SOCIAL ENTERPRISE CONSULTING PRACTICUM
Service to others is a fundamental part of our values at Villanova, and the MBA program is no exception. One of the program’s two capstone projects, the Social Enterprise Consulting Practicum provides the opportunity to apply all that you’ve learned to advise a social enterprise, social business or nonprofit organization in the Philadelphia area.
During the practicum, teams of MBA students partner with a social enterprise, social business or nonprofit organization to detect problem areas, such as branding, funding, logistics, or membership retention, and together identify possible solutions. Upon the consulting of the Social Enterprise Consulting Practicum, you and your team will present findings and recommendations directly to the organizations.
Not only does this work help advance the missions of these organizations, the experience realizes your potential to make a lasting impact on the world.
Villanova School of Business (VSB) MBA students take learning beyond the classroom through the Social Enterprise Consulting Practicum, an experiential learning capstone course that gives students the opportunity to work with real organizations on meaningful business challenges.
Through this MBA consulting practicum, students apply their business skills to real-world projects while creating value for the organizations and communities they serve. In this video, MBA students share their experience working with The Headstrong Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of those affected by cancer.
The partnership gave students firsthand experience tackling a real organizational challenge, collaborating with a client and seeing the direct impact of their work.
The Social Enterprise Consulting Practicum reflects VSB’s commitment to experiential learning, preparing MBA students to use business skills as a force for meaningful impact.
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE CLIENTS
- Animal Lifeline
- Cathedral Kitchen
- Children's Advocacy Center of Delaware
- Cradles to Crayons
- Delaware Valley Opera Company
- Domestic Violence Center of Chester County
- Girls Inc.
- Graterford Prison
- HandiCrafters
- La Scuola d'Italia
- Love146
- MANNA
- Move For Hunger
- Northern Home for Children
- Philadelphia Folk Society
- Philadelphia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- Philadelphia Outward Bound
- Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA)
- Re-Entry USA
- Slow Food® Philadelphia
- Snider Hockey Team
- TERP, Inc.
- The Jamie Moyer Foundation (Camp Erin)
- Travis Manion Foundation
“I had the pleasure of recently working with a group of students that partnered with Slow Food® Philadelphia, an organization dedicated to good, clean, and fair food for everyone. The students worked with Slow Food® Philadelphia to develop a unifying values framework, and then converted these findings into tools the organization could use to further their accreditation system and educational outreach. The team’s efforts for the Philadelphia chapter were even noticed and leveraged by the national arm, Slow Food USA. It was such a rewarding experience for everyone involved.”
Alicia Lewis,
Social Enterprise Consulting Practicum Faculty Member