WASHINGTON, June 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Professor Mike Caslin, The Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship Network’s (GCSEN Foundation) Founder and President, delivered the keynote Dr. Lev Dobriansky Memorial Lecture at the Fund for American Studies (TFAS) conference in Washington DC. The event, for blue-chip undergrads enrolled in TFAS’ seven core Institutes of study, is an annual Summer Institute conference, attended by students representing over one hundred colleges and universities from thirty countries. As the Distinguished Featured Lecturer for TFAS, Professor Caslin followed up his initial talk with one at George Mason University’sInstitute on Philanthropy and Voluntary Service, Fairfax, VA.
The topic of both lectures was “Social Entrepreneurship: An Essential Strategy for Success in a Comprehensive and Competitive Global Millennial Economy.” Mike Caslin, currently Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at SUNY New Paltz Business School in New York, has spent the last three decades studying, lecturing and facilitating efforts to promote and develop social entrepreneurship on a global scale. Recently, GCSEN was instrumental in assisting Wheaton College, Norton MA, secure a historic gift of $10 million from the prestigious Diana Davis Spencer Foundation of Bethesda, MD for the establishment of an endowed Professorship in Social Entrepreneurship. The gift also provides for the renovation of a business department building on campus and funds up to four new faculty positions in social entrepreneurship studies at Wheaton.
The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) was founded in 1967 to help instill in young people an appreciation for the American form of government and the free-enterprise system. TFAS offers students a comprehensive education that includes unique academic courses for credit, and professional development and internships that provide hands-on experience in business, law and social policy. The ultimate objective of TFAS is to encourage a vibrant, engaged citizenship necessary for a healthy democracy. The opportunity for Professor Caslin to speak at the TFAS conference highlights GCSEN’s role as an ideas and action influencer in the global academic and business communities.
Kayla Anderson, Manager, Institute on Philanthropy & Voluntary Service for TFAS said, “Mike Caslin’s riveting discussion on social entrepreneurship inspires students to pursue a career in line with their passions. He is spearheading a movement to change the way young people navigate the job market. For the third year in a row, Mike showed students at the Institute on Philanthropy and Voluntary Service how they can continue to explore their passion for both the nonprofit and business sectors through the emerging field of social entrepreneurship, helping to change the world through innovation and creativity.”
Nearly four hundred top students applied to attend the event, including students from UNC, Clemson, Cornell, SUNY New Paltz and Brigham Young University. Trenton Morgan, a student at Northeastern State University at Tahlequah, Oklahoma attended Caslin’s lecture. He said, “I really enjoyed and appreciated the workshop today at TFAS. Professor Caslin’s insights about social entrepreneurship and self-awareness were great! Following the workshop, we spoke about possible GCSEN opportunities in Choctaw and Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Again, thank you Professor Caz for your time today.”
Recently, Professor Caslin, a 1978 alumnus of the TFAS Institute on Comparative Political and Economic Systems, received the TFAS Alumni Achievement Award in recognition of his work in the field of Social Entrepreneurship. As one of only fifteen recipients of the Award out of 15,000 alumni, the Achievement Award is given to an alumnus who has achieved considerable success in a professional field or endeavor. The recipient of this award has attained significant recognition in his or her career and embodies the values, ideals and potential of an alumnus of a TFAS program. Recipients’ accomplishments are exceptional, furthering the goals of TFAS.
In addition to his recent honors with TFAS, GCSEN has announced its latest higher education initiative, the Social Venture Internship program or SVI. Combining an innovative on-line learning experience with an individualized applied internship, SVI offers undergrad and recent graduate enrollees the opportunity to create their own social venture business internship, gaining practical business experience and a GCSEN Social Venture Business Formulation Certificate. The GCSEN Foundation is an IRS-approved 501(c-3) higher education not-for-profit organization promoting and facilitating social entrepreneurship around the world.
GCSEN has been a leader in the effort to accelerate innovative Social Entrepreneur (SE) curricula in partner colleges while offering similarly innovative programs to individuals. Caslin says, “It is vital that a new generation of business-oriented, socially conscious millennials emerge, creating with purpose a “4-P Impact” with people, profit, planet, and place, to make meaning, make money. And move the world to a better place.”
Wheaton College President Dennis Hanno, upon receiving the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation’s major gift to the College amplified his admiration stating, “GCSEN has been with us every step of the way. It’s been an incredible partnership to grow together in this innovative arena. Social Entrepreneurship is about the power of linking shared visions and shared missions, making exponential social impacts. GCSEN, led by Mike Caslin, has been an important partner for Wheaton College and I thank him for that.”
GCSEN Foundation’s goal is to provide life-transforming learning experiences to 1 million millennials while assisting in the formulation and launch of 10,000 new social ventures by 2027. The organization’s Social Entrepreneur System Institute’s online courses, campus-based Meaning Maker Boot Camps, faculty and administrator certifications, and at international academic forums help spread the word about the importance of accelerating the Social Entrepreneurship movement.
GCSEN has been featured in highly influential print and web-based forums, on social media, and on its GCSEN YouTube and Meaning Makers TV channels. GCSEN President Mike Caslin is the author or co-author of a number of highly regarded books, textbooks, and whitepapers on social entrepreneurism, working closely with colleges, businesses, and philanthropies promoting the movement. For its college campus partners, GCSEN offers its innovative, life-changing blended-learning SES Institute program, benefiting colleges with enhanced recruitment and retention rates, and increased student intellectual and practical engagement.
Mike Caslin is a graduate of Babson College’s prestigious Fast-Track MBA Program at the Olin Graduate School, considered one of the top-ten in the world. The Founder and President of GCSEN Foundation, he is currently Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at SUNY New Paltz Business School. Co-founder and Global CEO of NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship) from 1988-2008, Caslin is a past faculty member of Babson College, CUNY-Baruch, Marist College School of Business and Manhattanville College, Prof. Caslin has been a featured lecturer and speaker at the Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Dartmouth Tuck School of Business, and Columbia Univ. Business School Eugene Lang Center for Entrepreneurship, among others. Prof. Caslin has been called in as a Subject Matter Expert for the United Nations, the U.S. Congress, and The White House.
