NYU Stern Undergraduate College

Social Impact Core

Social Impact courses are taught by talented faculty boasting a variety of impressive backgrounds.  You may even be fortunate enough to have a course with Dean Blount!

Curriculum with a lasting impact

A central theme of the Stern education is how business shapes and impacts the world around us.  We recognize that business is the dominant social institution of our age and seek to provide a curriculum that ensures our students are thoughtful about their ability to influence society as business leaders.  Nowhere is that more evident than in the Social Impact Core, a four-year sequence of courses designed to give students a deeper understanding of how businesses and their leaders impact society.

Overview of Social Impact Core Courses

• Business & Its Publics (freshmen year)
• Organizational Communication & Its Social Context (sophomore year)
• Law, Business & Society (junior year)
• Professional Responsibility & Leadership (senior year)

Business & Its Publics, the Social Impact Core foundation course, introduces students to the many interconnections between business, society, markets, politics, art, culture and life. Through a series of lectures featuring a broad range of visitors and a complementary writing course, students form their own perspectives on the meaning of business and its role in society and their lives, while hearing, seeing and questioning key people in business and the institutions that surround it.  Past speakers have included CEOs, politicians, regulators, entrepreneurs, activists, artists, and writers. 

The Organizational Communication & Its Social Context course teaches students about stakeholder theory and how companies manage the expectations of their wide ranging stakeholders through strategic decision making and communication. Students spend the semester closely analyzing a company known for its high performance in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and use their own communication skills to analyze and make recommendations on how the company can further its CSR efforts.

The Law, Business & Society course challenges students to think more deeply about legal systems and appreciate how they have evolved and continue to evolve in relationship to business and society. The interaction between law and business is multi-dimensional involving social, political, ethical and technological considerations. In the course, students will examine how key areas of business law influence the structure of domestic and international business relationships, while honing their analytical, communication, conflict resolution and team problem solving skills.

The Professional Responsibility & Leadership capstone course facilitates student development of a personal sense of business professionalism and leadership.  Students consider how individuals should behave in ambiguous situations, balancing self-interests and those of the firm within the larger context of society, ethics, and law. The course builds on content discussed throughout the core while introducing new themes pertinent to students about to enter the workforce including the economic and ethical aspects of acting as a business professional and several models, or approaches, to leadership.