reSET is launching a Social Enterprise Design Lab, and they are looking for Wesleyan students to participate. Students with a business idea or a curiosity about entrepreneurship overall are encouraged to consider this. Participants will get training, networking, and other resources, including possible grant money.
Ojala Naeem, Program Assistant at reSET, will be on campus this Thursday, April 25, from 12 to 2 p.m. at the Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship (Allbritton 021/022). Please drop by during those hours, or contact PCSE Director Makaela Kingsley if you are unavailable at that time.
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About The Social Enterprise Design Lab
The Social Enterprise Design Lab brings together students from different schools and different disciplines to develop and use business approaches to solving community problems. The Student Design Lab series will begin with outreach and informational sessions at college campuses at the conclusion of the Spring Semester in April, and launch the Student Design Lab Challenge. This hyper local challenge, involving food services on campus, will be put out for students to work on over the course of the summer. Interested students will be invited to create student accounts in our online community, giving them access to forums for discussion, resources, and other key networking tools. In the fall semester, students will work on coming up with a viable concept and compelling pitch for support using everything they learned over the summer, and compete for resources, including limited startup funding, publicity, and communication with experts and partners, to launch their ideas.
Element 1: Student Enterprise Development
June – August 2013
Students who are interested in the Challenge will be provided user accounts on reSET’s Online Community. Each team of students for the Challenge will be provided a private forum, accessible only to the team and reSET Staff. These private forums will provide student teams a place to communicate and discuss their ideas for the Challenge. reSET’s Online Community will also provide a Resource Center, where students can search for relevant educational resources to help them with their Challenge. Finally, the Online Community will also provide a listing of all reSET Community Members, allowing students to reach out to possible Mentors for their projects.
Students will also have the opportunity to attend Enterprise Development Workshops, which are a part of the paralleling Healthy Communities Design Lab. Possible workshops may include topics such as Innovating to Develop Solutions to Healthcare Challenges and Creating Community Partnerships to Scale Social Impact. reSET
will also host an Innovator’s Forum, which is designed to help entrepreneurs connect with one another, share and troubleshoot challenges during the startup and scaling process. The Forum will include specialized evenings focused on entrepreneurs in the field of health and wellness, practical work time to help develop and refine ideas, and opportunities to receive community and stakeholder feedback.
Element Three: Challenge
August – October 2013
Students will complete their final pitches in September and submit them to reSET. Participants of the Student Design Lab Challenge will compete for resources, including limited startup funding, publicity, and communication with experts and partners, to launch their ideas.
For More Information: Please contact Ojala Naeem, Program Assistant, at ONaeem@SocialEnterpriseTrust.org, or at 860.560.9120.