Editor’s note: Ibanca Anand is Duke University Correspondent for ExitEvent, which is a news partner of WRAL TechWire.

DURHAM, N.C. – A few weeks ago, I entered a classroom filled with a very unlikely group of Duke students. There were intellectuals pursuing vastly different interests—Pratt School of Engineering students, literature enthusiasts, Econ stars, global health/political science double majors.

But even though the textbooks we carried couldn’t have been more dissimilar, we gathered for one singular purpose: how can we further Duke’s mission of knowledge in the service of society, and how will the new Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) Certificate help us do that?

The I&E Certificate, which launched this semester, is a novel concept in the university’s curriculum. In lieu of entirely classroom-based learning, the certificate includes four course requirements, 450 hours of experiential learning and development of an e-portfolio documenting our journeys through the program. While participants are expected to fulfill requirements for their traditional majors, the I&E Certificate provides them with a platform to transform their liberal arts knowledge into real-world action (see our fun PVC pipe team-building exercise below). This can mean getting involved with the entrepreneurial scene in the Triangle, developing an innovative product, establishing a non-profit organization, joining a startup team or something entirely new and novel.

According to Eric Toone, director of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, Duke is at the forefront of providing students with an academic foundation for entrepreneurship. At other top schools in the nation, such as Harvard or Princeton, entrepreneurship only exists as extracurricular or in the graduate business schools.

“The ground is shifting beneath our feet,” he says, indicating that 21st century higher-education needs to prepare students early on with tools to become change-makers, not just academics.

Examples of I&E Certificate courses are Philosophy of Entrepreneurship, Biomedical Device Innovation, Enterprising Leadership and Topics in Arts Management. Junior public policy studies major Yolanda Qin is enrolled in a class called Social Innovation, taught by Fuqua School of Business professor Matt Nash.

For more, read the full post at ExitEvent.