Justin Hur is a Notre Dame junior at the Keough School majoring in global affairs and pursuing a minor in social entrepreneurship and innovation (SEI).
Through coursework toward the SEI minor, Justin has explored many opportunities the program affords, such as traveling to Capetown, South Africa, for the six-week Entrepreneurship and Empowerment in South Africa (EESA) program as a consultant to disadvantaged entrepreneurs in nearby townships. He also volunteers at the South Bend Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program’s (SBEAP) Collaboration Hub where he collaborates with local South Bend entrepreneurs from adverse circumstances to start or grow a business.
Justin shares what he’s learned through his experiences and how they have prepared him to be a force for good in the world.
In what ways has the SEI minor prepared you to tackle real-world problems?
What’s unique about the SEI minor is that it avoids traditional brick-and-mortar classroom learning over a semester. The minor prioritizes experiential learning and places students in the real world rather than keeping them in the school. An example of that is Dr. Morris's Consulting and Development class. The class takes you and introduces you to the real world of business problems through real small businesses. So, from the context of South Bend, it helps students deal with those small business issues. You have ownership of your work and how that impacts real-life business problems.
In the context of the Entrepreneurship and Empowerment in South Africa (EESA), I think many people would say you grow through teamwork. You learn how to work with others, and you learn business concepts you wouldn't typically because you’re exposed to them in an international environment. But, most importantly, what EESA taught me is see how other people live. I think, especially when you go to Notre Dame, you live in a bubble. You don't really understand how other people's lives operate.
What has been your favorite class that you've taken within the minor, and why?
My favorite class in the minor so far was Consulting and Development, taught by Dr. Michael Morris. Essentially, it is a traditional brick-and-mortar classroom experience on Tuesdays, but on Thursdays, from 6 to 9 p.m., you meet with businesses you're assigned to work with over the semester. It functions like a typical consulting engagement except these are actual small businesses in South Bend that you, as a student, help. Your grade in the class doesn't rely on a traditional midterm or final exam or a paper, but instead on the ability to help the business owners with the problems they're experiencing, whether that be operations, marketing, or bookkeeping. You name it. The measure of your success is if you are able to help people and make a difference, not what you score on a test.
Why should people pursue an SEI minor?
There are two reasons, I think.
First, it teaches you how to use business acumen to be a force for good in the world—and, more importantly, in your community, right? A lot of the time, when you're taking core business classes, you're constantly thinking about how to apply them within the corporate world, whether consulting, or investment banking, or whatever the realm may be. But more often than not, it's also incredibly useful in the local context—applying this classroom knowledge and helping other people transform their lives through the power of business operations.
The second is that the SEI minor teaches you how to build frameworks that can be applied to others’ situations so they can lift themselves out of impoverished conditions. Especially with Dr. Morris and his coursework, you're taught, ‘How do you use business to help others climb out of poverty?’ And this is poverty that may have affected multiple generations of their family tree. So you, as a student in this minor, are tasked with helping specific individuals—and their families!—climb out of these situations through the power of business.
It's powerful when you're implementing it yourself.