Distinction-Social Entrepreneurship

Program Contacts

Overview & Curriculum

The MS3 Social Entrepreneurship (SE) Distinction is a deep dive into social innovation, entrepreneurship, and capacity-building. Students completing the Distinction will learn how to leverage their knowledge of the healthcare system and medical expertise to make an impact in the healthscape (i.e., settings beyond the clinic). In this Distinction, students will learn how to move an idea for social impact from concept to reality, diversifying their skillset to include new skills in areas like program design, management, fundraising, impact evaluation and more.

Goal

The goal of this Distinction is to forge emerging physicians into community and social impact leaders. The Distinction gives students the opportunity to complement their medical training and diversify their skillset with new knowledge and hands-on experience in social innovation and other professional development opportunities. Projects in the Distinction might include (but are not limited to) building and launching a nonprofit, for-profit with a social mission, hybrid model, or other social impact project aimed at improving health beyond the clinic for vulnerable populations. Students have the opportunity to make a tangible, measurable impact on tough community issues while learning and practicing the skills of community leaders and social entrepreneurs.

Recognizing the complexity of tackling the social drivers of health and in an attempt to offer maximum flexibility to students—particularly those interested in social impact but not entrepreneurship—the SE Distinction offers two options:

1. Social Entrepreneurship or Innovation: Students build, launch and grow a new non-profit, for-profit or hybrid program with a social mission alongside mentors from The Impact Factory, the Healthscape Pillar at DMS, and/or other relevant entities across UT. Previous projects, among others, include Good Apple Foods and Early Bird.
   
   

2. Capacity-Building: The SE Distinction places students within or alongside a local community health clinic, social services agency or other relevant public service organization to help implement high-level special projects that improve health beyond the clinic. The SE Distinction, in partnership with the community agencies, develops project options aligned with priorities of the Healthscape Pillar.
   
   Potential areas of focus include health equity, health communication, and environmental health, among others. Potential partners include, but are not limited to, Factor Health and the Department of Population Health at DMS. The Distinction works to match students with a project aligned with their interests, as well as faculty with relevant expertise to mentor students.
   
   Consider one example capacity-building project: an MS3 helps implement a social care referral platform, including providing high-level support to local FQHCs implementing the “Model Community”—a community-level social care referral platform project led by DMS.

Objectives

Each student participating in the SE Distinction will lead at least one startup or innovation project as they learn the following over the course of the program:

• Principles of human-centered design and hypothesis-driven startups

• How to build and lead effective teams

• Organizational planning and development

• How to effectively pitch ideas to potential funders, partners, customers and clients

• How to write persuasively to diverse audiences, including lay public, policymakers, academia and funders

• Fundraising, including best practices in pursuing angel donors, foundation grants and grassroots campaigns

• Principles of program evaluation and impact measurement

• The impact of domestic poverty and other disparities on health and economic opportunity, as well as relevant local, state and national policies and programs

• How to leverage medical expertise and knowledge of the health system to build effective cross-sector partnerships

• Some students may gain experience validating markets, understanding competitors and unit economics, managing revenues and expenses, and navigating legal entity formation

Benefits & Anticipated Outcomes

The nine-month program is intended to benefit students through hands-on experience developing social impact organizations or implementing social innovations within or alongside community organizations. Students will participate full-time as members of The Impact Factory’s team, mentored by faculty and staff.  Students will be mentored at cadence they determine with their mentor (Impact Factory recommends at least bi-weekly). Their mentor will either be Distinction Leadership or a UT faculty mentor with project content expertise. Students whose primary mentor is not Distinction Leadership will also be mentored monthly by Distinction Leadership.  Mentors will work alongside students to select a startup project or project within a local partner agency and advise on various deliverables.

This Distinction aims to benefit not only participating students and Dell Med’s impact and visibility, but also the health of Central Texans. Participating partner agencies will benefit from new expertise, capacity and connection to Dell Med faculty, staff and students. Most importantly, vulnerable populations may gain new, improved and/or more services.

The Distinction aims to boost resume and portfolio credibility for future physician leaders in nonprofit, for-profit, social enterprise and other community impact organizations.

Tuition and Fees

There are no additional tuition or fees associated with this distinction. 

Apply to the Distinction

Application Instructions

How many students are you willing to accept?

A maximum of six students.

How will students apply? What is the application review/vetting process like?

Students will submit an application, included below, and complete an interview with the Distinction’s Director.

Distinction applications open mid-September and close the first week of March. All applications for the SE Distinction will be approved on or before April 30th by the Distinction’s advisory committee. All students will begin their nine-month Distinction on the first day of UT Austin’s fall semester.

Distinction in Social Entrepreneurship

THIS APPLICATION is due by the end of the first week in March.

Before submitting an application, please set up a time to discuss your application by emailing laura.rosen@austin.utexas.edu. Please email your completed application components listed below to laura.rosen@austin.utexas.edu.

(1)  Written Responses:

Please limit responses to one page, single-space, 12-point font.

• What do you hope to learn from the Social Entrepreneurship Distinction?  What do believe you will contribute, and to whom?

• Please describe your planned Distinction project/s, including:

  • purpose, aims, and activities;

  • expected outcomes; and,

  • a timeline, in table form, detailing the steps you will take between now and the start of the Distinction year in mid-August to set your project up for success. We would like for you to start the Distinction year with a vetted project idea and partners so you can hit the ground running.

(2)  Resume

Your resume should be two pages or less.

(3)  Optional Written Response:

We are committed to making this 9-month experience as meaningful and effective as possible. If you’d like to make a recommendation on how we can improve the application process, please email us at laura.rosen@austin.utexas.edu.

Milestones & Workload

Grading Rubric

Progress Reports:

A progress report is required for each student every three months. Students submit these reports on the Innovation, Leadership and Discovery Canvas site. Who will be meeting with the students and signing off on their progress every three months?

• Students will present to the Distinction’s advisory committee every three months. The Distinction’s Director will assess the ILD grading rubric objectives and sign off on their progress.

Final Deliverable:

• Final deliverables are due by their due date at the end of the Spring semester. Each student participating in the SE Distinction will lead at least one startup or innovation project and participate in all dimensions of developing and implementing the project. All students will be required to give a presentation about their innovation, experiences, insights and results. They will also be required to submit a final report about their experience and learnings at the end of the year.