2026
National Online
Social Entrepreneurship Institute
for Middle & High School Social Studies Teachers

Empower students as changemakers with the entrepreneurial mindset to increase
civic engagement, drive change, and solve real-world social issues!

Reasons to Teach Social Entrepreneurship

Democracy thrives when individuals are empowered to become change agents by offering entrepreneurial solutions for unmet community needs and social issues. Social entrepreneurship is an engaging, real-world context for teaching social studies while cultivating civic engagement. This next-level pedagogy integrates an inter/multidisciplinary, design thinking, and social entrepreneurial approach to learning social studies content while actually helping solve real-world issues.

Entrepreneurship knowledge, skills, and mindsets seamlessly integrate across social studies grades and subjects, while optimizing student motivation by unleashing students' unique interests and passions in the classroom. Moreover, intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial workforce readiness skills (opportunity recognition, critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, innovation, initiative, collaboration, etc.) are developed, as required by today’s employers and self-employment opportunities in the Innovation & Gig Economy.

Why Teachers Should Attend the Institute

Easily customizable, the Institute content is extremely flexible and accessible to middle and high school students via inquiry, performance, and project-based learning objectives. Using experiential learning and a field-tested curriculum, teachers simultaneously learn basic entrepreneurship content and instructional best-practices by reviewing 450+ classroom-ready, multimedia resources (news articles, videos, podcasts, infographics, textbooks, lessons, PPT slides, test bank, etc.) and completing assignments that they can turnaround and use with their students with little to no further preparation.

Online modules are self-paced and live Zoom classes feature introductions to nonprofit partners and humanitarian sites around the world, social entrepreneurs who share "lessons learned," and breakout groups for national networking and collaboration. Practical module assignments result in a collection of co-created lesson plans (Part A) and business plans (Part B) for implementing social entrepreneurship businesses and service-learning projects to inspire creative solutions for social issues, ranging from the local community to underdeveloped countries.  Teachers are invited to connect their students with humanitarian sites and students in other countries (Ecuador, Haiti, Kenya, Uganda, Ukraine, etc.) and compete in the Online Civic & Social Innovation Pitch Challenge for real-world problem-solving, although optional.

Certifications

Social Entrepreneurship Educator Certification (certificate and digital badge) included. The Institute is aligned with the U.S. Entrepreneurship Certification Examination, equipping educators with the content knowledge, instructional strategies, curriculum, and resources needed to prepare high school students to pass the Exam. Exam details linked here.

QUESTIONS
Dr. Cheryl Ayers
cheryl42@vt.edu