Change Begets Change

George Mason is one of four Ashoka Changemaker Campuses, along with the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins, and Cornell. GMU is now considering making social entrepreneurship part of the school's 5 year accreditation plan — the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP).

You can read the full plan here, the title is: “Social Innovators and Social Entrepreneurs: 21st Century Leaders of Change.” Here is a bit of info:

“Social Innovators and Social Entrepreneurs: 21st Century Leaders of Change” emphasizes the people, ideas, organizations, and movements that lead to measurable and lasting social gains, and the innovative application of scholarly knowledge in the arts and sciences to the world’s pressing problems. We envision scholars, administrators, and faculty across the Mason community identifying entrepreneurial leaders in their fields and finding ways to engage students with the methodologies and practices of these innovators and communities through curriculum, service-learning, independent study, co-curricular activities, study abroad, internships, and research opportunities. This QEP further aims to include a larger segment of the university population in Mason’s entrepreneurial mission. We also hope to further Mason’s goal of “raising our profile as a nationally-ranked research university” through the creation of additional research opportunities for students that will increase faculty-student interaction and students’ civic engagement.

If you would like to see this become a part of the University's mission, please vote at the Mason QEP site. Please vote now, you only have a few days. Note that you do not need to be a student, just have an interest in our future.

Here is a good video introducing Ashoka's Changemaker Program: