An interdisciplinary team of professors and administrators attended the Ashoka U Exchange Conference in Washington December this past week, where over 700 individuals from dozens of countries examined how higher education can prepare students to be social innovators and entrepreneurs.
The TCNJ team included Professors Mort Winston (Philosophy), Marla Jaksch (WGS), Miriam Shakow (Sociology), and Kevin Michels (Business). They were joined by John Laughton (Dean, Arts and Communication) and Patrick Donohue (Assistant Provost for CEL and Executive Director of the Bonner Institute) as well as one community partner, Dr. Celestine Chukumba (Intersearch Media and TCNJ TrentonWorks Program Leader).
TCNJ’s involvement with Ashoka was sparked by a successful grant that Professor Winston wrote with assistance from the College’s Foundation Office. The grant was supported by Albert Stark, a local leader in the legal community and well known philanthropist in the Trenton area. Among other things, the grant provided some support for the team to attend the conference and it covered the cost of an Ashoka “scan” of existing TCNJ programs.
Prior to this conference, approximately 20 colleges and universities (including–Brown, Duke and Dublin City University) have been designated as “Changemaker Campuses” for their social innovation and education efforts. The TCNJ team may set its sights on this goal since Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship programs offer students yet another level of community engagement–one that emphasizes finding solutions to some of our most pressing public problems and challenges.