Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation

Pave Your Own Path

At Laurier, you have the gift of time, innovative faculty, mentors and dedicated spaces needed to nurture your passion and turn your dreams into reality.

No matter what program you study, you’ll be inspired to exchange ideas, spot new trends and be part of global shifts. Bring your passion and we’ll help you fulfil your purpose.

Three simple steps can help you realize your entrepreneurial dreams: learn, try, do.

Learn

Entrepreneurship Concentration

The Entrepreneurship Concentration for Business Administration students helps you to think like an entrepreneur. Learn how to develop and launch a concrete idea for a new venture. And gain the skills and mindset needed to work at a startup or on a corporate innovation team.

Social Entrepreneurship Option

Apply entrepreneurial skills and social innovation thinking to solve some of your community’s – and the world’s – most pressing problems through the Social Entrepreneurship Option, available to any honours undergraduate student.

CityStudio or Capstone in Urban Sustainability Project (CUSP)

Design and test real-world solutions for Waterloo Region or the City of Brantford as part of special CityStudio and CUSP courses.

Try

Makerspaces

Use the Science Maker Lab and Library Makerspace to design, create and test your prototypes.

Purpose Lab

Collaborate with students from all faculties to develop social ventures in the Purpose Lab, the centre for student-driven social innovation at the Waterloo campus.

Community Innovation Hub

Work in a collaborative space that brings together Laurier's social innovation and community-based initiatives with community partners in Brantford.

Do

Enactus Laurier

Join a student club of peers, academic and business leaders who are using entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world. Laurier’s Waterloo Enactus team has represented Canada in the Enactus World Cup and been named runner-up two years in a row.

StartUp Lab

StartUp Lab, Laurier's incubator in the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics, provides support, mentorship and resources to startups and social ventures founded by Laurier students, and alumni at the Waterloo and Brantford campuses.

LaunchPad Brantford

LaunchPad Brantford is an on-campus incubator dedicated to supporting the growth of entrepreneurs and to teach life-long skills to those connected to Laurier Brantford. LaunchPad Brantford aims to transform the Brantford start-up ecosystem and build a place where people can come together with their ideas to make them happen.

A Community of Changemakers

For years, Laurier has been a leader in entrepreneurship and social innovation education. As an Ashoka Changemaker Campus, Laurier is part of a global network of universities that support one another in making the world a better place.

Laurier is a founding academic partner of Communitech, the Region of Waterloo’s industry innovation centre. It is also a leading institution within the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation RECODE project and collaborates with other institutions around the world in the Ashoka network.