Changemaker Campus Initiative Blog

"A Social Solution, Without Going the Non-Profit Route"

UMD Bloggers — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:33:58 -0600

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/05/business/smallbusiness/05sbiz.html?_r=1&em Check out an example of social entrepreneurship in the NY Times.

The more things change, the more they remain... insane.

UMD Bloggers — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:56:50 -0600

Over the past month, we have made great progress with both the Symposium, "A New Way of Doing Business" and "Transform Your World" a Film Festival for Social Good. In the eyes of the administration we are officially recognized as the student group "Terp Changemakers" and we are starting the wheels in motion on our curricular goals. The new Center for Social Value Creation will also be launching it's website March 2nd!

We'll link up to the website asap but click for more content on exactly what will be going on at "A New Way of Doing Business" March 26th.

Symposium Details:
Keynote Speaker - Steve Fludder, VP Ecomagination and GE Corporate Officer
Breakout Sessions by Industry Leaders Include the Following Topics:
• Opportunities and Challenges in Renewable Energy
• BoP Markets: Creating For-Profit Business Models that Create Social Wealth
• Transforming Education in Washington D.C. and Beyond
• Socially Responsible Investing
• Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Businesses
• Global Health: The Importance of Reproductive Health
• Social Entrepreneurship: How to be a Social Entrepreneur
• Microfinance and Beyond: Financial Services for Social Change
Career Fair Immediately Following the Event!

"The main dangers in this life are the people who want to change everything or nothing."
- Nancy Astor, The First Woman to Serve a Member of British Parliament

Let me know your thoughts & comments!
Email me - Kelly at terpchangemakers@gmail.com !

Campus Change is like Christmas

UMD Bloggers — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 13:01:27 -0600

Our journey thus far on the University of Maryland College Park campus with the Changemaker Initiative, has felt like an extended Christmas Eve. Every moment since the "Incubator Weekend" has been in anticipation of what will come next. And although even the best laid plans sometimes falter, this spring should be like an extended Christmas Day.

This fall we developed all these amazing ideas but we have taken a step back from the university's hustle and bustle to plan and analyze the current climate of "social entrepreneurship" in every department. It's like we've made a bunch of gifts and now we are choosing who matches what gift best. Now, using what we know, we are putting these plans into action.

We've drafted letters for sponsors of "Transform Your World" a film festival celebrating student groups focused on social good taking place this April. The planning for our speaker series and symposium is well under way and we are applying this January for university recognition of our student group, Terp Changemakers.

This spring we will hopefully share stories of success as well as the speed bumps along the way.

To tide you over until the new year, Check out "Faces of Social Entrepreneurship" over at the NY Times!

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/03/09/magazine/0309-FACES_index.html?scp=1&sq=social%20entrepreneurship&st=cse

We wish you happy holidays and a happy new year from College Park, MD!

George Mason University, Bringing the Change

GMU Bloggers — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:06:04 -0600

Season’s Greetings from the George Mason University Campus Changemaker Team!

With Christmas in full swing and the New Year quickly approaching, I cannot help but sit back and reflect on all the work we have done this past Fall semester as part of Ashoka’s first-ever Campus Changemaker Pilot Year.

We have all been told that “Timing is everything.” It seems as though the stars themselves have aligned to create an extraordinarily successful pilot year for Ashoka’s Changemaker Campus Program and the GMU Changemaker Team. Of all years to begin such an initiative, there could be none better than the 2008-2009 school year. Here are a few “coincidences” whose timeliness could not be better-suited to the work we are doing in bringing Changemaking to George Mason University:

The election of Barack Obama to the United States’ Presidency

An economic downturn unlike anything since the Great Depression

The commencement of a mandatory element of GMU’s regional reaccredidation known as the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)

The selection of Steve Case as this year’s graduation commencement speaker

Barack Obama has brought the spirit of Hope, Change, and Service to the forefront of millions of Americans’ minds. Those three words are exactly what we will need to bring this country forward into a fairer, more just, and cleaner 21st Century. While the current global economic crisis is becoming increasingly painful, it is reminding us all of the follies of greed and social irresponsibility. In addition to the broad atmosphere of Change that is sweeping across America, George Mason University is going through its own Change processes. The coincidental timing of the QEP has allowed our Changemaker campus team to submit a proposal that, if accepted, could institutionalize social entrepreneurship and Changemaking across the GMU curricula and throughout is extra-curricular activities. Please feel free to read and comment on our proposal here. To top it all off we will end this year’s Changemaker Campus year with a bang by having Steve Case speak at our graduation ceremony. The Case Foundation embodies the spirit of social entrepreneurship through their commitment to “finding lasting solutions for complex global problems” by “investing in people and ideas that can change the world.”

Now it’s not all about things falling into our laps, we are also working on several other exciting events to really bring the change to Mason. One of our team All-Stars, Ryan Merrit, is working with GMU’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence Jim Wolfe on the annual YEA! (Young Entrepreneurs Academy). This year’s YEA! theme will be Social Entrepreneurship, and the event will blend first-hand “lessons learned” from successful social entrepreneurs in addition to workshops that teach budding entrepreneurs key business skills and strategies.

I have also been working with Heather Hare from the Center for Leadership and Community Engagement and Lisa Snyder from the Undergraduate LEAD office, to bring the topic of social entrepreneurship and changemaking into this year’s Mason Leadership Institute. The theme will be CHANGE: Transforming Leadership and there will be a breakout session dedicated solely to the role of social entrepreneurship in leadership.

We are also working on 2 other large events. One is in collaboration with the Phoenix Project which will focus on Virginia and its role as a hub for social entrepreneurship. The 2nd conference, one that was masterminded by Dr. Phil Auerswald, will focus on the regional wealth offered by the DC Metro area. Phil refers to the region as the “Social Silicon Valley,” illustrating its role in global social change as analogous to the role of Silicon Valley, California in global technological change.

These events and conferences will be extraordinarily helpful in allowing us to drum up as much positive publicity as possible regarding our Changemaker Campus initiative. We are also working on several items which will ensure that the spirit of social entrepreneurship and Changemaking flourishes well beyond this pilot year and our team's tenure at the university. Over the course of the next semester one of our top priorities will be to collect stories of outstanding Changemakers in the GMU community. We hope to collect stories of any faculty members, staff, administrators, students, or alumni who are out there working to create a better world. Our hope is that these stories, encapsulated in a publication and passed around the halls and dorms of GMU, will inspire and empower thousands of students to want to make their own positive impact on the world. Out of all the stories we collect and circulate, we then hope to nominate 30 “Mason Changemaker Fellows” who will be exemplars for the Mason community for years to come.

Our immediate next steps are going to be to develop a website, which will be hosted at <entrepreneurship.mason.edu>, to develop a marketing scheme, and a newsletter mechanism to keep all interested parties informed, mobilized, and inspired.

As we enjoy the warmth of friends, families, and the holidays we are all looking forward to the upcoming Spring semester; there is much work to be done!

Alex Gudich-Yulle (AgudichY@gmu.edu)

New Century College

George Mason University

Give the Gift of Change!

University Team — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:32:59 -0600

Attention campus change agents! Want to give back to the world, but find yourself a little pressed for cash this season? In need of Christmas gift ideas? Or perhaps in light of the financial crisis, you've decided a Christmas "hello" will have to suffice. You're in luck; you can do all three. For $35, you can become an Ashoka member. In addition to regular communications from Ashoka, you'll get a one-year subscription to GOOD and 8 "Be the Change" postcards to send out to all the special changemakers in your life.

Click here to see the cards, and learn more about how you can help.

Thank you for such an inspiring 2008, and warm wishes for the holiday season!

Lennon, Marina, and Erin

Happy Holiday Changemaking!

JHU Bloggers — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:59:23 -0600

Greetings from windy Baltimore! As the semester wraps up and students everywhere burrow deep into the library for some delightful studying sessions, the Hopkins Social Innovations Partnership (HOP-SIP) Team continues to move forward in its quest to transform JHU into a Changemaker Campus. Since our initial team gathering at the Ashoka Changemaker Incubator in October, there have been many developments at both the university and national level that have been a cause for excitement. This spring, just two months after a new president moves into the White House, Hopkins will extend its own welcome to our new university president! At such a transitional time, we have continued to examine how we can best map out the social entrepreneurial efforts taking place across campus. From information sessions at the graduate and undergraduate campuses to a status report on social entrepreneurship around the university, the team is hard at work.

In preparation for the Changemaker Accelerator session in January, the team has mapped out a set of priorities and goals:

1) Continue to inventory courses, professors, social enterprises, student groups, university initiatives, and any other SE-related activities for the Changemaker Audit

2) Build and expand the Changemaker team to support and train interested students, faculty, staff, and community members

3) Create a media campaign that will reach out to interested community partners and local alumni

4) Fundraising for social enterprises, public service fellowships, and internships

In about a week or so, we will all be departing for our various holiday locations. We’ll see you back here in January, after everyone is reenergized and ready to go!

Meet the Team!

Jemma Alarcón

Academic Affiliation: Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Public Health Studies
Hometown: Reynosa, Tamaulipas, México
Favorite Dessert: Cheese cake + cappuccino
What drives you to be a changemaker? Smiles... (I love seeing ppl.smile) and I believe that life is all about learning, sharing and enjoying and changemaking embodies the three perfectly for me.
Holiday Plans: Navidad in Northern México and Public Health research with indigenous children in South México
New Years Changemaker Resolution: JHUCARES initiative = website (jhucares.org)+ database + orientation presentation... = more SE and direct service with Baltimore!

Luke Kelly-Clyne

Academic affiliation: Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Political Science
Hometown: Wilton, CT
Favorite dessert: Chocolate cake
What drivesyou to be a changemaker? I am motivated to make a change in society based on the knowledge that I have been lucky enough to receive an amazing education and by the obligation I feel to share my privilege with those who are less fortunate.
Holiday Plans: I will be traveling to Oxford!
New Years Changemaker Resolution: Ihope to start an office of social entrepreneurship at JHU at some point in2009.

Jerome Axle Brown

Academic Affiliation: Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Public Health Studies
Hometown: Sherman, TX
Favorite Dessert: My grandma's right-out-of-the-oven homemade peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream
What drives you to be a changemaker? My drive to be a changemaker stems from the untimely death of my father at age 39, when I was only fourteen. Leaving me, the oldest of six siblings, as the head of the household. His passing awoke in me the urgency of the moment, the value of life, and sparked in me a great desire to change the course of my life to reach my potential.
Holiday Plans: I'm going down south to Texas to spend some quality time withmy family.
New Years Changemaker Resolution: I will acknowledge my limitations and build competenciesto address them.

Abigail Crisman

Academic Affiliation: School of Nursing
Hometown: Fremont, IN
Favorite Dessert: anything chocolate and warm
What drives you to be a changemaker? I want to be an active changemaker for the problems I see around me, not a spectator.
HolidayPlans: see more of B'more and spend time with family
New Years Changemaker Resolution: to see things accomplished at the administrative and ground level

Aaron Soto Karlin

Academic Affiliation: Alumnus, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences-Anthropology, Center for the Social Organization of Schools
Hometown: Wilmette, IL
Favorite Dessert: Dark Chocolate, above 70% cacao content
What drives you to be a changemaker?I deeply enjoy connecting to others and my surroundings. I am inspired by moments when understanding opens inconversation and in our own minds. I've cultivated a sense of personal responsibility and interdependence with our world and I like to share it.
Holiday Plans: Driving to Mexico and meeting my changemaker girlfriend's family. Learning to listen to plants and speak with traditional healers.
New Years Changemaker Resolution: Practicing consistent focus in my work.

Adam Milam

Academic Affiliation: JHSPH, Mental Health, M.H.S.
Hometown: Baltimore, MD
Favorite Dessert: Apple Pie
What drives you to be a changemaker?Growing up in Baltimore I have seen the detrimental effects of poverty and its connections with poor health outcomes.Through volunteer work in high school and undergrad I realized that I could usemy skills, education, and time to simply help others, to make their lives alittle easier. My motivation for being a changemaker is simply the vision thatour group developed: allowing others to reach their full potentials.
Holiday Plans: Sleep, take the GRE's, write my thesis
New Years Changemaker Resolution: To be nicer to others and spreadsome new years cheer

Sonia Sarkar

Academic Affiliation: Alumna, Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Public Health and International Studies
Hometown: Austin, TX
Favorite Dessert: Molten Chocolate Lava Cake,preferably with whipped cream and chocolate chips on top
What drives you to be a changemaker?The communities and individuals who have shaped my life, in ways big and small. Being a changemaker allows me to fulfill my belief that there is something fascinating and incredibly powerful that comes from people working together.
Holiday Plans: “Winter” relaxation in sunny Texasand lots of homemade Indian food
New Years Changemaker Resolution: To share with others my vision for Hopkins as it will be when its full potential as a changemaker campus is truly realized.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from the JHU Changemaker Team!!

Transformative Action and the Future of Higher Education

University Team — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:48:56 -0600

This past week, we hosted a workshop with Scott Sherman, the founder of the Transformative Action Institute, and his colleague, Shan, now finishing up his degree at UC-Santa Cruz. At its core, transformative action is about exposing injustice, and offering a better vision for the future: one that wins over adversaries and fosters meaningful collaboration.

Scott designed a course that takes students through a process of personal transformation--first pressing them to identify their passions and their vision for a better world, and then challenging them to create a blueprint for change --in Ashoka terms, for making their new idea a reality. He dares to teach about innovation and creativity in a way that's both innovative and creative--an all-too-foreign concept on college campuses.

And the response has been wild. It's been taught at universities across the country, from UCLA to Yale, and now at one of our own Changemaker Campuses, Cornell. In just a few hours of talking with Scott, our teams at JHU and UMD had already taken steps to launch the course in the coming months.

The week brought home the similarities to our own program. I've lately been struck by the amount of head-nodding that seems to greet us every time we explain the program. And it was in talking with Scott that I finally understood why. Transformative action builds upon many existing principles and theories--from nonviolent action, to positive psychology. As a result, it simply provides a framework and a vocabulary for issues that most in "our generation" know already. Consider it the permission-giver. Our program, too, is the next natural step in a series of trends and movements currently taking shape in higher education and the world at large--whether you're talking about breaking down the walled gardens currently in place on college campuses, or building up a more entrepreneurial generation of creative problem-solvers. Yet in advancing social entrepreneurship--and the attitude, the principles, and the strategies behind it--we have suddenly tapped into a vehicle capable of bringing all of these parts together, and realizing a new vision for universities and the world in which they sit.

Same Campus, New Beginnings

Cornell Bloggers — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:45:24 -0600

It's been almost a month since the Ashoka Changemaker Incubator, and things back on campus are starting to take off! After the initial adjustment back to reality from our inspirational weekend at Camp Horizons, the Cornell Changemakers met with the extended group to reflect back on the weekend and plan our next steps. The one thing we vowed to each other during that first meeting was that we wouldn't let the fire that was created during The Incubator get put out by the daily grind of life back on campus. Although we struggle with maintaining this focus at times, I think we're living up to that promise so far...

Our first step as a Changemaker Team was to complete a full audit of the current landscape of Social Entrepreneurship at Cornell. In our first meeting we decided to split up the entire campus by the 7 undergaduate colleges and several graduate schools, assigning each college to a different student. This student would be in charge of looking at the courses taught, the professors' work, and the Centers or Programs housed in that college. We also assigned students to the task of looking at Student Organizations who might be involved in Social Entrepreneurship. Finally, one member of the team is charged with looking at different community organizations that Cornell interacts with who also support our mission of Changemaking. With this full audit, we hope to gain a greater sense of what is already occuring on campus so we can best direct our efforts to enhance and encourage Social Entrepreneurship at Cornell.

In addition to this campus-wide audit, the Cornell Changemker team is also beginning to plan a few events and capitalize on already existing forums where we can exhibit the power of Changemaking and Social Entrepreneurship. More to come on those events in future posts...

For now, check out this article by David Brooks, published in last Friday's New York Times, calling for Social Entrepreneurship as a cure for the current economic crisis:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/opinion/28brooks.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

Enjoy!

Incubating Change

University Team — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:02:30 -0600

Four days. Four teams from four universities. Forty+ Changemakers.

And that was only the beginning: watch, and welcome aboard.