Innovation in the Social Sector

Tonight, students presented their final projects in the Bard Center course Innovation in the Social Sector taught by Tiffany Espinosa. This is a new course for the Bard Center. Some of you may remember Tiffany as the 2005 Business Plan Competition winner. Many of the guest lecturers came back to hear the student presentations. The students presented twelve projects targeted to make the world better - everything from nursing and refugee services to bilingual education, sustainability, and building better non-profit rewards. The ideas were simply terrific. I’m looking forward to seeing some of them turn into real businesses or at least business plans for our 2009 competition. Several of the students have already signed up for Tiffany’s summer course for Business Planning for Social Entrepreneurs to refine their ideas.

As you know, all of this is pretty normal for a Bard Center class. We have wonderful students with great ideas who give outstanding presentations. However, this class ended with something I’ve never seen before in all of my years in higher education. After the final presentation, as Tiffany was closing the class, the students stood and gave her a standing ovation. Wow. Just wow. I’m so glad I was there to see it.