Brown University's Culture of Social Innovation

This is part 1 of an 11 part series on Undergraduate Social Entrepreneurship, coordinated by the Social Innovation Initiative at Brown University. The author of this post is Roger Nozaki, Associate Dean of the College for Community and Global Engagement and Director of the Howard R. Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown Univeristy.

Brown’s “open curriculum” attracts students with the initiative and skill to craft their own vision of an undergraduate education, at an institution where social responsibility is central to the culture.  From the moment students set foot at Brown, they are expected to chart their own course. And where these students make their home is not insignificant in this equation: Providence, Rhode Island, a cauldron of art, culture and design -- a city where New England history intermingles with traditions brought by major immigrant groups.

So what results from this mix? Students who are resourceful, creative, passionate, persistent and willing to question accepted ways of doing business. Students whose ambition is not for their own advancement, but rather to make a difference in the world.

Perhaps not surprisingly, then, that for decades Brown alums have created a pipeline of innovation in the social sector, much of which was seeded through fellowships, theses, or other projects while still at Brown.

Many have chosen to stay in Providence and launch nationally-recognized enterprises in their adopted home: the Steelyard, Community MusicWorks, New Urban Arts, College Visions, Farm Fresh RI and the Providence Black Repertory Theatre, among others. Still others have gone on to start or lead national and global initiatives: the founders of the Polaris Project, EL Haynes Public Charter School in Washington, DC, Merasi School in India and Gardens for Health International in Rwanda, for example, are all Brown alumni, as are the president of Ashoka and CEO of Timberland.

So our challenge at Brown wasn’t to create a culture of social innovation among students. Instead, we needed to figure out what we could do to increase its potential for student learning, and help sustain the impact from what students were already doing.

Our starting point was fairly clear. Students excelled at starting programs and organizations, but had few formal opportunities to gain the skills needed to lead and run them. The Swearer Center’s principle of community-centeredness helped us establish long-term community relationships, but many student ideas continued to develop in isolation from community context. Yet we believed social entrepreneurship could help address root causes behind social issues -- like jobs and economic development -- in ways that other programs did not. Out of these observations and views, we developed principles to frame this initiative in ways that would advance the Swearer Center’s mission.

Over the past two years, we’ve established a set of programs and resources that will be described later in this series.  We’ve also gained broader insights on the implications of university-based social entrepreneurship.

We’ve come to believe that universities can be tremendous incubators of social innovators and enterprises.  At a place like Brown, students are immersed in a culture of entrepreneurship, continuous exploration and learning.  All the physical and cultural infrastructure of community already exists -- we just need to help nurture a specific community of social entrepreneurs, both students and alumni. Students are surrounded by knowledge resources, networks and a continuously renewed source of (volunteer) labor. More typical social innovation initiatives and networks must invest extensively to develop all these elements from scratch; and the demands on individual entrepreneurs constantly pull them toward their own projects and communities, not toward one another.

We’ve also come to see the relationship of social entrepreneurship to its larger institutional context.  In a very concrete way, of course, these efforts increase the opportunities for community interaction and integration. Beyond that, social entrepreneurship connects directly to conversations about regional economic development, job creation, “knowledge retention” and, in the case of a city like Providence, even the city’s branding.

Those of us engaged in social innovation at Brown feel privileged to work with the incredible engine of energized, entrepreneurial, socially engaged students and alumni. We invite you to join us for the journey.