Practicum & independent study project
All students in the Chicago Programs pursue Independent Study Projects (ISP) related to their academic and professional goals. Ideally, these will be projects that draw on the city’s resources to create something original: e.g., a work of art, a research paper, a service project, or a business prospectus.
BES students will craft their own project developed through a process of experimentation and exploration in both the seminar course and the ISP Practicum. The BES seminar introduces key concepts for initiating and implementing an entrepreneurial pursuit, while the Practicum will provide a sounding board for students to develop an ISP proposal and craft smaller projects into a final product.
Student ISPs can take a variety of forms, but must be focused on subjects related to entrepreneurship and innovation. All BES students will share their final products at the end of the term.
Students may also find ways to link the ISP with the Internship. For example, a student in Business, Entrepreneurship, & Society who has an internship with a non-profit corporation could consider conducting independent research into non-profit funding and development; or a student completing an internship at a major corporation may want to focus an ISP on a neighborhood start-up initiative as a point of contrast.