Celebrating a powerful model of integrating faith, purpose, and innovation for the common good
The Center for L.I.F.E. at Miami University is proud to announce the inaugural recipient of our Faith + Entrepreneurship Innovation Award, created this year to recognize bold creativity and excellence in integrating faith and entrepreneurial thinking both inside and beyond the classroom.
This year’s honoree is Belmont University for its outstanding Social Innovation Fellowship—an eight-semester, cohort-based program that is reshaping how students connect living an honorable life to applying systems thinking, community storytelling, and entrepreneurial action.
A Fellowship Where Faith and Innovation Meet
Housed within the Belmont Innovation Labs, the Social Innovation Fellowship invites ten first-year students each year—drawn from a wide range of academic disciplines—into a deep and transformative journey. These Global Honors Program students spend four years learning what it truly means to live an honorable life, not only in belief but in practice.
During the award presentation, Dr. Jen Bennett shared:
“The Social Innovation Fellowship is a truly inspiring program… It equips students to integrate faith, purpose, and innovation in pursuit of social impact. Together, these experiences build a powerful bridge between spiritual discernment and entrepreneurial problem-solving—inviting students to see business and innovation as pathways to live out faith in service of others.”
Faith integration sits at the heart of the Fellowship’s design. In their first semester, students take “An Honorable Life”, a reflective seminar where they explore values, purpose, and calling—wrestling with foundational questions such as Who do I want to be in this life?
In the following semester, students move into “Transforming Systems: Design and Innovation for Social Good,” where spiritual convictions become catalysts for action. Through design thinking and systems analysis, students develop real solutions to real problems, learning that innovation is not simply a skillset—it’s a posture of service.
Innovative Learning That Moves Beyond the Classroom
The Social Innovation Fellowship embraces a guiding conviction from theologian Frederick Buechner:
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
This belief propels the Fellowship beyond lectures and textbooks. Students are immersed in hands-on, community-centered experiences that stretch their imagination and deepen their commitment to social impact.
A recent example is Belmont’s inaugural SPARK Symposium, a campus-wide celebration of student scholarship and innovation. There, Social Innovation Fellow Finley White, along with peers, presented a qualitative research project engaging local churches and nonprofits on the needs of foster youth aging out of care.
What began as a classroom assignment soon grew into Belmont Tables—a student-led campus organization that mobilizes undergraduates to serve foster families through meal delivery, lawn care, and childcare. It stands as a powerful example of faith-informed entrepreneurship: a calling discerned, a problem explored, and a solution built with sustainability and compassion.
A Model for Faith-Driven Innovation
Belmont’s Social Innovation Fellowship demonstrates what is possible when spiritual discernment, academic rigor, and entrepreneurial action come together. Through reflective coursework, immersive experiences, and community partnerships, the program shapes students who view entrepreneurship not just as a career path, but as a calling to make the world more whole.
The Center for L.I.F.E. is honored to recognize Belmont University, Hilary Hambrick Taft, and the entire Innovation Labs team as the recipient of our first Faith + Entrepreneurship Innovation Award. Their work offers a compelling vision for higher education—one where faith fuels creativity, purpose drives innovation, and students are equipped to meet the world’s deep needs with thoughtful, hope-filled solutions.
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