CREATING GLOBAL CHANGE: MUNK SCHOOL AND SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS IRELAND
As part of its mission to educate the new generation of global leaders to acquire the skills for affecting change, the Munk School of Global Affairs has established a new partnership with Social Entrepreneurs Ireland (SEI). SEI is Ireland’s pioneering organization, which since its foundation ten years ago has been leading the efforts to support and launch social entrepreneurships and entrepreneurs in the Republic. As part of this relationship, SEI’s Co-Founder and CEO, Seán Coughlan, is now working with Professor Dan Breznitz offering a new second year course within the School’s Master of Global Affairs Program. During this course students not only learn about the innovation and entrepreneurship policies, but work with Sean to submit proposals for national policy change, from a comparative analysis of social impact bonds and the applicability to Ireland, to social innovation and entrepreneurship national policy framework. These proposals will then be presented in front of government officials and stakeholders in a special event in May 2014 in Dublin Ireland.
Professor Dan Breznitz, Munk Professor of Innovation Studies and the Co-Director of the Innovation Policy Lab at the Munk School, remarked: “This is a very exciting opportunity for us. Our aim at the Munk School is to produce graduates with deep understanding of theory and research and proven ability to apply these lessons to affect positive change in the real world. To do that we aim to innovate in both education and research, and this partnership with SEI and Seán Coughlan, one of Europe’s leading social entrepreneurships doers and thinkers, give us the exact mix of classroom and real world experience which we aim to give our students. Graduates of this course will not only join the global conversion, they will define it.”