A college helps the poor help themselves through social entrepreneurship.Guy Larry Osborne, Larry Osborne, Carson-Newman College, social entrepreneurship and nonprofit studies, social enterprise, social entrepreneurship, social business, social entrepreneur, social entrepreneurs, BOOST, Bonner Center,, Bonner Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement, Tennessee, business, Tennessee's Business, Appalachian IDEAS Network

Guy Larry Osborne

English

Research Papers in Economics

Guy Larry Osborne, 2010-
2011 Distinguished Faculty 
Member at Carson-Newman 
College, is a professor in the 
Department of Psychology 
and coordinator of its program 
of Social Entrepreneurship & 
Nonprofit Studies.
Just as entrepreneurs change the face of busi-
ness, social entrepreneurs act as the change 
agents for society [by] improving systems, in-
venting new approaches, and creating solutions 
to change society for the better. While a business 
entrepreneur might create entirely new indus-
tries, a social entrepreneur comes up with new 
solutions to social problems. 
—Ashoka, Innovators for the Public 
D
espite generally improving social and 
health conditions in many parts of the 
world, global poverty remains a serious 
challenge in many areas. The World Bank re-
ports that 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 
a day, and 80% of humanity resides in countries 
in which the gap between the “haves” and the 
“have  nots”  is  actually  widening.  More  than 
20,000 children die each day of poverty-related 
causes.1
While charity has its place in meeting such hu-
man needs, as the Chinese proverb says, “give a 
man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a 
man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” But 
as James Shields, who directs the Bonner Center 
for Community Learning at Guilford College, 
has pointed out, it does little good to teach the 
poor to fish if they can’t afford the equipment or 
if they don’t have access to the river.
This is where social entrepreneurship (SE) 
comes in. According to the Ashoka Foundation, 
one of the major voices for SE today, “social en-
trepreneurs find what is not working and solve 
the problem by changing the system, spreading 
the solution, and persuading entire societies to 
take new leaps.”2 SE is a way of unleashing hu-
man creativity, wisdom, spirit, and work ethos 
for the common good, a way of helping that 
goes beyond charity to justice. 
In  his  2006  address  to  the  National  Prayer 
Breakfast, Bono put it this way: 
Preventing the poorest of the poor from sell-
ing their products while we sing the virtues 
of the free market, that’s not charity: That’s 
a justice issue. Holding children to ransom 
for the debts of their grandparents, that’s not 
charity: That’s a justice issue. Withholding 
life-saving medicines out of deference to the 
Office of Patents, well that’s not charity. To 
me, that’s a justice issue.3
Social entrepreneurs may work in the business, 
nonprofit, or governmental sectors. They may 
start their own enterprises or reform the work-
ings of existing systems or organizations. What 
they have in common, however, is a profound 
commitment to and understanding of social 
change. 
Thus, social entrepreneurs help the poor not only 
by teaching them to help themselves but also by 
changing the conditions and systems that main-
tain the discrepancies in wealth and opportunity 
that stand in the way of the poor achieving a bet-
ter life. Ingredients of SE may include improved 
access to education, health care, agriculture and 
communication technologies, organizational de-
velopment and leadership expertise, and venture 
capital.  It  is  an  emerging  field  that  combines 
knowledge and skills from many disciplines 
that go beyond theory to practical application. 
It takes advantage of the expertise of the pro-
fessional expert and the organic wisdom of the 
community actually affected by the problem to 
design partnerships for social change and inde-
pendence that are both effective and sustainable. 
In east Tennessee where I live and work, you 
don’t have to travel far to find opportunities for 
SE. In a recent review of regional facts and stats, 
I found that Appalachia has a higher percentage 
of economically distressed counties, poor health 
rankings, poverty levels, and educational failure 
rates than other parts of the state and nation.4 
Carson-Newman College is applying principles 
of SE through its Bonner Center for Service 
Learning & Civic Engagement and a new under-
graduate curriculum in Social Entrepreneurship 
& Nonprofit Studies to find effective ways of 
serving the region as well as educating students 
for a life of servant leadership.
An example of SE at Carson-Newman is our 
BOOST program (Bonner Out of School Time). 
A college helps the poor help themselves through social entrepreneurship.  
YOU CAN’T FISH WITHOUT A RIVER
by Guy Larry Osborne
Tennessee’s Business Vol. 20, No. 1     May 2011
15
continued on page 16We describe BOOST as providing “homework 
help and academic enrichment programs, oper-
ated through a partnership with Carson-New-
man College’s Bonner Center for Service Learn-
ing and Civic Engagement and the Jefferson 
City Housing Authority (JCHA). The mission of 
the BOOST Programs is to combat educational 
injustice by providing engaging, scholastic pro-
gramming for the students of Jefferson County 
in order to increase academic performance, en-
hance character development, and promote col-
lege access. BOOST programs are offered free 
of charge and are for students in age from kin-
dergarten through sixth grade.” 
What makes BOOST a good example of SE is 
that it was developed by Carson-Newman stu-
dents, faculty mentors, and an AmeriCorps staff 
volunteer assigned to the college in collaboration 
with the leader of the previous after-school pro-
gram, who also happened to be a resident in one 
of the housing complexes and the caretaker of 
one of the children in the program. Rather than 
simply providing student volunteers or interns 
for an existing community program, the college 
made its students and staff available as social en-
trepreneurs who helped design the new program 
including finding sources of funding needed to 
make it work. By increasing the chances for aca-
demic success and building the aspirations of the 
children, the conditions contributing to the per-
sistent pattern of educational underachievement 
and failure among children of families in the 
housing complexes are being challenged. 
Carson-Newman introduced SE into the aca-
demic curriculum in 2008. Undergraduate stu-
dents may now earn a major or minor in SE and 
typically combine it with another major or minor 
in an area of study such as business, sociology, 
religion, or psychology. Two new courses had 
to be developed (Social Entrepreneurship Semi-
nar and Social Entrepreneurship Practicum), but 
most of the SE curriculum is being drawn from 
existing course offerings in business, econom-
ics, sociology, psychology, and political science. 
All SE students also take a course in ethics to 
reinforce the servant leadership mission of the 
college, which we see as an essential aspect of 
this newly emerging field. 
Indications are that SE as an area of undergradu-
ate study and career preparation is an idea whose 
time is rapidly coming. The Ashoka Foundation 
sponsored  its  first  national  conference  in  SE 
education at the Duke University Fuqua School 
of Business in February 2011. More than 300 
educators, practitioners, students, and funders 
gathered to share ideas and experiences and plan 
for the future. Ashoka is now in the process of 
building a consortium of partner campuses com-
mitted to excellence in social entrepreneurship 
education.5 Regionally, Berea College is leading 
the way, having established its Entrepreneurship 
for the Public Good program in 2007 and hosting 
the sixth annual Appalachian IDEAS Network 
social venture competition for undergraduates in 
2011.6 At Carson-Newman, we hope to do our 
part by preparing students for a rewarding life 
of work and service that helps people help them-
selves in a way that spreads access to rivers of 
self-sufficiency, community empowerment, and 
long-term social change. 
“We all want to change the world,” sang the 
Beatles. SE is the new tune that just might make 
it happen. 
*Guy Larry Osborne, 2010-2011 Distinguished 
Faculty Member at Carson-Newman College, 
is a professor in the Department of Psychology 
and coordinates its program of Social Entrepre-
neurship & Nonprofit Studies.
Notes
1. Shah, A. (2010). Poverty Facts and Stats, 
Global Issues, http://www.globalissues.org/ar-
ticle/26/poverty-facts-and-stats.  
2. “What Is a Social Entrepreneur?” Ashoka: In-
novators for the Public, http://www.ashoka.org/
social_entrepreneur. 
3. Bono (2006). “Keynote address at the 54th 
National Prayer Breakfast,” American Rheto-
ric, http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/
bononationalprayerbreakfast.htm  
4.  Osborne,  G.L.  (August  2010).  “You  Can’t 
Fish without a River: Helping Others Help 
Themselves through Social Entrepreneurship,” 
Tennessee Valley Institute for Nonprofit Excel-
lence, University of Tennessee–Chattanooga, 
Chattanooga, TN. 
5.  For more information including educational 
resources and networking opportunities, see 
http://ashokau.org/. 
6. For more information on the Appalachian 
IDEAS Network, see http://www.berea.edu/epg/
ideas/default.asp.
continued from page 15
May 2011    Tennessee’s Business Vol. 20, No. 1
16
Social entrepreneurs 
help the poor not only 
by teaching them to 
help themselves but 
also by changing 
the conditions and 
systems that maintain 
the discrepancies 
in wealth and 
opportunity that stand 
in the way of the poor 
achieving a better life.  
 
 

You Can't Fish without a River

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You Can't Fish without a River

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