The Entrepreneurial Mindset of Naropa Students
Naropa University’s mission of contemplative education invites students to engage in an internal process of exploring how they might make a positive difference in the world. Lyndsay Farrant (MA Transpersonal Counseling Psychology, ’15), Executive Director of Strategic Projects, underscores that Naropa’s emphasis on cultivating present-moment awareness and encouraging courageous engagement with the world attracts students who want to be catalysts for change.
“Our education supports people in getting clear on who they are as individuals and how they want to shine,” Farrant says. “Contemplative education embraces inner discovery, and this speaks to the students that want to learn more about their unique gifts and strengths that they bring to this world…. Our students inspire each other to be creative and embrace an entrepreneurial spirit.”
In June 2021, Digital Information World highlighted Naropa University in their survey of the best U.S. universities for aspiring business founders and entrepreneurs. At 14.2 percent, Naropa has one of the highest percentages of founders, ahead of Stanford University with 13.6 percent.
Our students further refine the skills needed to develop a founder mindset, whether it be through a specific course or our holistic approach to career counseling. “Fundamentally, how do we develop our own bold vision for the future that we want to see?” says President Charles G. Lief. “And how do we do that through deepening skill in creativity, in collaboration, in courage, in compassion—all of which are aspects of successful social entrepreneurs.”
President Lief, whose professional work has been focused on nonprofit social enterprise, teaches the undergraduate seminar Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Surveying local, regional, and worldwide examples of social enterprise and the impacts that innovators can have in the twenty-first century, the course explores the ways that business tools can be harnessed for significant social change.
As the culminating project, students develop a business plan for a mission-driven enterprise that addresses a social issue they are passionate about. They then present their plan to a panel of judges composed of community leaders, including faculty from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder. Some then take their refined plans and start their own business after graduation. Lief describes the work of the seminar as building students’ capacity to be visionary and pragmatic change agents.
Contemplative education embraces inner discovery, and this speaks to the students that want to learn more about their unique gifts and strengths that they bring to this world…. Our students inspire each other to be creative and embrace an entrepreneurial spirit.
The undergraduate internship is another course that offers on-the-ground training. Blending professional development, career exploration, and life design, the internship gives students the opportunity to apply their knowledge in organizations that meet their interests and career goals and build professional networks to create meaningful careers. Placements range from community-based media to restorative justice initiatives to educational organizations working on issues of social justice, peace, human rights, mental health, and environmental sustainability. Approximately 47 percent of Naropa students are hired by their internship site.
In fall 2019, Naropa’s Office of Career and Life Development received a call from Governor Jared Polis’s office asking for Naropa students for the Governor’s Executive Internship Program. Two students were placed in the program: Shatasia Griffith (BA Contemplative Psychology, ’20), worked directly with Lt. Governor Diane Primavera and Christopher Rachal (BA Contemplative Psychology, ’19) assisted Governor Polis in developing and monitoring public policies, as well as analyzing legislation being considered.
Naropa students are making a significant impact on their communities and the world at large via the internship. “Being an alumnx of Naropa myself, I find the internship class to be invaluable as it allows our students to gain hands-on experience in diverse fields, build connections, develop their professional aptitudes, and take the brilliance of our unique Naropa education into the community,” says Senior Director of Academic Advising Jessica DelCastillo (BA Contemplative Psychology, ’06).
Naropa’s career counselors use different tools to help students uncover what motivates them. Stanford University’s Odyssey Plan model brings a design-thinking mindset to the career search. “When we’re working with students, we’re looking for where there is congruence between their emotions, their tone of voice, their excitement, their energy levels,” Farrant says, “and we’re helping them tap into the unconscious to explore different career options.”
Naropa encourages the ‘why,’ but not the ‘why because’—the ‘why in order to,’ the higher why, the why that embraces curiosity and meaning and invokes questioning and looking at fresh perspectives.
As an alternative to interest inventories, the Career and Life Development Office also uses aptitude testing via YouScience, a platform that allows students to discover their natural abilities and top talents through eleven different brain games. At the end of the test, each student gets key terms to help describe who they are, which is helpful for resumes and interviewing.
Naropa students are uniquely positioned to contribute to reimagining the world of work by bringing different values, namely authenticity and presence, to their jobs or the companies they create.
“Our students don’t want to live in a culture where you leave your life behind when you go to work. They want to be true to and be seen for who they are,” Farrant says. “The year 2020 was the first time that America saw an equal number of Millennials and Gen Z in the workplace. And the values that motivate these two groups—flexibility, remoteness, early-on leadership, transparency, and trust—are so different from the values that have been driving the patriarchal way in which we’ve been working.”
In her view, the pandemic allowed for more creativity and more opportunities for our students to thrive. “Our students are innovative, and they want to make a difference. They want to live in an inclusive environment, and they want flexibility and freedom,” she says. “Research shows that the top two leadership skills for 2020 were authenticity and versatility. We teach our students how to be versatile, how to be agile. So the leaders that were most successful at helping their teams re-adjust, were folks that could flex and who were genuine.”
“Naropa encourages the ‘why,’ but not the ‘why because’ — the ‘why in order to,’ the higher why,” Farrant adds. “The why that embraces curiosity and meaning and invokes questioning and looking at fresh perspectives.”
