Franklin College: Entrepreneurial Leadership starts here

Study in the arts and sciences disciplines is the best possible preparation for a fulfilling life and career: Franklin College graduates know how to think critically and creatively, adapt to changing situations, and bring broad perspectives to bear on the diverse challenges we all confront over our lifetimes.

The arts and sciences are also the engine for innovation.  Franklin College has launched a suite of initiatives that will help our students hone their entrepreneurial skills and make purposeful connections between their disciplinary foundations and their potential to make a meaningful impact in professional and community settings. These include:

• The Franklin Residential College, now in its thirteenth year and housed in the newly rebuilt Rutherford Hall, includes undergraduate students from all years and all disciplines in the arts and sciences.  The FRC infuses the intellectual and cultural life of the university into a residential community that brings students and faculty together around themes of innovation and entrepreneurship.  Speaker series, workshops, service activities, competitions, and other programs – some exclusive to the FRC members, and others open to the community – make the FRC a primary hub of innovation for undergraduate students throughout UGA.

•  In spring, 2014, the Franklin College and the Office of Service Learning will pilot a new service-learning course:  Social-E Responsible:  Connecting Innovation and Economic Development to the Public Good.  The course will meet in the Franklin Residential College but be open to undergraduates throughout the university.  Dean Alan Dorsey will lead the course, with support from the OSL.  The course will introduce students to concepts and models of social entrepreneurship; will connect them with Athens-based social enterprises for immersion and service; and will culminate in student-developed proposals for social innovations to be presented during Thinc week.  

• The Franklin College “Boot Camp” on Entrepreneurial Leadership in the Arts and Sciences provides a residential immersion experience for selected students during Maymester – akin to a study-abroad-at-home model.  Students will live together in Rutherford Hall, take two courses, and engage in in-depth, intensive projects in and beyond the classroom, designed to sharpen their entrepreneurial skills, foster transformational personal growth, and launch them as leaders of successful ventures in any arena.

For more information on these initiatives, please contact Franklin College assistant dean for college relations Linda Bachman, lbachman@uga.edu