Babson College has launched the Babson Academy, created to advance global entrepreneurial learning at universities around the world, provide faculty, administrators, and students of other educational institutions access to Babson’s thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem, and hoping to inspire change in the way universities and colleges think about, teach, and learn entrepreneurship.
The Babson Academy will launch with a new, inaugural program this month–Babson Fellows for Entrepreneurship Educators.
This program brings 20 acclaimed faculty from universities around the world into a weeklong, immersive Babson residency. Here, they are paired with a Babson faculty mentor and will strengthen their approach to teaching by experiencing classroom time, as well as entrepreneurial extracurricular activities on and off Babson’s campus. Once they return to their home campus, the Fellows launch an individual project to enhance their university’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The academy is rooted in Babson’s mission for its second century–to take entrepreneurial education shaped by its acclaimed and dedicated faculty to more people and places worldwide.
Babson’s existing educator and student programs, including the Global Symposia for Entrepreneurship Educators (SEE), Babson Build, and the Babson Collaborative, have moved from Babson Executive Education to the Babson Academy to be expanded upon and enhanced.
Also forthcoming is the Babson Academy’s first SEE program at Babson Dubai, the College’s newest location. In February 2019, Global Symposia for Entrepreneurship Educators–Dubai will give local participants the skills needed to pass on an entrepreneurial mindset to their students to shape the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders.
Longstanding Babson community members Amir Reza and Heidi Neck are leading this effort.
As dean of the Babson Academy, Reza will apply his deep-seated experience in international education to his role in supporting global university participants. As academic director, renowned entrepreneurship educator Neck will oversee the development and delivery of Babson programming worldwide.
“Academic institutions, as changemakers, recognize the power of entrepreneurship education,” said Neck. “But entrepreneurship isn’t just another discipline. It’s a way of thinking and acting that transcends traditional perspectives on teaching and learning. At Babson, we don’t teach entrepreneurship. We teach students to entrepreneur. And it’s our north star to bring our version of entrepreneurship education to the world.”
Babson College has long been a connector and convener of entrepreneurially minded people. Through its external, global entrepreneurship programs, Babson has impacted more than 8,700 educators and students from 1,300+ educational institutions in more than 80 countries.
The Babson Academy, which offers an extensive portfolio of programming to help universities build and grow their own entrepreneurship programs, will extend the College’s reach.
“Through the Babson Academy, participating institutions benefit from all Babson has to offer–from mentorship to unique teaching methodologies, events, networking, and more. Through a hands-on approach, they learn to take immediate action, and accelerate the development of current and future entrepreneurial generations,” Reza said.
