Humanities in Entrepreneurship

The perspective and training of a humanities education is essential to creating innovations that advance society. Yet many humanities students:

• Are not aware of their entrepreneurial potentials and inherent skillsets

• Have misconceptions around entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship

Description

This six-month program is open to graduate students in the humanities (except first year students). Participants will:

Change the Mindset

• Understand that humanities PhD students’ ideas, research, and expertise can be turned into real world ideas
• Get help making these ideas “realizable” - feasible, viable, desirable, creative
• Help overcome the lonely warrior obstacle - people want to see change and humanities majors and PhDs can spearhead it

Learn & Connect

• Learn about successful nonprofit and for profit enterprises by founders with humanities backgrounds
• Understand how humanities training was important for founders with non-humanities backgrounds and engage with them

Get Skills & Experience

• Gain collaborative experience running and working in teams
• Practice implementation by getting projects off the ground
• Learn practical marketable skills - operational, communication, leadership, and learn to talk about how your background makes you a high-value candidate beyond entrepreneurship

Eligibility

All graduate students in the humanities (except first year students)

Timeline

March to August 2022

Module 1: Theory and Mindset

March to April 2022

Guest: Manish Bhardwaj

Assignment:

• As a team, interview a faculty member who has dabbled in social innovation
• Record the interview, take notes, write up the interview

Expected time commitment:

• Orientation/introduction - 1 hour
• 1-2 workshops - 2-3 hours
• Presentation - 1 hour
• Team meetings - 3 hours
• 2 interviews - 2 hours
• Asynchronous work/assignment - varies, less than 10 hours

Total: Less than 20 hours

Module 2: Learning from the Field

Guest: Anita Sands

April to June 2022

Assignment: 

• As a team, select a successful venture from a list provided and interview someone from that venture
• Record the interview, take notes, write up the interview

Expected time commitment:

• 1-2 workshops - 2-3 hours
• Presentation - 1 hour
• Team meetings - 3 hours
• 1 interviews - 1 hour
• Asynchronous work/assignment - varies, less than 13 hours

Total: Less than 20 hours

Module 3: Taking into Practice

Guest: TBD

July to August 2022

Assignment:

• Get experience creating a marketing campaign, segmenting the market, and doing customer research
• Use the Princeton network to connect to people who are key players or have insights
• Design a product (swag) that will get people interested in the cause
• Create a narrative/pitch that will get people to buy/donate

How to apply

Email Jessica Leung with the following information:

• Your name, department, and year
• A brief description of why you want to apply (200 words)
• Potential points to discuss:
  • What social issue(s) are you interested in solving?
  • How your research relates or has potential to be socially impactful.
  • What non-scholarly experiences have you had that inspire you to learn more about and practice entrepreneurship for social impact?

Deadline extended! Apply by March 18, 2022 at 11:59 pm.

The Humanities in Entrepreneurship program is co-sponsored by GradFUTURES.