Fulbright Scholar Teaches Social Entrepreneurship

By Brandon Wallace '17

Bradley alumna Mary Conway Dato-on discussed the advantages of social entrepreneurship with students at her alma mater in late March. The seminar showed how disparate interests, such as hers in international studies, business and women’s empowerment, could lead to viable careers.

Dato-on, now an international business and social entrepreneurship professor at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, suggested social entrepreneurs differ from traditional entrepreneurs in the starting point for innovation.

“Rather than searching for a market for business, the social entrepreneur starts with a social mission or problem,” Conway Dato-on said. “What do I want to change? How do I want to help the world? From that, we then try to measure what we need to do to get into business.”

She noted that good social entrepreneurs are analytical, creative, visionary, risk-taking, results-oriented, persistent and collaborative. These characteristics lead such people to be change agents.

“Social entrepreneurs are not content with giving you fish, nor are they content with teaching you how to fish,” Conway Dato-on said. “They want to change the entire fishing industry.”

She encouraged students to creatively address social concerns for their careers.

“I challenge you, as you think about your education, to move from a discipline focus to finding a problem you’re passionate about and solving it,” she said.