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Social Entrepreneurship: Strategic Storytelling


Course Description

This course focuses on shining the light on community and societal needs through compelling, evidence-based storytelling. Students learn to help others understand the problem and why it should be solved. It is also about creating a collective sense of importance and optimism around the problem and its solution.

Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will prepare an 8- to 10-page paper summarizing the extant literature on the topic of their project for this course and highlighting an important gap in knowledge and the implications of this knowledge for addressing the topic.


Athena Title

Social Entrepren Strat Story


Semester Course Offered

Offered spring


Grading System

A - F (Traditional)


Course Objectives

To leverage proven and emerging methods of gaining insight into the lived experience of community members; To synthesize observations into themes and insights that form the foundation of your story; To distill a compelling, defendable story from your insights; To apply storytelling methods and tools to choreograph an experience for your intended audience; and To bring that story to life digitally.


Topical Outline

The Power of Stories The Perspective Pivot Seeing the Situation Through Different Frames Identifying the possible frames for your project The Methods that Inspire Stories Learning About the World - An Overview of Methods Determining the best ways to learn about your project Social listening methods Participant observation Ethnography Google trends The Craft of Storytelling What Makes a Good Story Extracting the thesis and main points of your story The structure of stories Determining the best structure for your story Choreographing the experience Ideating creative experiences for enhancing your story Engaging your audience Considering your audience and their readiness to hear your story Suspension of disbelief Ideating creative approaches to delivering your story to your audience


Syllabus