To Expand Entrepreneurship, an Educate-the-Educators Approach

price babson symposium
Listen

Bright and early on a Monday morning, Professor Heidi Neck asks a room full of educators if they are ready to engage.

Engagement will mean many things throughout the week as they progress through Price-Babson Symposium for Entrepreneurship Educators (SEE), an action-based program in which educators experience a variety of practice-based teaching, including Entrepreneurial Thought & Action®; co-create new ways of teaching; and build a network of like-minded entrepreneurship educators.

But at this very moment, engagement starts with paper boats.

The freshly folded boats are held prominently in the air, one for each of the 64 participants. As Neck narrates, the room acts out the scene. The boats calmly sail on the Indian Ocean, seagulls squawking in the distance. But big gusts of wind and waves cause damage to the front, the rear, and the mast—that damage represented by tears in the paper. Eventually, the boats sink to the bottom of the ocean.

What are we left with? Neck opens her own boat to reveal the tears and damage it maintained throughout the exercise has transformed it into something different. Neck calls it “the captain’s shirt.”

We know what you’re thinking. What does this have to do with entrepreneurship?

The answer, Neck tells participants, is everything.

Developing Entrepreneurial Educators

It’s about participation. Creativity. Determination. Team effort. And feeling a little silly and having fun as you wave a boat and squawk like a seagull.

And yes, it’s about entrepreneurship. As one participant puts it, “You thought you were making one thing, and ended up making something completely different.”

The exercise is the first of many that these Price-Babson SEE participants will work on through the program. As part of the Babson Academy for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurial Learning, Price-Babson gathers educators from all over the world—this cohort hails from 15 countries spanning Ghana, South Korea, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, and beyond—to gain the skills needed to pass on an entrepreneurial mindset to their students, and to shape the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders.

“Our mission is to elevate the art and craft of entrepreneurship education,” Neck tells participants. “Because how one teaches is just as important as what one teaches.”

This cohort, the 43rd in the program’s history, joins a network of 3,500+ from 750 institutions who have leveraged Babson’s Entrepreneurial Thought & Action methodology to expand entrepreneurship at their school or university. They’ll spend action-packed days learning from Neck and Babson’s distinguished entrepreneurship faculty about everything from design thinking to journey mapping to creating an experience—they’ll even have a chance to pitch ideas, too.

In the end they’ll have developed a new network and an understanding of how to be entrepreneurial themselves. And that’s important, Neck tells them. “If we cannot be entrepreneurial educators, then how can we expect to develop the entrepreneurial spirit of our students?”

 

Posted in Community

More from Community »

Latest Stories

Children play outside
What Outdoor Play Taught Me About Entrepreneurship and Human Connection Brian Fitzgerald ’95 co-founded Tinkergarten, building an outdoor, early childhood education business to help solve the dilemma of children’s screen time. Here, he reflects on the lessons he learned about solving problems and the importance of going outside.
By
June 5, 2025

Posted in Entrepreneurial Leadership, Insights

A woman sits at a desk and thinks
How Entrepreneurs Can Navigate This Unpredictable Moment in Business Tariffs, a volatile stock market, and a sense that anything can change in an instant—these are uncertain times to be an entrepreneur. Babson’s Ben Spigel offers strategies for navigating this chaotic moment.
By
John Crawford
Senior Journalist
John Crawford
A writer for Babson Thought & Action and the Babson Magazine, John Crawford has been telling the College’s entrepreneurial story for more than 15 years. Assignments for Babson have taken him from Rwanda to El Salvador, from the sweet-smelling factory of a Pennsylvania candy maker, to the stately Atlanta headquarters of an NFL owner, to the bustling office of a New York City fashion designer. Beyond his work for Babson, he has written articles and essays for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Notre Dame Magazine, The Good Men Project, and other publications. He can be found on Twitter, @crawfordwriter, where he tweets about climate change.
June 4, 2025

Posted in Entrepreneurial Leadership, Insights

Warren Buffett
Buffett Retires: Babson Professors Highlight Lessons from a Historic Transition Warren Buffett’s retirement is more than a milestone, Babson thought leaders say. It’s also a masterclass in thoughtful succession and cultural continuity.
By
Hillary Chabot
Writer
Hillary Chabot
Hillary Chabot is a writer for Babson Thought & Action and Babson Magazine. An award-winning journalist, she is known for her insightful reporting and dedication to detailed storytelling. With a career spanning over two decades, she has covered a wide range of topics, from presidential campaigns and government policy to neighborhood issues and investigative series. As a reporter for The Boston Herald, Hillary earned a reputation for tenacity and integrity. Her work at Babson College fuels her passions—to learn something new every day and conduct thoughtful, empathic interviews. She’s thrilled to be at Babson College, where students, faculty, staff members and classes provide compelling copy daily.
May 30, 2025

Posted in Community, Insights