Fall 2023
Introduction to Entrepreneurship (WIL-101-01)
Introduction to Entrepreneurship provides a framework and tools to explore contemporary, successful entrepreneurship. The application of proven, practical emotional intelligence skills help students navigate the different stages of entrepreneurship including developing business concepts, leading teams, and overcoming challenges. The course culminates in the weekend-long start-up competition, Pioneer Weekend (Sept. 22–24, 2023), where students will receive additional mentoring from alumni leaders and entrepreneurs. Short course taught by Kevin Allen.
Creating Marketing Campaigns (WIL-101-02)
This course will explore the phases of building a successful marketing campaign — performing research, developing a messaging strategy, creating a perfect media mix, and analyzing success. Working in groups, students will have an opportunity to build an entire marketing campaign from scratch by selecting a faux product from a real industry. As students gain knowledge on the process, final presentations may be printed and used for portfolios. Short course taught by Katy Wells.
Spring 2024
Law and Social Change (WIL-101-01)
Using the reproductive rights movement as a case study, this course will explore law and social change. Students will learn basic skills, such as how to read a Supreme Court decision, and consider ways that legal study prepares people to contribute to and lead movements for social change. Students will then apply what they have learned about successful (and unsuccessful!) lawyering and movement-building to a social justice issue of their choosing. Taught by Jenny Samuels '16.
Spark Challenge (WIL-110-01)
Students are provided with a framework and guidance as they research and present solutions to social problems in the community using a hybrid approach based on applied anthropology, design thinking, and policy analysis. Students may focus on issues they have identified themselves or tackle an issue identified by a Grinnell community organization. While not required, all students are encouraged to pitch their solutions for the chance to win up to $10,000 as part of the Wilson Center's SPARK Challenge. All SPARK participants must enroll in the class for credit or as an audit. Taught by Prof. Monty Roper.
Learning from Alumni (WIL-210-01)
Students engage with alumni to learn about their lives and careers. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussion with alumni will help students think creatively about their Grinnell education and possible futures. The second goal of this course is to help create a multi-generational network or community of Grinnell alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world. Taught by Prof. Henry Reitz '89.
Spring 2023
Resourcing Social Change (WIL-101)
You seek change - whether it's nonprofit work addressing something you care about or your own great idea. To create your desired impact requires resources. Through this course you'll gain a high-level overview of fundraising principles, strategies, and techniques to research potential funders, align your interests with theirs, and utilize a donor-centric approach in your work. The outcome is that you'll be better positioned and prepared ahead...whether you're seeking financial investment or simply making connections. Taught by Diane Marty '92
Spark Challenge (WIL-110)
Students are provided with a framework and guidance as they research and present solutions to social problems in the community using a hybrid approach based on applied anthropology, design thinking, and policy analysis. Students may focus on issues they have identified themselves or tackle an issue identified by a Grinnell community organization. While not required, all students are encouraged to pitch their solutions for the chance to win up to $10,000 as part of the Wilson Center's SPARK Challenge. All SPARK participants must enroll in the class for credit or as an audit. Taught by Prof. Monty Roper
Learning from Alumni (WIL-210)
Students engage with alumni to learn about their lives and careers. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussion with alumni will help students think creatively about their Grinnell education and possible futures. The second goal of this course is to help create a multi-generational network or community of Grinnell alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world. Taught by Prof. Henry Reitz '89
Fall 2022
Just Following Up: An Introduction to Freelance Journalism
This course will cover the practicalities of freelancing, from how to identify stories to building a platform on social media, as well as how to use those tools to build a more ethical, diverse, and sustainable future for the profession. It’s an overview of everything you’ll need to start out as a freelance journalist — other than the writing part. Taught by Leigh Kunkel ’09
Real Life Entrepreneurship
Students will gain insights into business realities and pitfalls. They will learn how to establish a company as an entrepreneur, and how to improve a business segment within an existing company as an intrapreneur. Taught by Sanjay Khanna ’85
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni with significant careers in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences return to campus to talk about the ways that they shaped their successes and learned from their failures after graduation. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussions with alumni will help students think creatively about their possible futures. The second goal is to help create a multi-generational network or community of Grinnell alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world. Taught by Prof. Henry Reitz’89
Spring 2022
Ethical Leadership in an Interconnected World
This course addresses ethical issues from the perspective of disparate stakeholders related to the growing use of big data and the internet. Students will frequently discuss case studies, engage in group work, and prepare memos. Taught by Steve Weiss ’77
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni with significant careers in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences return to campus to talk about the ways that they shaped their successes and learned from their failures after graduation. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussions with alumni will help students think creatively about their possible futures. The second goal is to help create a multi-generational network or community of Grinnell alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world. Taught by Prof. Henry Reitz’89
SPARK Challenge
This course provides a series of workshops to support participants in the SPARK Community-Based Social Innovation Challenge and others who are looking to build their skills in researching and effectively presenting solutions to social problems. Fall and spring versions have distinct content. The SPARK challenge pairs Grinnell organizations and students to address poverty-related challenges faced by the larger Grinnell community. The challenge concludes in the spring with a pitch contest in which one proposal can earn up to $15,000 in implementation funding. Taught by Prof. Monty Roper
Fall 2021
Intro to Entrepreneurial and Start-up Weekend
Students will gain a framework and tools that explore contemporary and successful entrepreneurship. The application of proven and practical emotional intelligence skills will be key, as students navigate the different stages of entrepreneurship, including developing a business concept, leading a team, pitching a plan, and facing challenges along the way. The course culminates in the weekend-long start-up competition, Pioneer Weekend, where students will receive additional mentoring from alumni leaders and entrepreneurs. Taught by Kevin Allen
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni with significant careers in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences return to campus to talk about the ways that they shaped their successes and learned from their failures after graduation. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussions with alumni will help students think creatively about their possible futures. The second goal is to help create a multi-generational network or community of Grinnell alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world. Taught by Prof. Henry Reitz ’89
SPARK Challenge
This course provides a series of workshops to support participants in the SPARK Community-Based Social Innovation Challenge and others who are looking for build their skills in researching and effectively presenting solutions to social problems. Fall and spring versions have distinct content. The SPARK challenge pairs Grinnell organizations and students to address poverty-related challenges faced by the larger Grinnell community. The challenge concludes in the spring with a pitch contest in which one proposal can earn up to $15,000 in implementation funding. Taught by Prof. Monty Roper
Spring 2021
African American Male Intergenerational Leadership: Comparisons and Contrasts, 1950–2005
This course will introduce, examine, and critique Black male leadership over the late 20th and early 21st centuries. We will unpack 24 interviews of Grinnell black male alums to discover their leadership skills, styles, and contributions to campus life; meanwhile highlighting their lessons of resistance to administrative restraints in the decades they attended the College. Their stories, as a repository for identity formation, intellectual fine-tuning, and the integration of one’s “lived experiences” with future professional aspirations, create an educational legacy they left to Grinnell College. Our task is to understand that legacy through the lens of the ongoing black liberation struggle. Taught by Prof. Kesho Scott
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni with significant careers in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences return to campus to talk about the ways that they shaped their successes and learned from their failures after graduation. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussions with alumni will help students think creatively about their possible futures. The second goal is to help create a multi-generational network or community of Grinnell alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world. Taught by Prof. Henry Reitz ’89
SPARK Challenge
This course provides a series of workshops to support participants in the SPARK Community-Based Social Innovation Challenge and others who are looking to build their skills in researching and effectively presenting solutions to social problems. Fall and spring versions have distinct content. The SPARK challenge pairs Grinnell organizations and students to address poverty-related challenges faced by the larger Grinnell community. The challenge concludes in the spring with a pitch contest in which one proposal can earn up to $15,000 in implementation funding. Taught by Prof. Monty Roper
Personal Storytelling for Social Impact
Social media and increasingly affordable technology have changed the media landscape so that anyone with a microphone and an internet connection can use storytelling to frame personal experiences to reclaim their voice catalyze social change and foster authentic community. In this course, students will learn to craft, refine, and share a personal story of their choosing, and explore potential pathways for reaching a wider audience with their story. Taught by Brianne Benness ’08
Just Following Up: An Introduction to Freelance Journalism
This course will cover the practicalities of freelancing, from how to identify stories to building a platform on social media, as well as how to use those tools to build a more ethical, diverse, and sustainable future for the profession. It’s an overview of everything you’ll need to start out as a freelance journalist — other than the writing part. This course is sponsored by the Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership. Taught by Leigh Kunkel ’09
Fall 2020
Intro to Entrepreneurial and Start-up Weekend
Students will gain a framework and tools that explore contemporary and successful entrepreneurship. The application of proven and practical emotional intelligence skills will be key, as students navigate the different stages of entrepreneurship, including developing a business concept, leading a team, pitching a plan, and facing challenges along the way. The course culminates in the weekend-long start-up competition, Pioneer Weekend, where students will receive additional mentoring from alumni leaders and entrepreneurs. Taught by Kevin Allen
Ethical Leadership in an Interconnected World
This course addresses ethical issues from the perspective of disparate stakeholders related to the growing use of big data and the internet. Students will frequently discuss case studies, engage in group work, and prepare memos. Taught by Steve Weiss ’77
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni with significant careers in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences return to campus to talk about the ways that they shaped their successes and learned from their failures after graduation. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussions with alumni will help students think creatively about their possible futures. The second goal is to help create a multi-generational network or community of Grinnell alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world. Taught by Prof. Henry Reitz ’89
SPARK Challenge
This course provides a series of workshops to support participants in the SPARK Community-Based Social Innovation Challenge and others who are looking to build their skills in researching and effectively presenting solutions to social problems. Fall and spring versions have distinct content. The SPARK challenge pairs Grinnell organizations and students to address poverty-related challenges faced by the larger Grinnell community. The challenge concludes in the spring with a pitch contest in which one proposal can earn up to $15,000 in implementation funding. Taught by Prof. Monty Roper
Spring 2020 Courses
The Social Impact of Documentary Film
Over the last two decades, documentary film has increasingly become a tool for social engagement and impactful advocacy. In this short course, we will examine a series of films that seek to stimulate audience response, change public opinion, and inspire action. But have they had the desired impact? We will also inquire whether the films’ outreach campaigns have led to measurable change. Join us as we examine the power of nonfiction film to change reality. Taught by Andrew Sherburne ’01
Mediation and Conflict Transformation for Leadership
This course introduces students to the work of mediators in assisting parties in conflict. Mediators act as neutral third-party facilitators of calm and focused discussion to create understanding and resolution of differences. Students will learn to mediate disputes in hands-on simulations, observe mediation, and discuss skills and values mediators bring. As mediators students will learn how to guide parties to resolve their differences. Taught by Kim Stamatelos
The Startup Ecosystem: Entrepreneurs and Investors
This course will expose students to the startup ecosystem by understanding how entrepreneurs and investors behave both on an individual and collective level. Through this course, we will examine the following: growth in technology startups, startup ideas and team formation, financing of entrepreneurial ventures, international startup markets, and much more. The course will benefit students who are considering starting a business, joining a startup, and/or are aspiring investors. Taught by Hemant Bhardwaj ’07
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni with significant careers in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences return to campus to talk about the ways that they shaped their successes and learned from their failures after graduation. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussions with alumni will help students think creatively about their possible futures. The second goal is to help create a multi-generational network or community of Grinnell alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world. Taught by Mark Baechtel
SPARK Challenge
This course provides a series of workshops to support participants in the SPARK Community-Based Social Innovation Challenge and others who are looking to build their skills in researching and effectively presenting solutions to social problems. Fall and spring versions have distinct content. The SPARK challenge pairs Grinnell organizations and students to address poverty-related challenges faced by the larger Grinnell community. The challenge concludes in the spring with a pitch contest in which one proposal can earn up to $15,000 in implementation funding. Taught by Prof. Monty Roper
Fall 2019 Courses
Starting a For-Profit Business: Lessons for the Aspiring Entrepreneur
This course identifies the challenges and rewards, the successes and failures that face every entrepreneur starting up a business. The student will see a business foundation as the realization of the idea. Students should leave this course with a better understanding of the pain and joy of creating a successful company. Taught by Atul Gupta ’88
SPARK Social Innovation Challenge
This course provides a series of workshops to support participants in the SPARK Community-Based Social Innovation Challenge and others who are looking to build their skills in researching and effectively presenting solutions to social problems. Fall and spring versions have distinct content. The SPARK Challenge pairs Grinnell organizations and students to address poverty-related challenges faced by the larger Grinnell community. The challenge concludes in the spring with a pitch contest in which one proposal can earn up to $15,000 in implementation funding. Taught by Prof. Monty Roper
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni with significant careers in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences return to campus to talk about the ways that they shaped their successes and learned from their failures after graduation. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussions with 18 or more alumni will help students think creatively about their possible futures. The second goal of this course is to help create a multi-generational network or community of Grinnell alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world to promoting the stewardship of Grinnell College. Taught by Mark Baechtel
Spring 2019 Courses
Ethical Leadership in an Interconnected World
This course addresses ethical issues from the perspective of disparate stakeholders related to the growing use of big data and the internet. Students will frequently discuss case studies, engage in group work, and prepare memos. Taught by Steve Weiss ’77
Realizing the Right to Food: Social Movements, Innovation, and Conflict
Grinnell College is near the US center of power and discourse about agricultural innovation. However, there are other important centers and different types of innovation. This short course briefly reviews ideas about hunger and moves on to explore sites of innovation involving social movements. For example, peasant farmers and indigenous peoples are leading debates on the right to food at the United Nations while social movements have begun to end hunger in Belo Horizonte Brazil. Taught by Doug Hertzler
SPARK Social Innovation Challenge
This course provides a series of workshops to support participants in the SPARK Community-Based Social Innovation Challenge and others who are looking to build their skills in researching and effectively presenting solutions to social problems. Fall and spring versions have distinct content. The SPARK Challenge pairs Grinnell organizations and students to address poverty-related challenges faced by the larger Grinnell community. The challenge concludes in the spring with a pitch contest in which one proposal can earn up to $15,000 in implementation funding. Taught by Prof. Monty Roper
Sustainability and Social Responsibility in Organizations
The concepts of ecological, economic, and social sustainability in organizations will be examined in detail. Similarly, we will examine the expanding practice of corporate social responsibility, which was pioneered by Howard Bowen, president of Grinnell College from 1955 to 1963. We will find these practices of sustainability and social responsibility require leadership and innovation, practices embedded in Grinnell culture. Taught by Prof. Doug Caulkins
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni with significant careers in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences return to campus to talk about the ways that they shaped their successes and learned from their failures after graduation. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussions with 18 or more alumni will help students think creatively about their possible futures. The second goal of this course is to help create a multi-generational network or community of Grinnell alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world to promoting the stewardship of Grinnell College. Taught by Prof. Doug Caulkins
Fall 2018 Courses
Women in Leadership
What makes a leader? Is it the title or the person’s effectiveness? How does gender influence leadership success? What about race, ethnicity, culture, and organizational context? This course will consider different theories on leadership and apply these to exploring women — including Aung San Suu Kyi — in leadership positions in different countries and roles. Taught by Kathryn Mohrman ’67
The Startup Ecosystem: Entrepreneurs and Investors
This course will expose students to the startup ecosystem by understanding how entrepreneurs and investors behave both on an individual and collective level. Through this course, we will examine the following: growth in startups, startup ideas & team formation, financing entrepreneurial ventures, international startup markets, and more. The course will benefit students who are considering starting a business, joining a startup, and/or are aspiring investors. Taught by Hemant Bhardwaj ’07
SPARK Social Innovation Challenge
This course provides a series of workshops to support participants in the SPARK Community-Based Social Innovation Challenge and others who are looking to build their skills in researching and effectively presenting solutions to social problems. Fall and spring versions have distinct content. The SPARK Challenge pairs Grinnell organizations and students to address poverty-related challenges faced by the larger Grinnell community. The challenge concludes in the spring with a pitch contest in which one proposal can earn up to $15,000 in implementation funding. Taught by Prof. Monty Roper
Leading Innovation and Entrepreneurship
This course takes a case-study approach to understanding leadership and management of innovations, or generating solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems, using case studies by alumni innovators. We start, of course, with Grinnell’s most famous entrepreneur, Robert Noyce. This course covers a broad range of fields, bringing in new case studies each year. Many of the alumni from whom we draw case studies will visit the class. Prerequisites: 1 course in the social studies division. Taught by Prof. Doug Caulkins
Spring 2018
Winning Campaigns to Strengthen Organizations and Build Movements
Using the groundbreaking legislative victories by domestic workers (2010) and nail salon workers (2015) in New York State, and other contemporary campaigns, the course will look at the nuts and bolts of a successful campaign and its impact on creating a collaborative ecosystem that can help strengthen individual organizations and build a larger movement to implement and sustain campaign victories. Students will have hands-on experience, choosing an issue of their interest and collectively designing a campaign. Taught by Luna Ranjit ’00
Hip-Hop Education, Praxis & Action: The Cypher Paradigm
This course examines the power of the hip-hop elements (MCing, DJing, graffiti, breakdancing, beatboxing, beatmaking, archiving) as a framework for teaching, learning, and empowering activism agency. Grounded in hip-hop culture and critical pedagogy, students will develop an analytic lens that will be used to “close read” the world and respond to social justice issues on both artistic and educational platforms. The course will highlight artist-educators/artist-activists who span the stage, the studio, and the classroom as case studies drawn from around the world. It will include opportunities for art creation and performance. Taught by Sam Sellers ’00
Human-Centered Design for Global Social Transformation
Join social entrepreneur and societal engineer Megan Goering ’08 to build your awareness, skillset, and practice in Human-Centered Design, a set of tools for bringing big ideas into reality in a way that works for real people. Every student will leave with a framework for quickly moving big ideas from concept stage to implementation in creating more creative, strategic, egalitarian, and co-active campaigns and new products and programs for social change. This course is sponsored by the Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership. Taught by Megan Goering ’08
Leadership in a Future of Automation and Income Inequality
Leadership in a Future of Automation and Income Inequality. Explore how we can contribute to and guide our global society in an almost certain future of widespread automation, job displacement, and accelerated inequality in the distribution of key resources. Hear from entrepreneurs, historians of the industrial revolution, and futurists. Students will leave with a framework and direct experiences with leadership models that allow for transformative activism in a time of grave uncertainty and certain change. Sponsored by the Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership. Taught by Joe Mellin
Nonviolent Action for Social and Religious Change
This course examines the often surprising intersections between violence and nonviolence in and around religious traditions. We will focus on Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, as we engage theories of violence, nonviolence, and social change. The course will be framed historically, critically, and practically at the intersection of religious identity, peace studies, and postcolonial critique. Together we will debate questions of terrorism, anticolonial and antiracist revolution, militant nonviolence, and the embodied practice of conflict transformation. Instructors: Assoc. Prof. Dobe & Srdja Popovic
Sustainability and Social Responsibility in Organizations
The concepts of ecological, economic, and social sustainability in organizations will be examined in detail. Similarly, we will examine the expanding practice of corporate social responsibility, which was pioneered by Howard Bowen, president of Grinnell College from 1955 to 1963. We will find these practices of sustainability and social responsibility require leadership and innovation, practices embedded in Grinnell culture. Taught by Prof. Doug Caulkins
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni with significant careers in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences return to campus to talk about the ways that they shaped their successes and learned from their failures after graduation. Leadership and career-focused readings together with discussions with 18 or more alumni will help students think creatively about their possible futures. The second goal of this course is to help create a multi-generational network or community of Grinnell alumni, faculty, and current students in order to enhance our potential for changing the world to promoting the stewardship of Grinnell College. Taught by Prof. Doug Caulkins
Fall 2017
Ethical Leadership
This course addresses several ethical issues in the workplace settings focusing on effective communication and analytical skills to enhance leadership skills. Students will frequently discuss case studies, engage in group work, and prepare memos. Taught by Steve Weiss ’77
Leading Innovation and Entrepreneurship
This course takes a case-study approach to understanding leadership and management of innovations, or generating solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems, using case studies by alumni innovators. We start, of course, with Grinnell’s most famous entrepreneur, Robert Noyce. This course covers a broad range of fields, bringing in new case studies each year. Many of the alumni from whom we draw case studies will visit class. Taught by Prof. Doug Caulkins
Real Life Entrepreneurship
Students will gain insights into business realities and pitfalls. They will learn how to establish a company as an entrepreneur, and how to improve a business segment within an existing company as an intrapreneur. Taught by Sanjay Khanna ’85
Spring 2017
Sustainability and Social Responsibility in Organizations
The concepts of ecological, economic, and social sustainability in organizations will be examined in detail. More than a dozen alumni working on sustainability issues in different sectors visited the class.
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni return to campus and discuss their success, challenges, and overall experience post-graduation.
The Startup Ecosystem
This course exposes students to the startup ecosystem by understanding how entrepreneurs and investors behave both on an individual and collective level. Taught by Hemant Bhardwaj ’07
The Arts and...Incorporating the Arts into the Modern Creative Economy
This three-week class explores the relationships between the arts and our evolving economy. Taught by Jay Dick ’93
Fundraising & Development for Your Social Change Venture
It’s one thing to have a great idea. It’s another to get that idea off the ground...and still another to sustain and scale. Through this course students gain a high-level overview of fundraising principles, strategies, and techniques to begin your funder research; to best-align your idea, program, and/or agency with funder priority interests; and how to adopt and enact a donor-centric approach in all written and verbal engagements, whether you’re seeking financial investment or simply making connections. Taught by Diane Marty ’92
Fall 2016
Leading Innovation and Entrepreneurship
This course takes a case-study approach to understanding leadership and management of innovations, or generating solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems, using case studies by alumni innovators.
Real Life Entrepreneurship
Students gain insights into business realities and pitfalls. They learn how to establish a company as an entrepreneur, and how to improve a business segment within an existing company as an intrapreneur. Taught by Sanjay Khanna ’85
Ethical Leadership in the Workplace
This class uses the topic of ethics in the workplace to address communications and leadership skills important for success. Taught by Steve Weiss ’77
Asian American Activism 1875-2010
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the history of Asian American organizing, leadership, and activism. We will use activism as a lens to examine three important themes in Asian American history: 1)Asian American’s critiques of U.S. empire, 2) How Asian Americans have built panethnic and multiracial coalitions, and 3)How activism has shaped different Asian American identities. Taught by Joy Sales ’13
Spring 2016
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni return to campus and discuss their success, challenges, and overall experience post-graduation.
Managing Organizations for Sustainability and Social Responsibility
An analysis of social responsibility and sustainability issues in managing nonprofit, for-profit, and social enterprises, in global perspective. Seven alumni will participate in class to discuss their organizations or how they, as consultants, help organizations& become more and sustainable and socially responsible.
Sustainable Journal Publishing
During 2014-2015, the Center for Prairie Studies founded Rootstalk, a multimedia interdisciplinary online journal that examines cultural and natural aspects of the prairie region. Building on that success, students will learn editorial skills as they prepare the journal’s third issue and additionally will join instructors, Grinnell alumni from the publishing world, and Development Office staff to research models of publishing sustainability. We will explore grant writing, fundraising, subscription models, advertising, and more. The goal: to make Rootstalk self-supporting within three years.
Refugees in Complex Emergencies: Leadership and the Humanitarian Dilemma
We explore the art and science of saving lives in complex emergencies — providing water, nutrition, security, and health care. The course will also consider real-world examples of operational challenges in emergency relief situations to examine what constitutes leadership where cultural dissonance, resource limitations, and moral ambiguities complicate every decision. Taught by Neil Otto ’72
Social Justice Influencing American Business
American business has been phenomenally successful in generating economic gain. But increasingly business leaders are seeking “social” as well as financial returns in their businesses. In this course, we study this trend and project where it is likely to lead into the future. We examine innovative tools and processes that are being used in this “Social Enterprise” revolution, and what it means to folks who will soon enter the workforce. Finally, we relate all this to Grinnell’s long-term interest in social justice. Taught by Tom Triplett ’69
The Grinnell Caucus Project
Capitalizing on the competitive 2016 nomination contests in both parties, this short-course will examine the Iowa caucus campaign, built around course-embedded travel and sessions with political operatives, journalists, and others involved now or the past with presidential nomination politics.
Fall 2015
Real Life Entrepreneurship: How to Build a Brand/Business
This course shows you what entrepreneurship, or intrapreneurship, really looks like. Taught by Sanjay Khanna ’85
Managing Entrepreneurship & Innovation
This course takes a case-study approach to the management of innovations, or generating solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems, using case studies by alumni innovators, many of whom visit class.
Learning from Literature: Insights for Leadership in the New Workplace
Weaving timeless fictional characters with the biographies of corporate visionaries, historian and entrepreneur Bruce Weindruch illuminates the role of strategic planning, sales, branding, and corporate social responsibility in today’s 24/7 technology-driven workplace. In this “MBA for Liberal Arts Undergrads,” learn the “why it’s done” — as opposed to “how it’s done” — that distinguishes legendary leaders. Taught by Bruce Weindruch ’78
Spring 2015
Managing Organizations for Sustainability and Social Responsibility
Seven alumni collaborate to discuss how to make an organization more sustainable and socially responsible. Grinnell President Howard Bowen, the father of the Corporate Social Responsibility Movement’s work is considered throughout.
Interdisciplinary Publishing II: Enacting the Vision for a Prairie Studies Journal
The second semester in a two-semester sequence that will train students as entrepreneurs and publishers by involving them in creating an interdisciplinary multimedia online journal dedicated to a critical examination of natural and cultural aspects of the prairie/Midwest region of North America.
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni return to campus and discuss their success, challenges, and overall experience post-graduation.
Fall 2014
Learning from CS Alumni
This course details Computer Science alumni. These alumni return to Grinnell and share their experiences with undergraduate students.
Managing Entrepreneurship & Innovation
This course takes a case-study approach to the management of innovations, or generating solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems, using case studies by alumni innovators, many of whom will visit class.
Interdisciplinary Publishing
This course trains students as entrepreneurs and publishers by involving them in creating an interdisciplinary multimedia online journal highlighting North America’s prairie region.
Balancing Privacy and National Security and the Role of the Press
We’ll wrestle with some hard issues confronting our country: Balancing privacy and national security — the role of the press — and the burgeoning social media. What are the limits? Who says? Analyzing the rule of law. Taught by four lawyers, two of whom are experienced press professionals, we also discuss — we hope demonstrate — those professions’ essential skills. Taught by Harvey Nixon ’55
Spring 2014
Sustainability: Managing Organizations and Innovation
An analysis of management issues in nonprofit, for-profit organizations, and social enterprises, whether the organizational section is local or international, including problems of meshing organizational cultures with local cultures. Approximately a dozen alumni participate in class to discuss their organization.
Creative Careers: Learning from Alumni
Alumni return to campus and discuss their success, challenges, and overall experience post-graduation.
Fall 2013
Managing Enterprise and Innovation
This course takes a case-study approach to the management of innovations, using case studies by alumni visitors. Innovations include changes in products, processes, and organizational structures, in such fields as social enterprise, education, biotechnology, community action organizations, web-based businesses, conservation organizations, and high technology firms. Alumni will participate throughout the course, giving their experience of managing innovation in a variety of firms and NGOs. Taught by Prof. Doug Caulkins
So You Want to Start a Business?
This course identifies the challenges and rewards, the successes and failures that face every entrepreneur starting up a business. The example used will be a computer services company, but the lessons generalize to most kinds of start-ups. Taught by Atul Gupta ’88