SMU Impact Lab

Vision

The SMU Impact Lab serves the University’s entrepreneurial students, faculty and alumni in the spaces of social, creative and arts entrepreneurship. Through investments, experiential learning opportunities, course work, cross-disciplinary educational workshops, and structured mentoring, the SMU Impact Lab will invest in those who desire to have a net positive impact in the world through entrepreneurial action.

PROGRAM SUMMARY

The SMU Impact Lab will focus on the following concepts to drive our candidate’s success.

  • Investments: Through the generous support of the Phillips Foundation, the SMU Impact Lab will invest in for-profit social impact endeavors in the social, creative and arts spaces.
  • Experiential Learning: At the core of our educational offerings is experiential learning, or “learning by doing.” In workshops, research, and course content, we provide opportunities for participants to discover their learning and, consequently, own their knowledge.
  • Course Work: The Division of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs (CCPA) will launch a new Social Impact Investing course for undergraduate and graduate students.
  • Structured Mentoring: In collaboration with the SMU’s incubator program, participants of the SMU Impact Lab will gain access to structured mentorship opportunities with area and alumni entrepreneurs, designed to impart participants with knowledge and skills to further their respective endeavors.
  • Cross-disciplinary Offerings: Faculty representing innovation and entrepreneurship programming at SMU will offer educational workshops. Examples of collaborating schools, programs and offices at SMU include Cox Entrepreneurship program; Meadows Arts Entrepreneurship program; CCPA Meadows’ Social Innovation, Creative and Arts Entrepreneurship program; CCPA Meadows’ Nonprofit Arts Leadership program; the Lyle/Meadows MADI Program in Human Centered Design; the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity; the Master of Management in International Arts Management; and the SMU Engaged Learning.

Key Objectives

The SMU Impact Lab’s program objectives are fourfold:

  1. Educate a new generation of social, arts and creative entrepreneurs through startup support, management, measurement, course work, workshops and guidance in the scaling of social ventures. We will start a new Corporate Communications and Public Affairs (CCPA) course for undergraduates and graduates titled “Social Impact Investing”in the Meadows School and partner with experts from the incubator’s mentorship program, enhancing stakeholders’ likelihood of measurable, sustainable, scalable success.
  2. Provide opportunities for SMU students, alumni and faculty to engage in structured impact investing in the spaces of social innovation and creative, social and arts entrepreneurship. The SMU Impact Lab will serve as a source of entrepreneurial funding at SMU.
  3. Identify emerging trends, best practices, and present nationally and internationally, promoting the merging of arts and creative entrepreneurship as part of social entrepreneurship and the collaboration between SMU and the Phillips Foundation.
  4. Encourage cross-campus collaboration at SMU by pursuing interdisciplinary cooperation within our SMU entrepreneurship ecosystem and attracting more entrepreneurially focused prospective students, all resulting in rising academic rankings and more significant social good.