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Undergraduate | Four-Course Social Impact Curriculum

Social Impact Curriculum

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching named two of our Social Impact courses as models for the undergraduate business education. The Social Impact Curriculum is a four-course sequence beginning in your first year with our Business and Society course, which combines lectures with small group discussion sections to introduce you to the interconnections between business, society, markets, politics, art, culture, and life. Distinguished Business and Society speakers have included: 
  • Dan Doctoroff, CEO and President, Bloomberg, LP. 
  • Steve Forbes, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Media 
  • Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO, Women's World Banking 
  • Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Acumen 
  • Maria Bartiromo, Television Journalist, Columnist, Author, and Host and Managing Editor of On the Money with Maria Bartiromo 
  • Edward Bernard, Director, Vice Chairman of the Board, and Vice President, T. Rowe Price Group 
  • Cory Booker, Senator and former Mayor, Newark, NJ 
  • Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense Fund 
Sophomores complete Organizational Communications and Its Social Context, studying social processes of influence and persuasion, and how to most effectively communicate your own verbal and written messages to different audiences. Juniors take Law, Business, and Society, which examines the role of law and commerce in shaping and governing business. Seniors finish the social impact sequence with a course focusing on professional responsibility. 

In addition, students may complete a series of courses to fulfill a secondary concentration in Sustainable Business. Students pursuing the co-concentration will gain a greater understanding of:
  1. the environmental and social challenges that are shaping business strategy
  2. the current state of sustainable business practice
  3. how to lead organizations that create economic, social and environmental value

Courses include:
  • Social Entreprenuership (BSPA-UB 41)
  • Economic Inequality: Perspectives & Practices (BSPA-UB 43)
  • Social Entrepreneurship in Ghana (BSPA-UB 2000)
  • Sustainability Consulting in Costa Rica (BSPA-UB 45)

The Call 2024 digital cover page

The Call for Corporate Action

Capstone Essays from Business and Society

The Call for Corporate Action is an annual magazine of essays written by first-year Stern undergraduate students in their first social impact course. Each essay addresses issues facing society where businesses are in a unique position to make change.

READ THE ESSAYS!
RiNyah inside Tisch
Student Voices

RiNyah Conley (BS '25)

"Through NYU Stern' s social impact curriculum I was able to discover what I am geninuely passionate about. I came into Stern not knowing what social impact even meant. Through classes like Business & Society and Organizational Communication & its Social Context, I was able to see that businesses can create change that makes the world a better place."