ESP 432 focuses on both the individual and organizational challenges, opportunities, and decisions related to integrating faith and work. Topics include mentorship, diversity, stewardship, and work-life balance and bring diverse voices to the classroom from a variety of industries.

The course explores the growing movement of integrating faith into entrepreneurial ventures, including investors, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem participants. The course provides students an understanding of the challenges and opportunities of integrating faith and entrepreneurship, regardless of their own views on the topic. The integration of faith and entrepreneurship builds on the emerging trends in society and highlights the importance of faith as a critical but underrepresented element of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The first Miami University course on faith and entrepreneurship was taught in the spring of 2021. As a version 1.0, we were cautiously optimistic and we were pleasantly surprised. The goal was to help students develop a toolkit, rooted in knowledge about the challenges and opportunities to integrating faith and work. We used a variety of reflective assignments and resources that were designed to get students to think, speak, and take steps to act on their desire (or lack thereof) to integrate.

Resources include videos, practitioner-written articles, academic papers, podcasts, and books written by people who have spent significant effort studying the integration of faith and work. By far, our best decision in setting up the course was to incorporate guest speakers every week. We invite a wide range of practitioners from diverse backgrounds and industries to speak to our students about the real-life ups and downs of bringing your whole self to work.

Student responses to the course emphasized the value of the guest speakers, the reflective assignments, and the discussion-based nature of the course.

Throughout the semester, we encourage students to engage in honest discussion with their peers and in their reflections, understanding that for many of them, the workplaces they will enter will have an incredibly wide-ranging mix of people coming from different belief systems. In the same way that we care for, support, understand, and respect diversity regarding gender and race, we sought to encourage students to feel empowered to bring their faith into their work, and to respect others who choose to do so.