Hear from three of our recent alumni...

Michael Duchen

Miami’s Social Entrepreneurship program has helped me combine two of my greatest passions: using creativity in business and helping people improve their lives. Going through the Social Entrepreneurship program helped me channel these passions and changed my life forever. The entrepreneurship minor and particularly the social entrepreneurship class not only prepared me, but made me feel comfortable when it came to: depicting my ideas on paper using a business plan format, understanding sustainability and scaling, and creating meaningful and professional presentations that are beneficial in the real business world. After working with Brett Smith and the Page Center, I had the opportunity to have an 8-week internship with the Social Entrepreneur Corps in Guatemala.

In Guatemala, I had the chance to work with Guatemalan women and train them to be entrepreneurs by providing them with products to sell such as eyeglasses, water filters, energy saving light bulbs, and solar lamps to villagers who need these products in rural areas.  This amazing experience made such a powerful and positive impact on myself, that starting in October I will be working full-time for the parent organization Community Enterprise Solutions in Guatemala. I very extremely fortunate to begin my career in the social entrepreneurship industry and I will be doing something everyday that I am truly passionate about. I suggest to any student to follow a career that stirs up personal passion and excitement, and take the risk because it might turn out to be something that changes your life.

Katie Mulligan

U2’s Bono once said, “the world is more malleable than you think and it's waiting for you to hammer it into shape”; three months into my job as Assistant Director at the Center for Social Entrepreneurship, I understand how noteworthy that quote is.

Stepping into Brett Smith’s social entrepreneurship class opened a myriad of new doors for me. Through his teaching and mentoring, I found a way to combine my business knowledge with my enthusiasm to help others. As a senior marketing major with interests in business, international development, and entrepreneurship, I could barely articulate what social entrepreneurship meant to me, but I had a hunch it would be the road I’d follow. The program proved to be the perfect medium for me to dive into the issues I was passionate about while utilizing my business background. As a student, I was a strong advocate of enjoying what you do. The SE program at Miami provided a path for me to do something meaningful. Nothing has been more rewarding and heartwarming than having a professor, mentor, and friend to help me learn and experience social entrepreneurship firsthand.

I feel extremely fortunate and grateful to have a job that gives me the tools to leave my mark on the world. My learning experiences with SE have enabled me to go above and beyond making an individual impact on the world and have a vision…the vision of an educational platform that will revolutionize the way students view and impact people of the world.

There is no other place I’d rather be today than working alongside leaders in the field with an end goal of improving people’s lives. I am not quite sure where my path will end but with innovation as a core pillar in social entrepreneurship, the opportunities are endless.

Jessica Reading

There is no doubt that business is an essential aspect to a community- it provides income, services and collaboration among individuals. It’s how business is done that disconnects individuals and the business. In today’s society, we must realize what good business can do to enhance every individual.

I began at Miami as a business management major focused on understanding business ethics and corporate social responsibility. I was also highly involved in various community organizations, which is where I found myself most satisfied with the work I was doing. When I took Brett Smith’s social entrepreneurship, my academic coursework and extracurricular service suddenly merged. Social good and business combined was an avenue where I could explore both my passion and classroom experiences. During his course, I helped to develop a student course empowering both students and Latino business owners. It brought individuals through community engagement, and through that engagement, we were able to truly serve that community. In my two ventures, La Voz and Partners for Change, our mission is to engage people from different communities to collaborate, benefit, and learn from each other. Firsthand, I understood how to seek opportunity, bring a sense of ownership to individuals, build community and create services whose practices are outright ‘good’, to both employees and consumers. Social Entrepreneurship has changed the way I think about business, and about how to interact with others.

Social entrepreneurship has carved part of my path to this opportunity even if it is not in the title of my job position. Currently, I am serving as an AmeriCorps*VISTA at Miami University Hamilton as the community placement coordinator. Next year, I hope to pursue a Master’s Degree that involves service, education, and business in non-profit leadership.

Last modified on 11/2/09 | Content maintained by Entrepreneurship