The Social Innovation Initiative is a university-wide effort to foster interdisciplinary learning, research, and practice that contributes to real-world problem solving. Social innovation as a field of theory and practice is designed to enhance the capacity of individuals, communities, and organizations to devise effective, just, and sustainable solutions to social and environmental problems.
We work collaboratively with New School students, faculty, administrators, and community partners to create and support diverse activities to further and deepen social innovation education and research at the university.
The Social Innovation Initiative strives to prepare students to become skilled changemakers. The Initiative supports the university in developing diverse curricular and extracurricular educational experiences to prepare students in devising and implementing innovative solutions to contemporary social and environmental challenges. Click here for more information on the Initiative’s specific programs and events.
The Social Innovation Initiative partners with a number of external initiatives, including AshokaU, Dell Social Innovation Challenge, Clinton Global Initiative University, Imagining America, as well as with many local and national community, cultural, and civic initiatives and projects. These collaborations strengthen our work and offer students innumerable opportunities beyond the walls of The New School.
The Social Innovation Initiative is generously supported by The New School’s Provost; the Deans of Parsons the New School for Design, The New School for Public Engagement, and Eugene Lang the New School for Undergraduate Studies; the Rockefeller Foundation; and an anonymous individual donor.
The New School: An Ashoka U changemaker campus
The Social Innovation Initiative was established when The New School was selected to join the Ashoka U Changemaker Campus Initiative, a partnership between Ashoka and a consortium of 12 universities. Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs – individuals with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Ashoka U aspires to improve teaching, research, and engagement opportunities in social entrepreneurship across universities in the United States and beyond. The Changemaker Campus Consortium is a group of select universities and colleges that are committed to setting the global standard for excellence in social innovation and entrepreneurship education.
The Social Innovation Initiative is led by a steering committee of faculty and students. Click here for further information.
For more information on the broader academic context of our work, please visit The New School’s social innovation website.
Questions? Comments? We want to hear from you! E-mail us at: socialinnovation@newschool.edu
