Courses

The Arkansas Global Changemakers initiative has a strong set of courses promoting social entrepreneurship and social innovation, global studies and intercultural competency.

Many of these courses have been developed by specific academic departments, while others have been the result of multi-disciplinary collaboration, with cross-listed or combined sections. In the future, the project team envisions creating an online curriculum aimed at expanding the reach of The Arkansas Global Changemakers across the state and at making the training and innovation opportunities available to a more diverse group of students and a broader array of community partners.

MGMT 3673 – Social Entrepreneurship

The course explores the notion of social entrepreneurship both, as a social movement and as an alternative to traditional business approaches. From a theoretical perspective, we address the pros and limitations of the model, and the way in which our innovation blind spots have contributed to its slow growth and scalability. The course is an invitation for students to get involved and make a difference. Through a full hands-on, service-learning experience, students partner with local or international organizations to develop viable, sustainable and scalable solution on a variety of issues at the local, regional or global levels. 

WCOB 3003H – Social Innovation Strategies (In collaboration with Walton Honors)

Social Innovation Strategies is a hands-on, active-learning and project-based course focused on exploring the process through which social innovation strategies are designed, developed and introduced to the market. Using the case of successful social innovation strategies at the grass root, small and medium social enterprises, multi-sector collaborations, and corporate levels, students will learn how new technologies, research-based innovation, and data science can impact our world by developing viable social innovation strategies and social business models around these innovations.

SEVI 4103 – Global Perspectives (in collaboration with Biomedical Engineering and Indian Partners)

This course focuses on specific problems triggered or exacerbated by selected health care challenges. Acknowledging the interdependence of our world, where the well-being of one individual is intrinsically connected to the well-being of the entire ecosystem, the course connects participating students with a global and local network of students, faculty, community partners, and mentors, and invite them to develop viable solutions to some of these problems, demanding creativity and collaboration. The course is a multidisciplinary, multinational effort to come up with solutions that do more, with less, for more. Students are invited to foster communication, optimize the use of existing resources, develop open-source solutions, and apply new social venture development techniques to advance their innovations from idea to implementation.  In the fall 2021, our pilot will be, once again, a collaboration with the Biomedical Engineering Department (BMEN) and the BMS College of Engineering in India.

HNRS 4013H – Honors Signature Seminar: Global Social Change  (in collaboration with Honors College)

In what ways can locales and regions in different parts of the world work together to achieve meaningful social change and solve common global challenges? In this international honors forum, Global Social Change, students pursue a different kind of applied learning and community engagement. First, students explore the ways in which global challenges manifest themselves in regional and local settings. They gain experience with different pathways to social change, including social innovation and entrepreneurship, and discover how intercultural comparative studies can facilitate solutions. Then, U of A honors students work side-by-side with students, faculty, and community partners in Arkansas, Italy, and Spain on a shared project to understand the impact of pandemic recovery on the international social change ecosystem and to apply their learning to proposing new ways forward in the wake of Covid19. The forum connects students to the Arkansas Global Changemakers Initiative, which offers opportunities for student research, service-learning, and study abroad. It provides a terrific way to build intercultural skills, learn social innovation practices, and engage in meaningful partnerships between the University of Arkansas and communities at home and abroad. 

Study Abroad

Global Changemakers  WCOB 330V / INST 493V

WCOB 330V Global Changemakers explores selected global issues through comparative study and through collaborative engagement with the domestic and international entities working to address them at the local or regional level. Students entering this course have previously engaged in social innovation activities with NGOs and public agencies in Arkansas or the surrounding regions, and in this course they will approach the same issues in an international locale. Combining academic and applied learning, the course teaches students to understand social or environmental problems as they appear both at home and abroad and invites them to innovate and develop viable, sustainable, and scalable solutions to challenges faced by partner agencies. For the May 2021 intersession, students will enroll in three credit hours of WCOB 330V and engage in a remote, virtual interaction with a curated set of community partners, attractions and virtual tours of Barcelona, Spain. Our community partners will all be related to social innovation or social businesses in connection with key social issues relevant to NWA. In this case, the course will focus on two global issues/regional priority areas: job-skill development and urban food security.

Executive MBA – Global Immersion Program – India

The purpose of this program is to focus on opportunities in two key emerging markets—India. These are rapidly growing international markets that will be most attractive for international expansion in the future. Yet, due to a host of economic, political, legal, environmental, technological and cultural factors, doing business in these emerging markets is very challenging. This study abroad is designed to provide you with an opportunity to learn and explore key aspect of conducting business in India to enhance your understanding of these key challenges.

A network of international partners!