Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minor Course Petition Requirements and Instructions

Petition Requirements

The Entrepreneurship and Innovation minor encourages an interdisciplinary approach and welcomes elective courses from across the Collegiate Divisions, provided they develop relevant skills, mindsets, or methods that support entrepreneurship and innovation. Students may petition up to two electives from U黑料传送门 departments to fulfill the three-course elective requirement. Courses used to satisfy foundational requirements cannot also count as electives. All courses must adhere to the College minor policies outlined in .

Petitions are considered on a case-by-case basis. The Petitions Committee, composed of Booth faculty and Polsky Center staff, will make the final determination as to whether the petitioned course meets the required competencies to count toward the minor.

Petition Minimum Criteria (Elective Courses)

To be approved, a petitioned elective course must (1) meaningfully engage students in applying critical thinking to complex problems, and (2) align with at least two additional thematic areas listed below:

• Business and Financial Literacy
• Marketing and Sales
• Leadership and Strategy
• Identifying and Evaluating Problems and Opportunities
• Developing Viable Solutions
• Navigating Challenges of Innovation
• Advancing Entrepreneurial Ventures

Overview of Thematic Areas:

Applying Critical Thinking to Complex Problems (Required)

Courses must develop students' ability to engage with complex, real-world or conceptual challenges using analytical and creative approaches. Students should learn to examine multifaceted and often ambiguous problems through structured reasoning, critical evaluation of information, and thoughtful synthesis. They should be able to identify underlying assumptions, consider multiple perspectives, and formulate well-supported conclusions or decisions. These courses emphasize cultivating intellectual discipline in navigating challenges that do not have clear, singular, or predetermined solutions.

Additional Thematic Areas (Two or More Required):

Business and Financial Literacy

Courses build foundational knowledge in business models, market dynamics, and financial strategies. Students gain tools and frameworks to interpret financial information, evaluate sustainability or scalability, or make resource-based decisions within an enterprise or initiative. The goal is to equip students with the skills to understand markets, manage money wisely, and make informed financial and business decisions.

Marketing and Sales

Courses explore how to reach and understand customers through research and engagement. This theme focuses on strategies used to identify customer needs, articulate value, and drive demand. Emphasis is placed on developing skills in strategic communication, value messaging, and audience engagement to help advance products, services, or ideas and influence decision-making across audiences.

Leadership and Strategy

Courses build students’ confidence to lead teams and make data-driven decisions. This theme explores organizational behavior, leadership theory, decision-making, strategic thinking, and planning in dynamic or uncertain environments. Topics may include managing teams, setting vision, influencing systems, and navigating ethical complexity. Courses address the challenges of leading people, initiatives, or organizations toward defined goals.

Identifying and Evaluating Problems and Opportunities

Courses train students to critically assess real-world situations, identify unmet needs or inefficiencies, and gather and interpret data to support informed conclusions. Emphasis is placed on methods for defining problems, collecting relevant data or perspectives, and evaluating which opportunities warrant further pursuit based on evidence and context.

Developing Viable Solutions

Courses emphasize how to test assumptions, refine concepts, and implement plans that address real-world challenges. This theme focuses on transforming ideas into actionable, practical solutions. Students explore design thinking, creative problem-solving, product development, and feasibility analysis. Instruction supports students in generating, refining, and iteratively improving proposals, designs, or plans that address the problems or opportunities they have identified.

Navigating Challenges of Innovation

Courses engage students in working through the risks, uncertainties, and systemic barriers involved in initiating or advancing change. Students explore how to navigate resistance, manage change, develop intellectual property, assess social impact, and scale ideas. These courses examine how innovation happens, and why it often fails. Students learn to manage uncertainty, overcome resistance to change, and weigh the trade-offs between risk and reward. Emphasis is placed on building resilience, adaptability, and strategic experimentation in dynamic environments.

Advancing Entrepreneurial Ventures

Courses directly support the development, preparation, or launch of a student-led venture. This may include providing skills, knowledge, frameworks, or resources that help you refine your business model, evaluate your market, strengthen your product or service, or prepare for funding and growth. You must clearly explain how the course content is relevant to your venture and describe the specific ways it will advance your entrepreneurial goals.

Petition Review and Decision Timeline

Students may submit a course petition at any time. Petitions are reviewed in Week 7 of each quarter by a committee of Booth faculty and Polsky Center staff.

Decisions for petitions submitted by 5 p.m. on Wednesday of Week 7 will be communicated via email by 5 p.m. on Wednesday of Week 8. Petitions submitted after this deadline will receive a decision by 5 p.m. on Wednesday of Week 8 in the following quarter.

The program advisor for the Entrepreneurship and Innovation minor will notify the student’s College Adviser if the petition is approved.

Petition Instructions

To submit a course petition:

1. Complete the official petition .
   (The syllabus MUST be uploaded with the form or the petition will not be considered.)
2. The program advisor for the Entrepreneurship and Innovation minor will communicate final decisions via email once the petition has been reviewed.

Questions? Contact the program advisor.