Exploring Social Entrepreneurship While Climbing Mountains in Norway

American University News


AU Students in front of NHH. Credit: Siri Terjesen
For two weeks this summer, the undergraduate course MGMT-396: Non-profit and Social Entrepreneurship was taught like a graduate-level seminar.
From June 19-30, Dr. Siri Terjesen, Associate Professor of Management and Interim Director of the AU Center for Innovation, brought eight AU undergraduate students to the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) in Bergen, Norway, for a two-week intensive session.
Of the 25 students who participated (who were from ten countries and universities all over the world), AU’s cohort represented the only undergraduates—the rest were postgraduate students pursuing master’s degrees.
“It was a neat stretch for our AU students,” Terjesen says. “They really rose to the challenge.”
Many AU students were also pursuing majors other than business. “It was a very steep learning curve,” says Victoria Holton, a rising junior studying international relations. “But I enjoyed it.”
Learn. Climb Mountains. Repeat.
Certainly, the opportunity to visit Norway was a good motivator for the students to participate in the program.
David Peters, CLEG ’19, was excited to visit the country for the first time, particularly since it’s where much of his family is from, “Most days I would go for a hike up one of the seven mountains surrounding Bergen,” he said. “Since it stays light out well past 10 o’clock, there was plenty of time to do longer hikes without fear of it getting dark.”
The students also regularly played pick-up soccer games with the other participants, played cards in the dormitories, and explored other parts of Bergen and the surrounding areas.
But that was only after class ended each day. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with an hour break for lunch, the students were busy with their studies. Terjesen and her co-professor Bram Timmermans, Associate Professor at NHH, lectured on topics like the ethics of social entrepreneurship and how ...

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