Entrepreneurial program promotes investing with social consciousness

Entrepreneurial program promotes investing with social consciousness

Many schools offer entrepreneurial degree programs that provide a theoretical and academic view of business strategies. However, a growing number of schools are improving their offerings by providing students with hands-on experience in this field.

For example, the University of Michigan's Samuel Zell and Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Ross School of Business recently implemented a student investment program called the Social Venture Fund. The program will allow students to make investments, and encourages them to focus on businesses with a social consciousness.

Participants in the Social Venture Fund program will learn how to make investments in for-profit organizations in the fields of education, environment, finance, food and nutrition, health and urban revitalization.

"Combining rigorous and tangible venture capital experience with the more intangible, but critically important, social valuation experiences distinguishes us from our peers in entrepreneurial education," said Tom Kinnear, executive director of the Zell Lurie Institute.

The purpose of this initiative is to train future business leaders to invest in sustainable, innovative companies that place an emphasis on their social impact.

By Mark Danson