The College of Business Administration is again offering its social entrepreneurship class at CitySquare in Dallas.

Similar to classes like leadership summit, a short course in Colorado, the attending students get a break from the Abilene area in order to gain hands-on experience.

Students take advantage of summer classes like this one to increase their credit hours or to receive fieldwork experience they need for their future career.

In MGMT 320, students are taught how to prepare themselves to start businesses that are endowed with a core social mission. Businesses like these utilize the elements of for-profit, non-profit or hybrid structures.

The Assistant Director of the Griggs Center, Whitney Herrington, said that the course has been offered over the past few years, and that students thoroughly enjoy the content provided.

“The management course, social entrepreneurship, will be taking place in May of this year,” Herrington said. “This course has been offered over the last few years, and each year the students have visited City Square in Dallas.”

The class consists of more than just business students. It actually tends to attract many students looking to work in busy social dynamics like Downtown Dallas.

The class is led by Dr. Laura Phillips, a professor in COBA. She has taught the class for the past few years that it has been offered.

The class takes place over the course of five days in May, where students will have a wide range of different topics to learn while working with City Square.

Herrington said that the class will cover topics such as networking, expansion and will even dabble in social media statistics.

“The topics that the class will cover include personal and organizational mission, balancing mission and profit, choosing the optimal structure, networking, social media, measuring success and expansion,” Herrington said.

Any students trying to enter the course must be a sophomore or older and must have a grade point average of 2.5 or higher.