Instructor Maria Ballesteros-Sola and Jacquelyn Forrester. Courtesy photo
CAMARILLO — A CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) Business Lecturer and a Business graduate student are winners of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) 2017 Conference Outstanding Teaching Case Award, held in Philadelphia last month.
Instructor Maria Ballesteros-Sola, who teaches Social Business, won the national award along with 2016 graduate Jacquelyn Forrester for their work profiling the Black Sheep Food Co., a social enterprise designed to end unemployment for individuals with disabilities.
Ballesteros-Sola and Forrester wrote a teaching case study describing Black Sheep Food’s founder, Cindy Liu’s decision process to select the right legal structure. The case is called “Black Sheep Food: Choosing the Right Legal Structure for Mission-Driven Ventures.”
“I used to explain legal structures for social enterprises but students couldn’t relate to the topic. When using this case in class, Cindy’s story engages them and they connect to her process and analysis. They get it now,” Ballesteros-Sola explained.
“We have an Instructor’s Manual and the students read the Case Study,” Forrester, 24, explained. “We created a guide for what the class can discuss after the students read about the case. It can be used for a course on nonprofits, social business or a course involving disabilities, for example.”
Black Sheep Food Co. is still being developed by Newbury Park entrepreneur Cindy Liu, who plans to employ people with disabilities to make non-perishable food that customers can purchase either over the internet or from a store.
“My dream location is to have a bricks-and-mortar space where we can manufacture products and so some packaging,” Liu said. “There would be a window into the commercial kitchen where people can see our employees working, and a tasting room in front.”
Ballesteros-Sola explained that a social business is a for profit business created to address a social cause while being financially sustainable. In the case of Black Sheep Food Co., the social good is two-pronged.
“They would make preserves and other non-perishable food,” Ballesteros-Sola. “They would use perfectly edible food that would otherwise be discarded by farmers and stores. This reduces food waste.”
Ballesteros-Sola and Forrester also liked Liu’s personal story. Liu and her husband’s first child, Samantha, now 5, was born with Down Syndrome. Looking ahead to her daughter’s future, Liu developed a passion to help those with disabilities, whose unemployment rate is about 60 to 70 percent, she said.
“We want to shift cultural attitudes,” Liu said. “There is a prejudice when it comes to individuals with disabilities. When we had Sammy, the only thing I could think of that would be available as an occupation for her was as a bagger in a grocery store. The culture needs to shift and the laws need to shift.”
Liu, who plans to launch her company in late 2017, is a community partner with the California Institute for Social Business (CISB) at CSUCI.
The CISB is dedicated to teaching, research and development of social businesses. The CISB is a legacy of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, Ph.D., a champion and pioneer of social business who collaborated with CSUCI in 2010 to found the CISB.
About California State University Channel Islands: CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI) is the only four-year, public university in Ventura County and is known for its interdisciplinary, multicultural and international perspectives, and its emphasis on experiential and service learning. CSUCI’s strong academic programs focus on business, sciences, liberal studies, teaching credentials, and innovative master’s degrees. Students benefit from individual attention, up-to-date technology, and classroom instruction augmented by outstanding faculty research. CSUCI has been designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution and is committed to serving students of all backgrounds from the region and beyond. Connect with and learn more by visiting CSUCI’s Social Media.