Vassar College has partnered with the Global Center for Social Entrepreneur Network (GCSEN) Foundation to launch an innovative Social Venture Internship program. The program offers Vassar students a three-part experience to learn fundamentals of social entrepreneurship and create their own social venture or enterprise. It provides certification, internship credit, and support for students to develop a business pitch and identify local resources. Both Vassar and GCSEN see the program as mutually beneficial in preparing students for success through practical experience in social entrepreneurship.

1. Vassar College Partners With GCSEN Foundation, Launching Innovative
Social Entrepreneurs Internship Program
PRESS RELEASE PR Newswire
Oct. 30, 2018, 12:01 PM
KINGSTON, N.Y., Oct. 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Prestigious liberal arts institution, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie,
NY, has entered into an innovative partnership with the Global Center for Social Entrepreneur Network (GCSEN
Foundation), implementing GCSEN's Social Venture Internship program (SVI) for students and graduates. Ranked
11 in the 2019 edition of Best Colleges for national Liberal Arts Colleges, Vassar, founded in 1861, is a highly
selective, coeducational, private, residential college renowned for pioneering achievements in education, for its long
history of curricular innovation, and for the beauty of its campus in the Hudson Valley.
The Social Venture Internship program, launched during the Fall 2018 Semester, is facilitated by Vassar's Office of
Community-Engaged Learning and sponsored by the Career Development Office. SVI is a three-part experience
developed by GCSEN, initially designated for six Vassar students but designed to scale up based on future student
demand. The SVI program is now available to all colleges, starting with a 12-hour blended learning on-line and live
coaching experience, enabling students to learn the fundamentals of starting a business tied to a relevant, socially
beneficial venture or social enterprise that they create.
The first phase of the SVI program results in a Principles of Social Entrepreneurship Certificate and an accredited
internship endorsed by the college, along with a professional reference by GCSEN. A great resume builder, SVI
includes a next-step 40-hour experience designed to assist enrollees in creating a new business pitch or prototype for
potential customers and investors, resulting in a Social Venture Formulation Certificate. A final 10-hour field study
experience results in SVI's Entrepreneur Ecosystem Mapping Certificate, reflecting proficiency in identifying local
community, and campus assets, as well as the economic development resources necessary for each enrollee to launch
a successful business and social venture.
Students at other campuses, recent graduates, and adult learners are also eligible to purchase the program directly
from GCSEN. SVI offers a life-changing experience, allowing students to intern on their own idea, at their own pace.
The experience facilitates student design of a "4 P" social venture, for People, Planet, Place and Profit. Based on
GCSEN's intellectually rigorous pedagogical research, SVI offers students a meaningful reality-based internship
experience utilizing applied learning, within the context of their own community's business and social needs.
Vassar College's Director of Career Development Ms. Stacy Bingham said of the new program, "We are thrilled to
partner with GCSEN on the SVI initiative at a time when we are assessing student appetite and building campus
support for social entrepreneurship. We know students are hungry for experiences like this, that give them the tools,
time, and support for their entrepreneurial ideas. The fact that students can receive academic credit for the
experiences they create further exemplifies Vassar's support for this initiative."
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2. Professor Mike Caslin, The Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship Network's Founder and President, said, "We
are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Vassar College, which has long been a global leader in liberal arts
higher education and innovative social programs. Our agreement is a win-win-win: for Vassar, its students, and for
GCSEN. Vassar College has indicated they will use their good offices to reach out to other institutions about the new
SVI program. We are excited about more students learning to 'Make Meaning, Make Money, and Move the World to
a Better Place."
Mike Caslin is Adjunct Lecturer of Social Entrepreneurship at SUNY New Paltz NY Business School, and St. Peter's
University, Jersey City, NJ. He has spent the last three decades studying, lecturing and facilitating efforts to promote
and develop social entrepreneurship on a global scale. GCSEN's leadership and influence in the field of Social
Entrepreneurship in Higher Education continues to build, as seen in its support of Wheaton College's successful
effort last year to create enhanced social entrepreneur programming, facilitated by a grant of $10M from the
visionary Diana Davis Spencer Foundation of Bethesda, MD. SVI was developed by GCSEN with the support of the
Diana Davis Spencer Foundation and GCSEN's national pilot campus partner, Wheaton College, and its WIN Hub
Social Entrepreneur Launch Program.
GCSEN has been a leader in the effort to accelerate innovative Social Entrepreneur (SE) curricula in partner colleges,
while also offering innovative programs to students and adult learners. Caslin says, "It is vital that a new generation
of business-oriented, socially conscious millennials emerge and become successful, high-impact social
entrepreneurs. Our life-changing, prac-ademic blended-learning programs benefit colleges with enhanced
recruitment, improved retention rate rankings and institutional advancement. The programs promote greater post-
college success for their students, due to their improved practical business and community engagement skills."
Recently, GCSEN was featured in the financial Trends Journal magazine article entitled "Want to Change the World?
There May be Money In It," and in a New England Journal of Higher Education article which said, "GSCEN's
research has conclusively shown that SE education results in significant content knowledge gains retained by
students; shows significant gains in self-confidence; is ranked highly as "life-changing" by students; and is highly
recommended by students to their peers. Additionally, SE gained a business formulation rate near 50% by students
participating in GSCEN programs."
GCSEN Foundation's vision is to expose 1 million millennials to the ideals and concepts of Social Entrepreneurism,
while providing life-transforming learning experiences to 100,000 certified "Meaning Makers" and assisting in the
formulation and launch of 10,000 new social ventures by Year 2027. The organization's Social Entrepreneur System
Institute's on-line courses, campus-based Meaning Maker Boot Camps, faculty and administrator certifications, and
at international academic forums help spread the word about the importance of accelerating the Social
Entrepreneurship movement. The GCSEN Foundation is an IRS-approved 501(c-3) not-for-profit organization,
accelerating social entrepreneurship around the world.
Mike Caslin is a graduate of Babson College's prestigious Fast-Track MBA Program at the Olin Graduate School,
considered one of the top-ten in the world. The Founder and President of GCSEN Foundation, he was co-founder
and CEO of NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship) from 1988-2008. Caslin is a past faculty member of
Babson College, CUNY-Baruch, Marist College School of Business and Manhattanville College. Caslin has been a
featured lecturer at the Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Dartmouth Tuck School of
Business, Columbia Univ. Business School Eugene Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, at International Association of
Jesuit Business Schools Conferences and at The Fund for American Studies events, where annually he inspires
college students from over seventy different campuses. Mike Caslin has also been a Subject Matter Expert Witness
for the United Nations, the U.S. Congress and The White House.
For more information about GCSEN, or for an interview with Founder & President MikeCaslin, call
212­444­2071; e­mail mike@gcsen.com & visit www.gcsen.com (https://www.gcsen.com/)