Business & Technology

Social Innovation (H)

This course introduces the concepts of innovation, design thinking, and impact in the social sector and teaches students to apply an entrepreneurial mindset to create sustainable solutions that address social needs in our community and beyond. We will explore historical approaches to social change, along with the strengths and limitations of the current social impact sector. We will examine how design thinking can be applied in different institutional, cultural, and economic contexts, with a particular emphasis on user empathy and stakeholder engagement. We will also study the various financial and corporate structures available to a social enterprise, including for-profit, nonprofit, B-corp, and hybrid structures.

Through experiential learning, students will be exposed to social innovation. Students will use projects and both local and international case studies to discover the perspectives and strategies that drive real-world change. In the first semester, students will assess factors on our school campus that negatively affect the student experience, and engage in the design thinking process to come up with innovative, implementable solutions that are then formally proposed to school administrators. The second semester project will take place in partnership with a local government agency or nonprofit, in which students apply their knowledge to research, ideate, prototype, and test possible solutions to real-world problems faced by the local community before presenting their solutions to local leaders. Students will learn about and implement the following tools in their work: needfinding, ethnographic research, human-centered design, rapid prototyping, partnership building, and pathways for scaling solutions.

By the end of this course, the successful student will be able to demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills to analyze and evaluate qualitative and quantitative data to develop and implement solutions. Students will also develop effective communication and collaboration skills by working in groups, and present solutions to community leaders and decision-makers. Equally important to success in this class will be the ability to practice curiosity, humility, open-mindedness, and concern for others.

Additional Course Details

• Enrollment space is limited in this course.
• This course is a DECA approved course.