Course Information
GBUS 4972 + 4791
3+1 Credit
Eligibility:
Juniors, Seniors, and select MA students. If the class is over-subscribed, priority will be given to eligible students with some knowledge of the subject matter and no prior C-Lab experience.
Dates:
Spring semester with Global Impact Pitch Competition in April
Description:
This SFS course helps train and enable top students to create ambitious, entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges. Students will work individually or in self-selected teams to identify societal needs and innovative, financially-sustainable solutions that fit their long-term passions and life/career goals. Working in collaboration with the IBD alumni network, students will liaise with individuals in and outside the university, including other entrepreneurs, engineers, designers, mentors, alums, policy think-tanks, potential funders, incubators/studios, regulators, and existing institutions (corporate, government, academic, and/or NGO) to move their proposals toward feasible proposals worthy of implementation and investment.
Students are guided to quickly field-test their ideas and adapt as needed, and to embrace fast, productive failures that accelerate learning and optimize resource allocation. Broader long-term goals include the successful implementation of solutions, the education of global-citizen leaders, the further development of Georgetown’s entrepreneurial-ecosystem, the strengthening of SFS’ role as the leading institution for innovative answers to global issues, and the deepening of its partnerships with top thinkers and institutions around the world.
Students will compete to engage in the Global Impact Pitch Competition (GIPC) in the spring (April) – please review information from last year’s runs here. For additional questions, please contact Prof. Dale Murphy (ddm41@georgetown.edu) or SFS Global Experience Program Director (sfsglobalexperience@georgetown.edu).
Professor Information
Professor Dale Murphy teaches in the Landegger Program in International Business Diplomacy (IBD) in the Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) at Georgetown University. He was the first University-wide Director of Entrepreneurial Programs, starting in 2007, for which he wrote and led a winning $3 million grant proposal to the Kauffman Foundation for Georgetown University. He pioneered the teaching of entrepreneurship within SFS, leading the Colligan-Quinlan Initiative on Entrepreneurship, endowed with $500,000 from two leading SFS alumni in 2002. He leads the SFS Entrepreneurship Initiative with Citi Ventures, sponsor of the annual $20K Global Impact Pitch Competition (GIPC). His students have gone on to found startups ranging from a billion-dollar ‘unicorn’, to an award-winning anti-corruption NGO.
Dr. Murphy is an expert in global issues at the juncture of the public and private sectors. His specialties include commercial and social entrepreneurship (with support from the Wallenberg Foundation), and he has worked on international political economy, business-government relations, corporate social responsibility (CSR), business ethics, international relations, democratization and international security. He has led initiatives on the policies and educational practices that support the growth of entrepreneurs in the Middle East (through Harvard University’s Kennedy School affiliate in Dubai), the U.S., Europe, Africa, and South Asia. His students have founded successful for-profit and non-profit ventures around the world.
Travel Details
This course takes place in Washington, D.C.
Student Testimonials
“This class has transformed my SFS experience. It’s brought me from learning about problems and learning about them helplessly to identifying problems to solve and actively taking steps to build a plan that would address them. I believe this is a revolutionary model in education…”
“This C-Lab has quite frankly been life-changing….it has been incredibly eye-opening to see people with similar backgrounds to me starting companies or working at very early stage companies.”