In addition to partnering with leading academic institutions, we also work with organizations to promote new venture creation and enhance economic productivity in developed and developing countries around the world.
Babson faculty members have helped shape entrepreneurship education for the Native American community. Our faculty members have volunteered their time to travel to tribal colleges to help explore ways to tailor entrepreneurship education as a strategy and option for young people in order to achieve self-sufficiency and community development. They have coached tribal educators on how to effectively use the case method and to write cases about Native American entrepreneurs to which students can relate. In part through their guidance, many new entrepreneurial opportunities have been generated in this community.
Every summer, a group of Babson students and faculty members travel to the University of Stellenbosch near Cape Town, South Africa, to assist in the development and delivery of a course in entrepreneurship to disadvantaged South African high school students from diverse racial and economic backgrounds. Since 2001, they have taught entrepreneurship to nearly 1,000 African teenagers. This course has helped these African students to qualify for college admission and compete in local business plan competitions. One of the Babson students who participated in this program, Justin Simcock, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to return to South Africa to study the business support services available to entrepreneurs.
In 2004, Babson students founded the Babson Global Outreach through Entrepreneurship (BGOE), a nonprofit educational organization that works to reduce dependency and increase self-sufficiency by bringing MBA students to developing countries, effectively supporting the spirit of local entrepreneurs, and creating sustainable business models. In January 2006, BGOE traveled to Sri Lanka to help do reconstruction work and consult with businesses that were rebuilding after the devastating tsunami of 2004.
