Undergraduate Courses

This course delves into social entrepreneurship, a burgeoning field leveraging business models to tackle societal and environmental challenges. It exposes students to the diverse global landscape of social enterprise, where hybrid organizations blend nonprofit goals with business strategies. Through lectures, readings, discussions, guest speakers, and group projects, students explore the foundations of social entrepreneurship and devise business plans to address various sectors like healthcare, finance, education, technology, international development, and workforce development.

Professor: Kirsten Saenz Tobey
Course #: UGBA 192E (2 units)

This class will anchor students in the structures and practice of American Philanthropy, and compare and contrast the variety of gift-giving and sharing traditions that make up American philanthropy. Both the cultural antecedents and their expression in this country will be explored from five ethnic and racial groups: Native American, European American, African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American, additionally, the role of religion and gender will also be explored. The goal is to gain a greater understanding of the many dimensions of philanthropy as it is practiced in the United States today. Our goal is to have students understand that at its core, philanthropy is about being able to bring the rich understanding and experience of values to the practice of giving. The course is designed for students to be exposed to different traditions of giving and the ways in which cultural experiences and perspectives drive values and action.

Professors: Colin Lacon and Alicia Perez
Course #: UGBA39AC-1 (3 units)

This course is rooted in the belief that all Berkeley students are leaders. The course will develop students’ leadership skills, attitudes, and knowledge, while encouraging and cultivating the creativity with which one exercises these skills and behaviors. Topics include self learning and creative self-expression, leading and working collaboratively with others, using cognitive and emotional empathy to better understand teammates and stakeholders, reframing challenges and opportunities, generating and testing creative solutions to a range of problems, and developing leadership presence as a way of operating in the world.

Professors: Doug Leeds & Bill Collins
Course #: UGBA 96-1 (2 units)

Based on an award-winning curriculum developed by UC Berkeley undergraduates (Bears Breaking Boundaries Innovation Award 2009), the course teaches participants how to be effective philanthropists. The class contributes $10,000 to nonprofit(s) selected by the class. To prepare for the contribution, students engage in interactive exercises and discussions to determine how to best expend the funds for maximum impact, guided by the instructors and renowned guests offering a variety of perspectives and frameworks. Students form teams to research and identify, perform due diligence, and recommend nonprofit organizations. The $10,000 contribution is a generous gift of the Learning by Giving Foundation. A second component of the course is the class’s creation of a symposium on effective philanthropy for the broader UC Berkeley undergraduate community.

Professors: Colin Lacon and Alicia Perez
Course #: UGBA 192N (3 units)

This course will provide students with a basic understanding of what consultants do and how consulting skills can be applied to problems of social impact. Using real-world cases and team-based exercises in a social sector context, the course offers an opportunity to learn and practice core consulting skills such as planning an assignment, defining and analyzing a problem, coming up with practical recommendations, and convincing clients to take action. This course will help you to:

1. Gain a broad understanding of the management consulting industry, the various consulting models, and how consultants can generate value for their clients in the social sector
2. Learn and practice structured approaches to problem-solving used by leading management consultancies like Dalberg, Bridgespan, McKinsey, A.T. Kearney, and Deloitte Monitor
3. Understand other skills required in management consulting for social impacts – such as communicating persuasively and managing projects and client relationships – as well as some of the ethical issues that consultants often face working in the social sector.

Professor: Colin Boyle
Course #: UGBA 192MC-1 (2 units)