Intentional Communities

1 Credit · Level: Undergraduate

In this course, you will explore a unique and flexible kind of entrepreneurial activity: the intentional community. Whether called a club, society, or association, intentional communities occupy the space between economic ventures and individual pursuits. Forming your own intentional community as a recent graduate is not only a great way to solve the problem of loneliness and isolation that often accompany the first years out of college, but also counterbalances career pursuits that risk crowding out everything else in your life. By focusing on a greater purpose — social, educational, political, charitable — an intentional community invites you to live your ideals while providing a platform for satisfying human connection with like-minded people. Above all, it’s entrepreneurial: you’re not joining someone else’s venture; you’re creating your own. Universities like Georgetown are great incubators of clubs and societies. But what do you do when you’re on your own, without the nurturing structure of your alma mater? This course answers that question! Entrepreneurship is promoted in many parts of the University, but almost always in ways encouraging you to view it within the context of the “economy of cash:” i.e., how can you monetize your efforts? This course introduces instead the idea of an “economy of grace,” a world of immaterial benefits and relationships that are the source of meaning, relationship and, ultimately, mental (and physical) health. Entrepreneurship is possible in this economy, too. And such ventures are not necessarily without compensating cashflows.