BABSON ACADEMY
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURIAL LEARNING
Impact Report 2020
ACCESS INSPIRE CONNECT how Babson does entrepreneurship education
your students to think and act more entrepreneurially
with like-minded educators who believe entrepreneurship education is changing the world
LETTER FROM THE DEAN
IN UNCERTAIN TIMES,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IS ESSENTIAL The Babson Academy for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurial Learning was established in 2019 to provide access, inspiration, and connection for entrepreneurship educators and universities around the world. In 2020, we found our work more important, relevant, and urgent than ever. The pandemic sparked a complete reimagination for the Babson Academy team about how to provide faculty and students with access to Babson’s environment, inspiration in their entrepreneurship classrooms, and connection with fellow entrepreneurship educators. For instance, in summer 2020, we offered a new online course for university students, Entrepreneurial Mindshift. The course’s popularity helped us realize that our offerings were now even more accessible around the globe. We also recognized that many educators were expected to take their classrooms online and were looking for ideas, pedagogical approaches, and new content. We quickly reacted with a new offering: Entrepreneurial Mindshift for Educators. I believe that against the backdrop of 2020’s troubling headlines, entrepreneurship education is more essential than ever. Future leaders must have skills and attitudes that help them do more than just avoid problems. They should embrace problems that matter to society and use their entrepreneurial mindset to bring about potential solutions. The Babson Academy team of faculty and staff is committed to delivering high-quality educational programs for students and educators, while expanding the network of universities that prioritize entrepreneurial education in order to shape the entrepreneurial leaders our future demands. This report contains a snapshot of Babson Academy’s 2020 activities. It was a year full of unprecedented challenges, which required adaptation. I am proud of the global community we have developed, and have experienced a sense of heightened collaboration and support from colleagues throughout the world in spite of this year’s difficulties. It has been a time to experiment, from new online offerings for educators and students, to pilot engagements with Babson Collaborative institutions, to creating new pathways to exchange ideas. All of these efforts will inform Babson Academy’s programs for the foreseeable future. Throughout 2020’s ups and downs, the global engagement and the commitment of colleagues to advance entrepreneurship education has been unwavering. I am grateful to have such caring and committed colleagues and invite you to stay connected with us in 2021.
Best wishes,
Amir Reza, PhD Dean, Babson Academy & Global Education
OUR MISSION
The Babson Academy provides access, inspiration, and connection for institutions and educators who desire to grow entrepreneurship education ecosystems to accelerate the development of current and future entrepreneurial generations.
2020 IMPACT REPORT 1
ACCESS History will remember 2020 as a global inflection point; a
moment in time that marks a clear before and after. It has ushered in new ways of working and collaborating, teaching and learning, experimenting and creating. For the Babson Academy, we feel tremendously fortunate that 2020’s shifts have brought us closer to many of you. While we may not be physically meeting in a classroom to refine pedagogical action plans together, bringing so many of our programs online has meant that we are reaching more educators, in more time zones, and countries, and corners of the globe than ever. Before, we traveled once a month or so. Now, it’s not uncommon for our team to “be” in eight countries each week, sharing glimpses of our home offices and pandemic pastimes as we collectively navigate this next normal.
Our unwavering goal is to provide access to Babson’s entrepreneurship education ecosystem. It’s what has motivated our work this year, and propels us forward, together.
2020 FACULTY DIRECTORS Heidi Neck, PhD Jeffry A. Timmons Professor of Entrepreneurship and Babson Academy Academic Director
» Price-Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators
» Danish Foundation for
Entrepreneurship Workshop
» Entrepreneurial Mindshift for Students
» Entrepreneurial Mindshift for Educators
Jay Rao, PhD
Professor of Technology, Operations, and Information Management Division
» INCAE EMBA Program » Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College (MBSC) of Business & Entrepreneurship
» César Vallejo University’s Academic Summit
Andrew Zacharakis, PhD John H. Muller Jr. Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies
» Banco Popular’s Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators Puerto Rico
11 PROGRAMS | 37 COUNTRIES 593 ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATORS AND STUDENTS
2 THE BABSON ACADEMY
Zooming and WebExing with Entrepreneurship Educators and Students Worldwide
WHAT WE ACHIEVED
Under the leadership of Academic Director Heidi Neck, the Babson Academy team delivered 11 signature programs to nearly 600 entrepreneurship educators and students. From our in-person Price-Babson SEE at Babson in January, to the many programs we reimagined for virtual delivery, to new courses built specifically for online formats, it has been a year full of experimentation and learning.
Price-Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators Fifty-nine educators from 17 countries joined us on Babson’s campus in January 2020, learning from Babson College entrepreneurship division faculty. The program explored innovative, bold, and impactful ways to elevate the art and craft of teaching and learning entrepreneurship, including student-centered learning, action-based pedagogies, and interactive simulations.
INCAE Executive MBA Program: Entrepreneurship & Innovation As the COVID crisis gained momentum in the United States, Professors Jay Rao, Les Charm, and Ed Marram delivered an online program for 48 executive MBA students from 11 South and Central American countries, while learning to use simultaneous translation, online group work, and virtual presentation capabilities.
Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship Workshop Professor Heidi Neck delivered a workshop for 16 representatives of the Danish University Entrepreneurship Ecosystem that highlighted signature Babson entrepreneurship education experiences. Our teaching methodology of Entrepreneurial Thought & Action®, combined with action-based, curricular and co-curricular learning experiences, support our mission of developing entrepreneurial leaders who create economic and social value everywhere.
Entrepreneurial Mindshift for Students
A mindshift can be the key to success in uncertain times, but it takes practice. Fifty-nine students took this online course, which encourages action, learning, and building to develop the courage to act on entrepreneurial opportunities. Professor Heidi Neck designed it specifically for undergraduate and graduate students who want to shift toward a more entrepreneurial mindset.
Entrepreneurial Mindshift for Educators Designed for educators from any discipline, this interactive, online program provides educators with tools they can use to help their students develop an entrepreneurial mindset. Fifty-nine participating educators from 16 countries experienced live webinars, independent exercises, simulations, and videos, and left equipped to teach the Entrepreneurial Mindshift course to their own students.
Banco Popular’s Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators Puerto Rico Forty-eight participants attended this first-of-its-kind online SEE program, sponsored by Banco Popular/PRIDCO. Participants gained timely insights and tools to navigate the current online education environment. A highlight was a new session from Professor Matt Allen: The Differences Between Teaching Online and Face to Face.
Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College (MBSC) of Business & Entrepreneurship Twenty-five Saudi students from MBSC participated in this three-week online program. It included group work sessions at the start of each day, guest speakers, and deliverables for assessment, kicking off early each morning and running over weekends to accommodate time differences.
César Vallejo University’s Academic Summit Over three days, Professor Jay Rao led 229 administrators from César Vallejo University through a series of virtual breakout sessions exploring innovation opportunities at UCV. They presented their concepts at the end of each day to Professor Rao, classmates, and high-level university authorities. The program was a wonderful, high-impact initial collaboration between our institutions. 2020 IMPACT REPORT 3
INSPIRE Inspiration about how to think and act more entrepreneurially often comes from within our community. Babson Academy program participants and members of the Babson Collaborative are such a rich and rewarding source of new ideas, fresh thinking, and innovative approaches to entrepreneurship education. It’s this connected, collaborative cohort of educators that keeps our team motivated and enthusiastic about the future of entrepreneurship education. "During such an uncertain and difficult period, it has been rewarding to see engagement and support among members increase in so many meaningful ways, including how members continuously shared resources, expertise, and teaching materials, and generated solutions to the challenges of delivering entrepreneurship education online."
BY THE NUMBERS
— Jamie Kendrioski, Director, Babson Collaborative and Babson Build
4 THE BABSON ACADEMY
Since its founding in 2016, the Babson Collaborative for Entrepreneurship Education, a global institutional membership organization within the Babson Academy, has connected universities around the world that are building and expanding their entrepreneurship ecosystems. Collaborative members share the belief that institutions acting together achieve more toward their entrepreneurial mission and goals than each working alone.
30 MEMBER INSTITUTIONS 21 COUNTRIES 3 NEW MEMBERS American University of the Middle East — Egaila, Kuwait Universidad Camilo José Cela — Madrid, Spain High Point University — High Point, North Carolina, USA
THRIVING VIRTUALLY Babson Collaborative Student Challenge
637 Student Participants Representing 165 Teams From 16 Member Institutions And 12 Countries 9 Winners From TBS, SolBridge, & Tec de Monterrey Attended Professor Heidi Neck’s Entrepreneurial Mindshift Course Babson Collaborative WhatsApp Community
412 Documents, Images, and Links shared from 158 Group Members Babson Collaborative Portal
231 Faculty and Staff from 30 Member Institutions Actively Contribute Babson Collaborative Monthly Webinars
17 Webinars Hosted by Faculty from 9 Institutions Since March 2020
Get concrete course ideas and solutions “ Being in the Collaborative allows our school to connect with other universities that share the same vision of entrepreneurship. Université Laval has a vision of responsible/sustainable entrepreneurship, so our participation in the annual Student Challenge is a great opportunity for our students and our institution to promote this vision of sustainability in entrepreneurship. The mindset is great and the other educators really experiment in their teaching. This network helps to resolve problems, and get concrete ideas and solutions for our courses.” PROFESSOR MARIPIER TREMBLAY Faculty at Université Laval, Canada
Evaluate and introduce new initiatives “The Babson Collaborative annual Global Summit, the Fieldnotes, and the Babson Fellows Program have all been immensely useful. Interacting with other Collaborative members helped me evaluate and roll out potential initiatives at FLAME University. Other benefits have included encouraging our entrepreneurship faculty to create case studies, having more than 100 FLAME University students participate in the Collaborative Global Student Challenge, and making Babson Build a core part of our one-year program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.” DARSHAN DOSHI Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, FLAME University, India
Mentoring that makes a lasting impact “ Coaching gave me another pair of expert eyes so I could see my teaching from a different point of view. Thanks to the coaching program, I now set a better framework for student participation in class. I used to do it a bit in the wild way, just raise your hand and talk. After discussing it with my mentor, I saw how useful it is to have students discuss in groups and work on arguments to show and defend, as even the shiest have the chance to be part of the debate.” PROFESSOR BETHLEM BORONAT Faculty at EAE Business School, Spain 2019 2020IMPACT IMPACTREPORT REPORT 5 5
CONNECT
2020 spurred the Babson Academy team to reinvent the way we connect with our peers around the world. More webinars, less jet lag—for all of us. Regardless of whether we’re convening in person or online, the rich exchange of ideas and best practices among hundreds of educators, administrators, and students of all ages is a hallmark of the Babson Academy.
Outreach Around the World In a year when we all turned to the collective wisdom of our common entrepreneurship educator network for support, virtual presentations and conferences have yielded especially meaningful global connections. We presented at forums throughout 2020, including the following sampling:
» United Arab Emirates University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates » University of Ottawa Ottawa, Canada » Association of International Educators Washington, D.C., USA » FLAME University Pune, India » Association of International Education Administrators Washington, D.C., USA
» Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Consortium Miami, Florida, USA
6 THE BABSON ACADEMY
THE ONE HOUR
BABSON
ACADEMY
ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATOR
PRESENTS
From learning how to maximize your video voice in an online class, to exploring tips for how to teach innovation, to grappling with how to make entrepreneurship courses more inclusive, our monthly webinar series is the Babson Academy at its best. Each month, hundreds of entrepreneurship educators from all corners of the globe gather together to dig in on niche topics. It’s a connection that’s designed and delivered by educators for
2020 WEBINARS
educators, and it inspires both new ideas and confidence in the classroom.
» Do I Really Sound Like That? Recognizing and Refining Your Video Voice Potential Beth Wynstra, Assistant Professor of English
» We Are All Innovators Now Sebastian Fixson, Associate Dean of Academic Programs and Innovation
» Inclusion, Gender, Race, and Class in Entrepreneurship Angela Randolph, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship
"
Teaching innovation with a focus on an entrepreneurial mindset can prepare students for the workforce; they can disrupt organizational cultures in order to move beyond the status quo, or develop new solutions in house if they are not available for purchase. An entrepreneurial mindset requires risk tolerance and the ability to quickly pivot when things don’t go as planned."
– Professor Sebastian Fixson, Associate Dean of Academic Programs and Innovation
2020 IMPACT REPORT 7
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING ABOUT THE BABSON ACADEMY EXPERIENCE ... The program not only provided tips and insights on long-
The Entrepreneurial Mindshift was the perfect
term curriculum development-related issues such as
boost I needed to recharge my batteries. As
devoting an entire course to failure, but it also introduced
an educator, I value the time I spend in the
me to a variety of effective and fun classroom activities
classroom but often worry my approaches or
that I incorporated in my classes immediately after my
applications will feel stale. These sessions
return to Marietta.
refreshed my perspectives.
JACQUELINE KHORASSANI, PH.D., Professor of Economics and Entrepreneurship and Director of the Entrepreneurship Program Marietta College, USA Price-Babson Global Symposia for Entrepreneurship Educators (SEE)
KRISTA FRANCO, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Stetson University, USA Entrepreneurial Mindshift for Educators
The quality of all the workshops and their
Thank you and congratulations to all of you. You have
materials and the design of activities were
a great program and I am very proud to have managed
of the highest standard, and highly relevant
to take the course and complete all the exercises and
to the objectives set out in each workshop.
assignments. It was a beautiful and enriching experience
All these elements will help us in the exciting
in every aspect. An "oasis" in the midst of the harsh
journey of learning, improvement, and
conditions we are experiencing because of the pandemic.
personal and professional growth of our
Many blessings and success.
authorities and teaching staff.
CARLOS F. ROSADO, ED.D, Assistant Dean Division of Continuing Education and Extended University Universidad de Puerto Rico en Bayamón, Puerto Rico Banco Popular’s Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators Puerto Rico
DR. HERACLIO CAMPANA AÑASCO, Academic Vice Rector Universidad César Vallejo, Peru César Vallejo University Academic Summit
8 THE BABSON ACADEMY
2021
ONWARD!
Save the date for the Babson Academy’s upcoming 2021 programs and tune in for our monthly One-Hour Entrepreneurship Educator Webinars ... January » Building an Entrepreneurship Education Ecosystem
» Price Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators: Teaching Online » Entrepreneurial Mindshift for Students » When is An Idea an Opportunity? WEBINAR February » Cracking the Code in Sales Education WEBINAR March » Innovating How We Teach Innovation » Entrepreneurship as Survival: Educating for Innovation as Empowerment WEBINAR April » Identity in Entrepreneurship: Models of Managing Adversity WEBINAR May » Teaching Sustainability in Entrepreneurship WEBINAR May/June » Price-Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators July » Babson Build for Undergraduate and Graduate Students
2020 IMPACT REPORT 9
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