Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation

How Will You Make a Difference?

Our students lead lives of influence and impact. It’s the heart of everything we do.

At Laurier, every student has the potential to be a leader and a changemaker. Your university education is about building knowledge and experience that serves society, so you can make a lasting difference in your communities and the world around us.

You’ll find your purpose at Laurier and the support to pursue it. We're inspiring the world's future leaders, researchers, business owners, artists and changemakers.

Start Making a Difference

Learn

Changemaking starts with curiosity and the drive to make a difference. Everyone has the potential to be a changemaker – you just need the right tools and the passion to create positive impact.

We offer a wide range of opportunities to help students build their changemaking toolkit, from hands-on experiences and leadership development to community engagement and innovation programs.

Develop and launch a concrete idea for a new venture in the Entrepreneurship Concentration for Business Administration.

Solve your community's most pressing problems in the Social Entrepreneurship Option.

Design and test real-world solutions in CityStudio and CUSP courses.

Try

To be a changemaker, you need to put the tools you learn about to use. We encourage our students to dive in, get creative and explore what changemaking looks like in real life.

There are countless ways for students to demonstrate their skills and connect with other innovators and entrepreneurial thinkers who are passionate about building a better world.

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

Do

Our students can bring their changemaking ideas to life by joining one of our labs or incubators. These programs offer hands-on support from industry experts, faculty,and fellow students who are passionate about purpose-driven change.

Find support navigating your venture as an entrepreneur with the StartUp Lab. 

The Changemaker Hub supports you by helping you gain skills to create lasting change, collaborate with like-minded people and take action.

Join Enactus, a student club of peers, academics and academic business leaders who are using entrepreneurial action to transform lives and shape a better, more sustainable world.

A Community of Changemakers

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.

As a member of the UN Academic Impact (UNAI), Laurier is committed to working toward the attainment of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In fact, Laurier was ranked by Times Higher Education (THE) among the top 15 percent of global universities working toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).