Israeli and Palestinian Students to Study Entrepreneurship and Launch Businesses at Babson College

WELLESLEY, Mass., June 10, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 44 Israeli and Palestinian students (20 Palestinians, 17 Israeli Jews, and 7 Israeli Arabs) will learn entrepreneurship skills and establish businesses this summer at Babson College, building a spirit of peace and understanding through entrepreneurship to bring back to their countries.

Bridging the Cultural Divide Through Entrepreneurship, led by Babson Professor Ted Grossman, will focus on the potential to build global peace and understanding through the study of entrepreneurship.

Grossman believes that, "the absence of hope breeds anger, despair, and hatred.  Joint entrepreneurship brings disparate people together to create hope, understanding, passion, and a common goal."

The course will focus on examining the frameworks of:

• entrepreneurship,
• innovation,
• accounting,
• finance,
• marketing,
• sales,
• information technology, and
• social responsibility.

The program is modeled on Babson's award-winning Foundations of Managing and Entrepreneurship course, which requires every Babson first-year student to develop, fund, and launch a business.  For more info on the FME course model, visit http://www3.babson.edu/babson2ndgen/Ugrad/ugradnewstudents/curriculum/fme.cfm

The program is divided into three segments:

• orientation in the Middle East during the last week in May,
• entrepreneurship education at Babson during July-August,
• business launch and management throughout the rest of 2011 in the Middle East.

Students will:

• Participate in an in-country orientation to better understand each others' culture, perspective, and aspirations.
• Experience Babson's award-winning Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship course, where they develop concepts for new companies, products, and services to launch upon return to their home countries.
• Meet with U.S. entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.
• Include community service projects in their business plans to show the importance of developing entrepreneurial leaders with a global mindset and a commitment to people, planet, and profits. All company profits will be donated to the students' community service program.
• Receive continuous mentoring from Babson after returning home to ensure successful outcomes for their new ventures.

They will split into 2 companies, each made up of students from a variety of cultures, religions, and backgrounds. The 2 company teams will:

• Write a business plan for a venture they will launch in the 16 weeks following their return to the Middle East.
• Receive seed capital from Babson and participate in distance-learning initiatives to keep global faculty and support teams updated.

At the end of 16 weeks, students will complete a Report to the Community in the Middle East, presenting to faculty members, community service organizations, local diplomats and politicians, family members, and fellow classmates.

Their cultural education will include recreational trips to Washington, D.C., New York City, Cape Cod, and Fenway Park as well as visits to historic locations in Boston.

Members of the Babson faculty and members of Babson's partner institutions in the Middle East will participate in and lead lectures and presentations on such topics as entrepreneurship, accounting, information technology, marketing, creativity and innovation, entrepreneurial economics, organizational behavior, conflict management, and mediation, and to carry out the DiSC profile assessment which helps individuals understand their personalities and how they might relate to others in a business environment.

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds(TM). The College is a dynamic living and learning laboratory, where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society -- while at the same time evolving our methods and advancing our programs. We shape the leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to create economic and social value. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought and Action(TM) as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value.

Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., is recognized internationally as a leader in entrepreneurial management education. Babson grants BS degrees through its innovative undergraduate program, and grants MBA and custom MS and MBA degrees through the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College. Babson Executive Education offers executive development programs to experienced managers worldwide. For information, visit www.babson.edu.

This news release was issued on behalf of Newswise(TM).  For more information, visit http://www.newswise.com.

SOURCE Babson College