Khmer Krafts: A Case Study of Integrating Social Entrepreneurship in Cambodia with Entrepreneurship Education in America

Abstract

Applied entrepreneurship education puts students in a real business situation, coupling academic training with actual, hands-on, experiential leazning. This case study describes a situation where students are challenged to help start and run a company in another country that helps to improve the lives of people in that country. Students learn about the poverty and social problems that exist in Cambodia following the Killing Fields and years of civil waz and aze challenged to invent a business solution that will provide a living for poverty-stricken girls in Cambodian villages who otherwise would be faced with a life of hardship and hunger or even prostitution. This case study offers hope and gives an example of social entrepreneurship at work, reaching across the boundaries of countries and cultures to give a “hand up” rather than a simple “hand out.”