How Do We Equip Students With Empathy for Non-Humans? A Conversation with Kristin Krebs

For Kristin, regeneration isn't just an add-on to entrepreneurship education—it's an invitation to fundamentally rethink what entrepreneurship even is. "I hope entrepreneurship education is opening up to rethink what entrepreneurship is, and it doesn't solely mean founding a start-up or exploiting a business opportunity," she explains. With a strong social-ecological justice awareness, Kristin sees entrepreneurship as potentially just the means to the end of achieving regeneration. Her teaching draws from design thinking, but adapted - focusing not just on users but on broader social-ecological systems. She emphasizes non-human actors, teaches basics from biology and ecology, and equips her students with empathy for all beings on the planet. Kristin creates spaces where transparency matters, where students address her informally, and where she actively reassures them that insecurity and mistakes are part of the process   - especially important given the mental health crisis at universities. From learning about holocracy to visiting nature for teaching, Kristin demonstrates that regeneration brings up the same tensions as sustainability, but more elevated.

Key themes: Redefining entrepreneurship, social-ecological justice, non-human actors, design thinking adaptation, transparency and vulnerability, mental health awareness