The IMPACT program, currently in the planning stage, focuses on fostering ethical entrepreneurial thinking and action and will be where innovative and interdisciplinary curricular offerings are developed. What differentiates the IMPACT program is its emphasis on everyone’s responsibility to “pay it forward” and to support the people and communities that enabled their success. IMPACT will help students to develop skills they need to be ethically responsible leaders who demonstrate that one can be economically successful while adhering to a strong moral code of conduct.

In addition to our INSPIRE Series and ImagineU Programming, we offer a curricular component, IMPACT.

The Faculty Innovators program, was established to facilitate entrepreneurial thinking through the disciplines. See course offerings listed below.

IMPACT Course

IDS-050 | Topics in Entrepreneurship

This course is designed to introduce the concepts of entrepreneurship as they relate to the continuing processes of creativity and innovation. Students will develop oral and written communication skills with an emphasis on persuasive communication. Content will be especially relevant to students planning to enter the BEAR Innovation Competition.

Two hours per week. Graded S/U. Two semester hours.

Media on Main

BE-005 | A Student Run Venture - The entrepreneurial mindset takes action

This practicum allows students to run an enterprise under the guidance of the Entrepreneur-inResidence. Through an authentic learning experience, students develop an entrepreneurial mindset that focuses on action and ethical considerations. This work-oriented course encourages students to effectively communicate with external stakeholders, collaborate among teams, manage facets of a business, execute on project plans independently, create digital media and use digital tools. Graded S/U. 1 hour per week. 1 semester hour.

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Faculty Innovator Course

HIST/ENGL-212 | Bears Make History: Digital Entrepreneurship in the Archive & Online

This course invites students to be part of telling and shaping the history of Ursinus College through digital media. The beginning of the course will introduce students to the digital humanities and a variety of digital history projects. Then, the majority of the semester will be devoted to the collaborative design, pitch, construction, and public dissemination of digital group project/s based on materials from the Ursinusiana Archive. During the semester, guest speakers will share their own experience with digital/public history and provide feedback on the students’ work in progress. In completing the course, students will examine the ethical and practical considerations of access to technology and digital literacy, especially questions of open access; become familiar with a range of technologies used in academic, non-profit, and business contexts; begin developing their own individual professional digital presence; develop their knowledge of and investment in the history of Ursinus; and give back to their own Ursinus community. This course is part of the IMPACT curriculum supported by the U-Imagine Center for Integrative and Entrepreneurial Studies. No prerequisites. Four hours per week. Four semester hours