://swearercenter.brown.edu/sii/