EPS4515 Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship (ADE)
4 General Credits

**Students must be Juniors or Seniors to take this course

This course engages students in community-based, participatory design and action. Teams partner with communities and organizations to achieve positive social and environmental impact with a strong justice framing, working for change in areas like air quality, community development, food processing, global health, and rights and privacy (addressing mass incarceration) over several semesters.

Guided by an experienced faculty advisor, teams make change through design for impact, social entrepreneurship, community organizing, participatory research, political advocacy and other practices. All teams practice social benefit analysis, theory of change, assumption testing, cross-cultural engagement tools, dissemination of innovation methods, and ethical norms.

Students regularly engage stakeholders in inclusive processes, in person and virtually, to observe, strategize, plan, co-design, prototype, test, and implement approaches supported by a significant project budget and student fundraising. There are often opportunities to travel locally, nationally, or internationally to work with partners.

Students are exposed to mindsets and dispositions for working with integrity and responsibility in their stakeholders' contexts through guided exercises, case studies, guest speakers, readings, and reflections. Students learn and apply changemaking practices through project work, and gain essential experience building relationships across difference and developing their own self- and cultural awareness.

This course is part of the BOW collaboration, offered jointly between Babson and Olin, and open to

Wellesley students. Prerequisites: FME1000, Junior standing (students must be juniors or seniors to take the course).

Prerequisites: FME1000

EPS3514 Be the Change

2 General Credits

The course is designed for creative changemakers committed to utilizing their entrepreneurial leadership and global mindset to make a positive social impact and work towards social justice. Students will develop a deeper understanding of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development goals and the issues that exist at the heart of the social problems social entrepreneurs aim to address. Students will explore the moral and ethical questions that face non-profit organizations social enterprises, and social entrepreneurs and learn motivation, approach, and best practices as it applies to social change makers. Students will be equipped with the tools and methods to apply their entrepreneurial mindset to advance equity and social justice and create a response to a social problem they would like to address.

Note: The Natalie Taylor Scholars will use what they create in this course and implement it in the Scholar in Action EPS3534-01.

Prerequisite: FME

EPS3518 Crowdfunding
4 General CreditsThis hands-on workshop gives students the opportunity to plan a crowdfunding campaign for a creative project or entrepreneurial venture. Online crowdfunding builds community around innovative projects by organizing stakeholders and leveraging in-person and online social networks. Goals of crowdfunding include stakeholder alignment, concept testing, product pre-selling and venture de-risking. Students work individually or as part of a team to design a crowdfunding campaign which at students' discretion may be executed following the workshop. Students are expected to meet high standards and the focal point of the course is the production and refinement of a pitch video developed based on stakeholder engagement and opportunity shaping. The course integrates emerging research on crowdfunding and ongoing developments in the industry.

Prerequisites: Students must be at least second semester sophomores.

EPS3539: Cultivating Entrepreneurial Youth Leaders

4 Advanced Management Credits

Through the Cultivating Entrepreneurial Youth Leaders course, Babson undergraduate students will learn how they can help middle and high school students develop stronger agency, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and empower young changemakers in Costa Rica. The course provides Babson students with the opportunity to learn key elements of teaching entrepreneurship and serving as coaches for youth, using a proven curriculum developed by Babson's Youth Impact Lab, EPIC (Entrepreneurship Program for Innovators and Changemakers). EPIC is a youth entrepreneurship program that teaches social entrepreneurship skills framed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals) to youth to increase their resiliency and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. EPIC is designed to help middle school and high school students understand what it means to be a social entrepreneur, empowering them to make positive change in their lives, communities, and the world.

EPIC balances entrepreneurial concepts with social-emotional skills, or "soft skills." This unique combination, framed by the UNSDGs, helps youth develop grit, resiliency, a growth mindset, social awareness, social entrepreneurial intention, critical thinking, and self-reflection skills that can:
- Increase high school graduation rates
- Improve academic achievement
- Strengthen employability
- Raise earning potential
- Decrease mental health issues, drug and alcohol use, incarceration rates

​Prerequisites: (FME1000 and FME 1001) or (MOB1010 and EPS1000)

EPS4527 EPS By Design: Economic, SocialAL, ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES
4 Advanced Management Credits

How would you change the world if you could? This course is designed for entrepreneurs who want to learn and explore opportunities aimed directly at improving/benefitting the economic, social, and environmental challenges we face today. Design Thinking methodology, user-oriented collaborative design, and key Entrepreneurship concepts and action methodologies will be used to solve economic, social, environmental/climate problems.

Examples of opportunity spaces include renewable energy, eco-friendly Fashion, Nature's Design (Biomimicry), carbon-positive construction, increasing manufacturing efficiencies, protecting wildlife, food production, waste management, managing impacts of climate change on communities, and building a sustainable future, etc.

This Course encourages students to focus on challenges you are passionate about, to give these problems definition, and to build solutions that are well-defined. The Course is experiential. Students have the opportunity to engage with multiple stakeholders to motivate their entrepreneurial approaches and solutions.

Guest Entrepreneurs, including notable Babson/Olin/Wellesley Alumnae, who have developed innovations in the economic, social, and environmental/climate change opportunities spaces will share their venture experiences with the Class.

Open to Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors of Babson College, Olin College, Wellesley College

EPS3551 Entrepreneurial Families
(Formerly Family Entrepreneurship Amplifier)
4 General Elective CreditsIf you come from a family business or have an interest in starting a business with a family member or members, this course is designed for you. The course is like no other offered at Babson or elsewhere in the world. In this course, you will work directly with your family as part of the learning process. Together you will learn about how and why families are responsible for over 75% of global entrepreneurial activity and how your family can be more successful in its entrepreneurial efforts. You will learn about succession, ownership structures, family business strategy, family and business governance, conflict management and communication. You will strengthen your ability to work with your family, build your confidence and increase your family's understanding of the value you can bring to the business. You will also learn from your peers and their families establishing relationships that will endure long after you graduate. If you know that you want to lead the family business, this course will provide a foundation for your future. If you are uncertain about joining the family business, this course will help provide clarity for your decision. If you have no desire to join the family business and prefer creating your own venture or opportunity, this course will help you to leverage the knowledge and resources within your family in order to increase the likelihood of your success. At the end of the course your family will be invited to join you on campus for an optional weekend of learning and networking that will provide a capstone for your and your family's experience in the class.

Prerequisites: FME or equivalent

EPS3553 Entrepreneurial Families Project
(Formerly Family Entrepreneurship Amplifier)
2 Free Elective Credits

This is a practice-oriented course that has two primary foci: 1) helping students from family businesses integrate their learning at Babson with specific needs of the family and to facilitate entrepreneurial activity, dialogue and relationship building between the student and their families as part of their experience at Babson. 2) creating hands on learning opportunities for these students that will better prepare them for their future with the family business including engaging with guest speakers, mentors, company visits etc.

Prerequisites: EPS3552

EPS3552 Entrepreneurial Families Project
(Formerly Family Entrepreneurship Amplifier Class)
2 Free Elective Credits

This class is designed for seniors who have completed the sophomore/junior Family Entrepreneurship Amplifier course EPS 1215/1216 (focused on understanding your family) and Peer Forum (focused on understanding yourself through sharing with and learning from peers).

In this full year class, you will work directly with your family to launch a new entrepreneurial opportunity that creates economic and/or social value. Projects can include opportunities within your current family business or a new venture / social impact initiative. Students will meet as a class three times a semester. The majority of the work will be done outside of the classroom, working with your family, getting input from peers, and in monthly meetings with your faculty advisor. This action-oriented class is a culmination of your Amplifier experience, where you take what you have learned, and put it into practice to launch your entrepreneurship opportunity with your family.

EPS1217 runs in the fall and the companion part of the course, EPS1218 is in the spring semesters, 2 credits per semester, for a total of 4 credits.

Prerequisites: Junior or Senior status

EPS4510 Entrepreneurial Finance

(Formerly EPS3511)
4 General CreditsHow much money should I raise? Who should I raise it from and how? What do I do with the money once I have it? This course focuses on the various aspects of funding and managing entrepreneurial ventures through the various stages of business growth. The class will utilize videos, cases, simulation and experiential learning techniques to explain how to finance the entrepreneurial firm, investment analysis and decision making, and managing company finances through growth, crisis and harvesting. Frequent guests ranging from entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, banking and legal professionals will bring the entrepreneurial experience to life in this course which utilizes the "flipped classroom" methodology of teaching.

Prerequisites: (SME2001 and SME2002 and SME2011 and SME2012 and SME2021 and SME2031) or (ACC2002 and OIM2001 and MKT2000 and OIM2000 and FIN2000 and ECN2002)

This course is typically offered in the following semesters: Spring

EPS1220 Entrepreneurial Leadership Field Studies
4 Free Elective Credits

This course is designed specifically for Arthur M. Blank School of Entrepreneurial Leadership Scholars (AMBSEL Scholars) and for other Scholars (e.g., Weisman, Presidential, Posse, etc.) by instructor consent.

Entrepreneurial leadership theories and frameworks, considered to be distinct from other forms of leadership, are still at the nascent stage of development. Babson Professor Scott Taylor and his colleagues are currently developing an entrepreneurial leadership model that includes the following constructs: "leader internal clarity", "leader opportunity seeking behavior", "leader outward focus", "follower motivation effect", and "recognizing and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities". Each of these constructs will be explored by students through discussions of assigned readings and qualitative research in the form of entrepreneur interviews and a case research project which includes a written case and teaching note. Students will develop qualitative research skills (e.g., interview techniques) through in class lectures and asynchronous videos that have already been produced by Professor Shay. The learning-focused activities and assignments, especially the field-based entrepreneur interview and case research project, are designed to enhance student (and the field's) understanding of the unique nature of entrepreneurial leadership and to develop the student's own entrepreneurial leadership skills. Student course deliverables (entrepreneur interview and case study) will provide insights to advance our understanding of entrepreneurial leadership as well as teaching materials for classroom use. The entrepreneur interviews and case studies will be submitted for inclusion in Babson's case resources and possibly for publication in peer-reviewed journals such as Case Research Journal.