The Path to Social Innovation

With a master’s from USD’s Kroc School, the sky’s the limit

Cameroonian native Momo Bertrand has a lofty goal—rebrand Africa.

“Every time I traveled out of Africa, people would talk about safaris or Ebola or poachers chasing elephants,” Bertrand said. “But what I saw were entrepreneurs chasing their dreams. I felt a need to transform the way people look at the continent.”

Now armed with a master’s in Social Innovation from the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego, Bertrand is well on his way. As part of USD’s unique graduate program, he developed the framework for a program to train Cameroonian high school and college students in digital marketing, so they can in turn promote local businesses—and themselves—worldwide.

Bertrand is far from alone in his ambition. For decades, eager activists and entrepreneurs from more than 50 countries have gravitated to USD’s Kroc School—the first standalone school of peace in the US—and for the past two years they’ve come for its Master of Arts in Social Innovation program. Enterprising MASI students take a deep dive into real, relevant social challenges around the world, such as curbing ongoing violence in Mexico and promoting socioeconomic growth in Rwanda, and ponder workable and scalable solutions. Cultures are becoming more connected through technology, and USD’s incubator of innovation facilitates the global reach needed to confront social issues and inequities in faraway regions as well as in our own backyard. It takes a keen eye to look objectively at the roots of injustice, poverty, human rights abuses, and humanitarian crises. Solving social problems requires thinking outside the box, beyond boundaries, and behind headlines.

“Social innovation is about creating system change. It’s about disrupting unjust equilibriums that many in society believe are the norm, and can’t or won’t change,” says Karen Henken, who teaches MASI courses and other workshops around the world.

Henken and the Kroc School’s other professors are at the forefront of their respective fields, drawing from real-world experience to inspire and empower the next generation of social innovators. Students also have the unique opportunity to learn from visiting changemakers—distinguished guests in the past such as the Dalai Lama, former Senator George J. Mitchell, and UN Messenger of Peace Jane Goodall—as well as collaborate with student entrepreneurs from around the world on social, cultural, and environmental issues.

MASI students graduate equipped with the skills, knowledge, and experience to turn their passions into purpose-driven careers as entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs in CSR departments, foundations, B Corps, government, scale-up organizations and nonprofits. Kroc School alumni have gone on to grow their own social ventures such as One Digital World and Baja Urban, and also work for such organizations as World Bank, the United Nations, UNICEF, Friends of Africa International, the US Agency for International Development, the office of Senator Dianne Feinstein, the Children’s Peace Initiative, and the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative.

“The human design thinking skills that I learned at MASI, and specifically the Kroc School, allowed me to be able to pivot and create minor changes that now ultimately are leading to great success,” said MASI graduate Nico Darras, who founded AND ME Consulting, a company focused on gender violence prevention and promoting positive masculinity.

Are you a social innovator ready to advance your career? Learn more about MASI and get the course guide at sandiego.edu/peace/hatch/.