
The major in social entrepreneurship is designed for students interested in using their business skills in the entrepreneurial pursuit of social impact. The core BSBA program provides a strong foundation for any student looking to become a successful business leader and create social change.
Social entrepreneurship is a form of leadership that permanently changes the way problems are addressed on a global and local scale. Social entrepreneurs take innovative and creative approaches to develop sustainable solutions to a range of problems from poverty, malnutrition, and homelessness and to lack of access to education, health care and dignified work. These methods allow social entrepreneurs to develop and implement pattern-breaking solutions for previously intractable social problems in ways that are sustainable and have a long-term orientation.
Roosevelt students are working firsthand on social entrepreneurial projects that scale deep in our city. Urban social entrepreneurship is about scaling deep, creating an organization to solve one problem and then using that platform to create new solutions for a holistic approach to resolve structural poverty. Urban social entrepreneurship is both aspirational and innovative and needs imaginative, long-term responses to alleviate poverty and other social issues.
Scaling deep is best described as focusing energies and resources to create greater impact in one’s own community. Scaling deep requires an entrepreneur to focus on the quality of a product, understand the needs of a customer, and attempt to fulfill these needs in novel ways. Social entrepreneurs invent, find ways to acquire new resources, learn and educate the community, and develop new and stronger relationships with the community.
The Heller College of Business faculty offer an accelerated BS in Business Administration/Master of Business Administration (MBA) program to eligible students. Students entering this program can earn both bachelor's and master's degrees in less time than earning these degrees separately.
Social Entrepreneurship at Roosevelt University creates opportunities for students to learn about social entrepreneurship through courses, workshops, speakers, and student-run organization events.
A "meta-profession," social entrepreneurship is best understood as an approach that can be taken up by a variety of professional disciplines or fields. To realize effective and lasting change, social entrepreneurial efforts cannot be relegated to one or two sectors. Policy makers, public service systems, private and nonprofit concerns are all critical components of sustainable impact.
RUSEG (Roosevelt University Social Entrepreneurship Group)
Social entrepreneurship is about creating community impact through firms that are deeply embedded within the community and have long-term sustainable and multigenerational benefits.