Changes

<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:medium;">Converse College is an all-women’s liberal arts college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Converse College continues to adhere to its founder's ideals, seeking to inspire "voice, value, and vision" in its students.&nbsp;It has received press in past years for lowering its tuition by 43 percent. In 2014, it ranked 23^rd&nbsp;among Regional University South’s college rankings. </span></span></span> <span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:medium;">At the end of the 2014/2015 academic year, Converse initiated many progressive changes to its curriculum and culture under the umbrella "LEAD" Action Plan. The LEAD Plan (Learning, Enrollment, Access, and Activation)&nbsp;at Converse College includes the addition of programs, certificates, and centers in a variety of disciplines, an experiential learning graduation requirement for all majors, and the&nbsp;"Creativity that Works" plan in the School of the Arts. Converse College also has a strong presence in the Spartanburg community for service and service learning; this . This January, Converse had the highest participation rate in Spartanburg, SC, for students actively involved in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.</span></span></span>

<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,geneva,sans-serif;">A significant portion of the student body is actively involved in the SGA.&nbsp;Converse College Radio, a new venture this year, has been notably entrepreneurial from its inception. At present,&nbsp;there is no SGA organization that caters to the specifically entrepreneurial needs of the students.&nbsp;</span></span></span>

<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,geneva,sans-serif;">The college and its faculty and staff encourage student innovation and entrepreneurship through the Creative Collaborative Grant program for faculty and student collaborations and SCICU grant applications. Aspects of the new LEAD Action Plan are already being implemented. The School of the Arts is in its first year of conducting courses that specifically link innovation and creative entrepreneurship with arts disciplines for freshmen and sophomores. Eventually, the entire campus academic system will follow this lead.</span>&nbsp;</span></span>

<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,geneva,sans-serif;">Faculty members are encouraged to engage in innovative teaching methods, including addressing typical subject matters in out of the box ways. This includes everything from teaching economics through Harry Potter, team-teaching interdisciplinary study travel courses around the world, hosting guest speakers and entrepreneurs for class sessions, and conducting field trips to spaces like The Iron Yard. Some have founded their own social enterprises and businesses. Beyond these, however, Converse faculty members are not prominently involved in entrepreneurship culture.&nbsp;</span></span></span>

<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,geneva,sans-serif;">The Center for Professional Development at Converse strives to provide students with the very best resources, from&nbsp;Career Peer mentoring, various free workshops, and for-credit courses aimed at students who want to discover their potential and make things happen.&nbsp;</span></span></span>

<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,geneva,sans-serif;">Still, there is no formalized, established, system through with which teachers and faculty members are spurred to push pursue entrepreneurship and innovation in and outside the classroom. Innovation is pursued on a personal basis, and is a direct response to students clamoring for better options.</span></span></span>

<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,geneva,sans-serif;">Converse currently has no formalized function to support student ventures on campus. Students looking for venture support should look to outside sources of information, like the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Foundation, communicating their need and vision to various donors, partnering with local businesses like The Iron Yard , or with&nbsp;like-minded students on campus to either start an initiative for a formalized function project or receive specialized instruction for their individual venturesbusiness idea. Support is available through many sources, but the majority of students do not seek it.&nbsp;</span></span></span>

<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,geneva,sans-serif;">Converse currently has no formalized partnerships with companies or groups in the space of I&E, however. However, individual students have gone on to work with local incubators, labs, art studios, and so on. However, the The fruits of these individual partnerships have not resulted in permanent relationships with the insitution. Converse would fare well to more succinctly create and maintain these partnerships, so that interested students will have pipelines to follow once they are interested.&nbsp;</span></span></span>

<span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,geneva,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:medium;">As an Algernon Sydney Sullivan school, Converse has a longstanding tradition of service to others. In recent years, this focus has continued to develop to an academic and experiential focus on to social entrepreneurship. &nbsp;A select number of collegiate courses are dedicated to Social Entrepreneurship’s applications in the surrounding community, and worldwide. Particularly interested individuals can choose to attend the Sullivan Social Enterprise retreat in the fall or spring sessions. Converse has also sent a team to the foundation’s social venture competition. Converse continues to increase its Social entrepreneurship offerings, from courses and seminars to exploratory learning trips.</span></span></span>