Expanding Social Entrepreneurship Across Education 

Amanda Kruger Hill, Executive Director, Cowen Institute
Jill H. and Avram A. Glazer Professor of Social Entrepreneurship, Phyllis M. Taylor Center
 

When Amanda Kruger Hill, M.Ed., Ed.D., finished the Tulane Innovation Institute's Faculty Innovation Workshop this summer, she recognized ways to apply the lessons beyond her Tulane classes.

The executive director of the Cowen Institute attended the four-day program to enhance her teaching by integrating entrepreneurial and innovative frameworks in her two courses. However, her creativity also turned a professional development experience into something larger: a plan to extend those lessons beyond Tulane's campus to educators, nonprofit leaders, principals, and school counselors across New Orleans. What started as an internal initiative is evolving into an external one.

The Faculty Innovation Workshop, run by the Tulane Innovation Institute and CELT (Center for Engaged Learning and Teaching), brought together faculty from across the university to rethink their courses through an entrepreneurial lens. Led by Eric Liguori, PhD, from Florida State University and Jessica Vattima from Rowan University, the program trained thirty participants to redesign a current syllabus around experiential learning and problem-solving.

The impact of the course has already been put into action in Hill’s teaching this semester. Her two core courses now include tools and a few of her favorite activities from the workshop.

In her Education in a Diverse Society and Service-Learning class at the School of Professional Advancement and her Leadership course at the School of Liberal Arts (both courses Hill co-designed), students are learning to identify issues in their areas of interest and to map potential solutions using tools like the Business Model Canvas. Another engaging addition is the "Unnecessary Inventions" exercise, which helps students break free from conventional thinking and embrace imaginative ideation.

She has also integrated lessons on interviewing entrepreneurs, a skill that helps students understand the entrepreneurial mindset. "When students talk to entrepreneurs and ask the right questions, they see problem-solving as something people do, not just an abstract concept," Hill said.

For Hill, an award-winning education leader and professor of practice, this valuable education aligns with her mission at the Cowen Institute to support current and future educators, equipping them with resources needed to improve educational and postsecondary outcomes for students in New Orleans.

"Teachers and school leaders already have what it takes to be entrepreneurs," Hill explains. "They identify problems every single day and find ways to solve them. The workshop gave me new methods to help them do it more intentionally."

Hill is currently developing a workshop for local educators, nonprofit leaders, principals, and school counselors. Participants will be invited to bring a challenge from their school or organization. Using the design thinking and entrepreneurship tools Hill learned at the workshop, they will create and pitch solutions, with opportunities for mini-grants to pilot their ideas.

"The goal is to create a ripple effect of problem-solving and creative leadership throughout the New Orleans education ecosystem," Hill explained. "By equipping educators with these frameworks, we can help them implement meaningful change within their schools and communities."

Hill's commitment to entrepreneurial and social innovation education was recently recognized with a new appointment. She was named the Jill H. and Avram A. Glazer Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the Phyllis M. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking. This appointment reflects her leadership in integrating real-world applications, community engagement, and creative problem-solving across her work. Hill's appointment is one of three new professorships announced by the Taylor Center this fall. Margaret Mary Downey, Ph.D., joins as the Paul Tudor Jones II Professor of Social Entrepreneurship, and Sukari Ivester, Ph.D., has been named the Kylene and Brad Beers Professor of Social Entrepreneurship.

Hill’s entrepreneurial thinking and undertakings represent a growing network of Tulane faculty dedicated to advancing this practice in their courses to create positive change locally and beyond. Entrepreneurship is not confined to startups; it's a mindset that empowers people in all fields to identify problems and design solutions for impact.