EOS Course Offerings
EOS-210 Opportunities, Impact and Social Entrepreneurship
Problem identification and analysis, opportunity recognition, and engaging with the local manifestation of global challenges is at the foundation of addressing social and environmental challenges, developing beneficial social impacts, and being engaged in all aspects of entrepreneurship. Students will learn about global-local intersection and about addressing significant problems through team projects to create an action, business, social enterprise or organization that involves local stakeholders and creates solutions. Project-based learning with readings, lectures, and classroom discussions.
EOS-229 Enterprise Startups and Social Entrepreneurship
This is a project-based experiential learning course teaching entrepreneurial teams to rapidly build, test, and cycle through models on the way to discovering and implementing an organization, designing and providing a product or service, and offering a solution to a global-to-local problem. Students will learn about and engage in the creation and building process, while exploring and discovering key issues in social impact, organizations and groups, creative solutions, economics, and finance. The course will adapt the Lean LaunchPad methodology, involve case-studies, and provide research and analytical articles.
EOS-239 Fundamentals of Business Organizations and Finance
Students will create and manage organizations, learn from topical lectures, readings and case studies, and hear from guest speakers. The course will cover core organizations: not-for-profits, "C" corporations, "S" corporations, partnerships, and the LLC (limited liability company) plus special variations like workers cooperatives and social venture variations known as benefit corporations and L3C companies. Students will also learn how to analyze and present financial information and gain competency with basic spreadsheets and analytical tools. Finally, students will consider organizations in their social contexts, discussing the relationship of organization types to social issues at global and local scales.
EOS-249 Ethics in Entrepreneurship and Business
This course uses the traditional approaches of moral philosophy to explore ethical challenges and obligations faced by individuals, businesses, and organizations in an increasingly complex global environment. Through consideration of philosophical theories and particular cases we explore issues such as the social roles and ethical obligations of businesses or organizations; rights and responsibilities of workers, managers, and owners; ethics in sales and marketing; and ethics in a global business environment.
EOS-295 Independent Study
EOS-295P Independent Study with Practicum
EOS-299LA Topic: 'Leadership in the Liberal Arts'
What makes a great leader? Can we identify who should be a leader? Are leaders born or made? How does an education in the liberal arts prepare someone to become a leader? Through reading a mix of the Great Books of Western Civilization (e.g., Homer, Plato, Shakespeare) and contemporary classics in leadership studies, we will explore these and other related questions.
EOS-299ND Topic: 'Individuals and Organizations'
This course focuses on individual and small-group behavior in the organizational setting. The class will focus on: (1) understanding human behavior in an organizational context; (2) understanding of oneself as an individual contributor and/or leader within an organization, and ways to contribute to organizational change; (3) intergroup communication and conflict management; and (4) diversity and organizational climate.
EOS-310 Social Entrepreneurship Capstone
Project-based learning course: students bring ideas, projects, and plans to develop toward implementation. Learn about organization startup in social and environmental context. Students engage in class discussions and attend short lectures and, working individually or in teams, develop projects to an implementation stage. Results include having a well-designed solution that delivers real benefit to identified stakeholder(s).
EOS-349BC Topic: 'History of British Capitalism'
This is a research seminar, designed to introduce students to classic and recent debates on the "history of capitalism" and to support original research on a broad array of topics related to the social and cultural history of economic life. Rather than take British capitalism as exemplary of modernization we will situate that which was particular about the British case against the pluralities of capitalism that have evolved over the past three centuries. Topics include revolutions in agriculture, finance, commerce and manufacturing; the political economy of empire; the relationship between economic ideas, institutions and practice; and, the shaping of economic life by gender, class and race.
EOS-349MV Topic: 'Motivation'
In this course we will examine multiple theories of motivation and their relevance across a range of organizational settings (including corporations, special programs, and schools or colleges). How do we spark interest in a new subject or inspire people to undertake a challenging project? How do we sustain persistence in ourselves and others? This course is relevant for students interested in motivation, whether for attainment (such as within in human resources, talent development, or management) or for learning (whether for students, teachers, or leaders). Because motivation is closely linked to learning and achievement, in addition to well-being and purpose, we will also consider these topics and more.
EOS-349NQ Topic: 'Organizations and Inequality'
In Organizations and Inequality, we analyze how organizations create, reproduce, and also potentially challenge social inequalities. Drawing on different organizational perspectives, students will engage the challenges of ethical action in a complex world marked by competing rationalities and deep inequalities. Students will also research an organization of which they are a member and develop their own case study.
EOS-395 Independent Study
Courses Counting toward the Minor in Entrepreneurship, Organizations, and Society
A student minoring in EOS must take one course from each subject area, with at least one course at the 300 level.
Area One: Entrepreneurship
Being an entrepreneur in today’s rapidly changing world requires the ability to apply critical, analytical and creative thinking to the global and local problems at hand, process large amounts of information from a range of knowledge areas, work in teams, assess financial resource requirements and feasibility, and communicate effectively. In these courses, students start to develop these capabilities.
Course List
| Code |
Title |
Credits |
|---|
| ECON-249EN | Topics in Economics: 'Global Entrepreneurship' | 4 |
| ENVST-233CS | Topics in Environmental Studies: 'Introduction to Environmental Entrepreneurship: Campus Sustainability' | 4 |
| EOS-210 | Opportunities, Impact and Social Entrepreneurship | 4 |
| EOS-229 | Enterprise Startups and Social Entrepreneurship | 4 |
| EOS-310 | Social Entrepreneurship Capstone | 4 |
| SOCI-316MK | Special Topics in Sociology: 'Marketing and Society' | 4 |
Area Two: Organizations and Power
Organizations are central structures of society. Nonprofits, public institutions, and private businesses are all shaped by the particular histories, legal traditions, and relationships of power in different societies. To function well in organizations and leverage them to affect social needs, students need to understand the roles of different types of organizations, hierarchies of power, regulatory frameworks, social impacts, and ethical decision-making in organizational structures. These courses provide students with such understandings.
Course List
| Code |
Title |
Credits |
|---|
| ECON-249ED | Topics in Economics: 'Economics of Education' | 4 |
| EDUST-339EP | Seminar in Educational Studies: 'Educational Policy' | 4 |
| EOS-249 | Ethics in Entrepreneurship and Business | 4 |
| EOS-299LA | Topic: 'Leadership in the Liberal Arts' | 4 |
| EOS-299ND | Topic: 'Individuals and Organizations' | 4 |
| EOS-349BC | Topic: 'History of British Capitalism' | 4 |
| EOS-349NQ | Topic: 'Organizations and Inequality' | 4 |
| GNDST-206MA | Women and Gender in History: 'Mary Lyon's World and the History of Mount Holyoke' | 4 |
| HIST-259 | Mary Lyon's World and the History of Mount Holyoke | 4 |
| HIST-357 | History of British Capitalism | 4 |
| PHIL-260EB | Topics in Applied Philosophy: 'Ethics in Entrepreneurship and Business' | 4 |
| POLIT-232 | Introduction to International Political Economy | 4 |
| PSYCH-212 | Individuals and Organizations | 4 |
| SOCI-216MK | Special Topics in Sociology: 'Marketing and Society' | 4 |
| SOCI-216QD | Special Topics in Sociology: 'Qualitative Research and Data Analysis' | 4 |
| SOCI-316NQ | Special Topics in Sociology: 'Organizations and Inequality' | 4 |
| SOCI-316RM | Special Topics in Sociology: 'Consumer Culture: Race in the Marketplace' | 4 |
| SOCI-316SY | Special Topics in Sociology: 'The Business of Culture: Marketing & Selling Symbolic Goods' | 4 |
Area Three: Structures of Inequality
To effect positive change, students need to understand the structures of inequality underlying many of the problems they aim to address. In these courses, students learn how systemic forces shape inequality along different axes (e.g., race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, and nationality), and how individual, collective and government actions interact with these dynamics in pursuit of greater social justice.
Course List
| Code |
Title |
Credits |
|---|
| ECON-213 | Economic Development | 4 |
| ECON-314 | Globalization and Development | 4 |
| ENVST-210 | Political Ecology | 4 |
| EOS-349BC | Topic: 'History of British Capitalism' | 4 |
| GEOG-202 | Cities in a Global Context | 4 |
| GEOG-208 | Global Movements: Migrations, Refugees and Diasporas | 4 |
| GEOG-313 | Third World Development | 4 |
| HIST-208 | The Consumer Revolution: A History of Shopping | 4 |
| HIST-276 | U.S. Women's History Since 1890 | 4 |
| HIST-357 | History of British Capitalism | 4 |
| POLIT-252 | Urban Politics | 4 |
| POLIT-267 | The Politics of Finance and Financial Crises | 4 |
| POLIT-277 | Dislocation: Class and Politics in the U.S. | 4 |
| POLIT-354 | Social Housing | 4 |
| POLIT-355 | Race and Housing | 4 |
| POLIT-387PE | Advanced Topics in Politics: 'The 1%' | 4 |
| SPAN-350MG | Advanced Studies in Concepts and Practices of Power: 'Spanish Migrations' | 4 |
Area Four: Financial Analysis
Assessing, accessing and effectively employing resources to address social needs are important elements of entrepreneurship. In these courses students learn and gain practice in understanding, analyzing and using financial resource information and processes.
Course List
| Code |
Title |
Credits |
|---|
| ECON-249ME | Topics in Economics: 'Managerial Economics' | 4 |
| ECON-270 | Accounting | 4 |
| ECON-349AM | Advanced Topics in Economics: 'Advanced Managerial Economics' | 4 |
| EOS-239 | Fundamentals of Business Organizations and Finance | 4 |
