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-231 Global Entrepreneurship
We will explore and discuss the policies, procedures, demands, related data (costs, investment levels, success rates, etc.) and impacts of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activity in a variety of countries and at the global level, making use of reports, case studies, data centers and organizations. Expect to explore comparisons such as: who are entrepreneurs? who tends to be successful? which governments, societies and economic systems are most supportive? which are least supportive? what are the varieties of entrepreneurial activity? has entrepreneurial activity had economic and social impacts?
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-299RJ Topic: 'Research, Ethics, Justice, and Campus Sustainability'
The course is designed for students interested in learning about and doing qualitative research on campus sustainability. We will discuss the logic of qualitative social research and examine a range of methods, considering the specific advantages and limitations of different techniques. Students will also discuss ethical issues, including the challenges of conducting research in cross-cultural settings, reflect on our own underlying assumptions, motivations and values in research, and consider what it means to decolonize methodologies. The course is a term-based learning course in which students work in teams to conduct research on a topic of their choice related to sustainability literacy on the Mount Holyoke College campus. Students share and discuss weekly assignments in class, and then analyze and present their results.
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-341 Advanced Managerial Economics
This course will use an intensive case-study approach mixed with lectures, readings, and discussions. The focus is investigating the economics of management and enterprise (firms, organizations) decision-making in local/regional, national, and global settings, the intersections of economic considerations with social and political considerations, and the frameworks and tools for analyzing the behaviors and decisions of various enterprises. Class participation in the discussions is essential. Students will also develop and provide presentations of case analyses.
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-395 Independent Study
A student minoring in EOS must take one course from each subject area, with at least one course at the 300 level.
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.
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.
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.
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.
