Georgetown University: School of Foreign Service in Qatar

The Hilltop and Dunetop Work Together on Entrepreneurship Projects

In the course description for Dale Murphy's international social entrepreneurship class, the Georgetown professor invites "anyone with the drive to change the world" to enroll.

A camp for kids in Palestine; a program to increase educational access to marginalized women and children in developing parts of the world; a leading anti-corruption social venture; and an entrepreneurship training program in Sierra Leone all stand among the many social ventures created by Murphy's former students, who he says are indeed changing the world for the better.

"Social entrepreneurship embodies the Georgetown ideals of service for others and social justice," says Murphy, Georgetown's director of entrepreneurial programs. "Students are very used to professors giving them all of the answers -- but in my class, they are forced to be leaders."

Immersing students in the risks, rewards, responsibilities, science and art of starting a new social venture, Murphy's class is even more ambitious this semester because it is held at the same time on two separate Georgetown campuses -- in Washington and in Doha, Qatar, where the School of Foreign Service-Qatar is located.

Despite the more than 6,000 miles between them and vastly different cultures, American and Middle Eastern students both joined Murphy's course to acquire tools to establish their own ventures for social change.

"The goal of this particular class is to bridge the difference between the Middle East and the United States while learning about the concept of public good," says Murphy, a professor within SFS, Georgetown College and the McDonough School of Business. "In Arabic, an agreed-upon word for ‘entrepreneur' does not exist, let alone ‘social entrepreneurship.' It is a very Western concept, which makes this class a real learning experience because it has never been done before -- students in both D.C. and Qatar are paving the way for the world."

Utilizing Georgetown's new global classroom, students are linked every Tuesday and Thursday through Polycom RealPresence technology. The symmetrical telepresence classrooms in each location feature high-definition video, voice and content-sharing capabilities that enable a clear, life-size audiovisual classroom experience.

The social entrepreneurship course serves as the third class offering between the Hilltop and the Dunetop, as the respective campuses affectionately are known. It is the second course to use the Polycom technology.

"The global classroom took some getting used to at first, but we are now well acquainted with it," says Swetha Hariharan (SFS-Q'11), an international politics major in Doha. "This is one of the most interesting classes I have ever taken. … It combines what I learn in my major with the real world, and actually allows me to make a change instead of simply dreaming of possibilities."

During their Sept. 29-Oct. 4 fall break, SFS-Qatar students traveled to Main Campus as a requirement for Murphy's class. The Doha students spent the week developing, critiquing and revising their social venture plans with their fellow D.C. classmates and visiting nongovernmental organizations such as Global Integrity, the ONE Campaign and Ashoka. This marks the second time the two groups have met in-person. The full class first met when Main Campus students traveled to the Doha campus in mid-August before classes began.

"It has been really helpful getting to know the Doha students, both in person and through the global classroom, which is a very comfortable and natural learning environment," says Alica Dzelilovic (SFS'10), a culture and politics major on Main Campus. "Spending time together has enabled us to form friendships and trust each other -- which is vital when working on a business project together."

Collaborating with fellow classmate Madhoorya Mantha (SFS-Q'11), an international politics major living in Doha, Dzelilovic and Mantha plan to set up their own Web-based venture that will produce and house social media, particularly documentaries for nonprofit agencies.

Although half a world away from each other, the partners are having no trouble communicating through the global classroom, e-mails and videoconference calls.

"This class is all about global networking," says Mantha. "Just because we live in different countries doesn't mean anything. … When it comes down to it, we are all Georgetown students trying to work towards something productive and good."

Dzelilovic agrees.

"This class has made us feel like it is actually possible to create our business," adds Dzelilovic. "There are no walls or borders that can stop us from expanding the way of thinking about social entrepreneurship in the Middle East."

Source: Blue & Gray (October 6, 2008)