Global Responsibility

Leveraging our expertise in entrepreneurship, our social programming educates students to build and grow businesses for a better world. Babson recently announced the establishment of The Lewis Institute, sponsored by Alan E. Lewis, the chairman and CEO of Grand Circle Corporation. This groundbreaking institute will build on Babson’s initiatives in globally responsible leadership and social entrepreneurship, while bringing entrepreneurial thinking and critical resources to urgent global problems in education, health care, poverty, economic development, energy, the environment, and quality of life.

Babson students have many opportunities available to them to practice globally responsible leadership. In addition to the volunteer activities coordinated through the Bernon Center, Babson has developed many additional global service learning projects. Recent ones have included:

• A two-week trip to the Western Cape region of South Africa where eight Babson students partner with students at Stellenbosch University to deliver developmental entrepreneurship courses to high school students living in disadvantaged circumstances in townships left from the apartheid era
• A two-week mission during Babson’s winter break in which students teach entrepreneurship and business to high school students and adult learners in Ghana, Africa
• A two-week journey to Uganda with Babson Global Outreach through Entrepreneurship (BGOE), a student organization,  to work with local business owners and residents to increase self-sufficiency, improve efficiencies, and launch business ideas

With programs in and out of the classroom, service learning infuses the Babson community by raising the awareness and importance of civic engagement. Service experiences are embedded in academic classes to move students through a continuum from a reflection-and-charity model to an analysis-and-social justice model. We challenge our students to react to social injustice issues as social entrepreneurs.