KROC 524 Social Innovation Practicum: Local Option (3 units)(Choi-Fitzpatrick; Intersession 2021)

This is a course where students integrate theory and practice to address real-world problems faced by organizations and communities seeking to create social change. Acting as consultants, students acquire knowledge of real-world constraints and opportunities faced by organizations leading social change. Students learn ways to work in teams with organization or community partners for effective co-design of solutions, as they practice resourcefulness and creativity in problem-solving.

KROC 592 WKSH: Finance for Leading Change (1 unit)(Roche; Intersession 2021)

Social entrepreneurs leverage their efforts through collective action in order to scale-up and grow, institutionalize core values, and to make a larger impact on society beyond profits.  Formalized collective action is achieved through organizations in which social entrepreneurs leverage and formalize their actions. These organizational forms include for-profit entities (LLC, sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, etc.); nonprofit corporations; and more recently hybrid forms (3LC, and B corporations).

The choice of organizational form will constrain a number of management decisions from funding and revenue structure, what to produce, and who to serve. However, all organizations operate under similar institutional environments and must adhere to common regulatory guidelines and financial pressures. This implies that there are core financial management practices, common to all organizations, that are necessary for long term sustainability and are essential components of creating sustainable business models for social impact.

This workshop provides students with the ability to understand fundamental financial and accounting concepts, tools, and techniques, to read and interpret financial statements and ratios, to analyze working capital and cash flow needs, to interpret Return on Investment models, and to create financial forecasts and budgets.

KROC 594 Practicum: Social Innovation on the Border (3 units)(Meade; Intersession 2021) This course satisfies the field-based course / practicum requirement for both MAPJ and MASI students.

The U.S.-Mexico border is often framed as a dead zone, a breeding ground for crisis and tragedy.  The border is an imaginary device that locates big unknowns and fearful uncertainties – contagion, inequality, decline – in a physical place.  But the border is also a vibrant space, a source of boundless creativity and dynamism, of collaboration and growth. And in San Diego-Tijuana the collaborative, innovative ethos of the border consistently triumphs over its dark side, spanning social, cultural, and ideological differences like a bridge over the wall.  What makes this region unique?  What role does or could social innovation play in shaping the future of the border?  What makes an effective cross-border social innovator, and how do they navigate the diversity of stakeholders, public and private? Is social innovation on the border shaped more by organizational cultures and charismatic leadership, or by larger social and political structures? How should social innovators approach humanity’s greatest challenges as they play put here? Students in this course will examine these questions by profiling a series of innovative projects and organizations on the border.  In the first session, after an overview of the greatest challenges facing the border right now, students will design a social innovation profile through a collaborative design exercise.  Then, in a series of intensive half-day workshops, we will examine and profile projects and organizations following this model, whether or not they self-identify as social innovations.  We will divide these profiles into three categories: 1) hubs – platforms designed specifically to catalyze new social innovations and cross-border collaborations; 2) business innovations – with social missions or which have sparked positive social change (whether that was their main objective or not); and 3) peace and justice innovations – exiting efforts that have mobilized the tools and insights of social innovation to further their causes. In all of our profiles, we will prioritize first-person accounts from leaders and key stakeholders, preferably in live interviews, and students in this class will have the opportunity to dialogue directly cross-border social innovators.