Announcing the first-ever "Changemaker Challenge"

Ashoka U has teamed up with Summer Advantage USA to launch the "Changemaker Challenge," designed to serve as a hands-on consulting program for students looking to apply their skills and passion to a real-world challenge. Teams of students from across the country -including students from Ashoka's nine Changemaker Campuses - will compete to to develop multidisciplinary strategies to help Summer Advantage reach its goal of providing all children access to quality summer learning opportunities. 

Over the course of a three-week Winter Intensive, selected teams of 3-5 students of various disciplines will be assigned a unique leading question currently being analyzed by Summer Advantage USA.  Each team will be given a discreet subject of inquiry, background information on the problem, and a list of deliverables on January 4th.  Over the following three weeks, the teams will have access to Summer Advantage leadership and an opportunity to engage with an expert in the field relevant to the project.  Each project is mission-critical to Summer Advantage and accordingly, all deliverables should  be user-friendly and immediately implementable. 

All stated deliverables are due in to Summer Advantage on January 22nd at 5pm.  A panel of judges will review each project’s deliverables after January 22nd and the top teams will be invited to attend the Ashoka Changemaker Campus Summit on February 19, 2009 in Washington, DC.  Teams will be asked to present their projects to their peers and winners of the challenge will be announced.  Teams -including members from Ashoka's nine Changemaker Campuses - will compete nationwide to develop multidisciplinary strategies to help Summer Advantage reach its goal of providing all children access to quality summer learning opportunities. 

To download an application, please click here, or email for more information.

About Summer Advantage USA

Summer Advantage USA is a national non-profit organization founded by Ashoka Senior Fellow Earl Martin Phalen, providing children grades K-8 with research-based summer learning programs focused on producing academic gains. Summer Advantage offers programs encompassing literacy, mathematics and extracurricular enrichment. This holistic approach to summer learning helps Summer Advantage USA scholars develop as citizens and leaders, in addition to achieving mastery of core academic subjects. Summer Advantage USA was launched in January 2009 with support from the Indiana Department of Education and The Mind Trust. For more information, please visit www.summeradvantage.org, email or call 866-207-3169.

About Ashoka U & The Changemaker Campus Initiative

Ashoka U is working to develop new models for higher education, envisioning a day when universities everywhere serve as an enabling environment in which every individual has access to the resources, learning opportunities, role models, and peer community needed to actualize their full potential as changemakers. Through the Changemaker Campus partnership, AshokaU works with teams of entrepreneurial students, faculty, and staff from across campus to transform select universities into hubs for social innovation. Now in its second year, the Changemaker Campus Consortium includes Babson College, College of the Atlantic, Cornell, George Mason, Johns Hopkins, The New School, Tulane, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Maryland–all chosen specifically on their ability and readiness effect cross-campus change. 

Five Universities Will Join Consortium to Create the Ideal “Changemaker Campus”

Washington, DC, August 18, 2009 – Ashoka U today announced the selection of five universities to comprise its second Changemaker Campus Consortium. Babson College, the University of Colorado at Boulder, College of the Atlantic, The New School, and Tulane University will work together to set a new standard for social entrepreneurship education.  Now in its second year, the partnership brings together students, faculty, and staff from across campus to transform their university into a hub for social change.

"Today's cohort of students is as socially engaged and ready to get to work as any in a generation. Unfortunately, this remarkable group of young people is about to walk into a job market as dismal as any in three generations,” said Phil Auerswald, one of the leaders of the partnership at George Mason and the Director of Mason’s Center on Science and Technology Policy.  “As educators we have an over-riding responsibility right now--truly more than ever--to prepare our students to create their own opportunities; to build their own future; to be leaders in a changing world. The Ashoka Changemaker Campus initiative has provided me and my student and faculty teammates with an exceptional opportunity to work toward delivering on that responsibility."

The five universities will join last year’s Changemaker Campuses – Cornell, George Mason, Johns Hopkins, and the University of Maryland – in an effort to share best practices and bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Led by Ashoka, the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs, the Changemaker Campus partnership aims to develop new models for higher education, envisioning a day when universities everywhere serve as an enabling environment where every individual has access to the resources, learning opportunities, role models, and peer community needed to actualize their full potential as changemakers. The program gives students and faculty alike the skills and mindset they need to tackle systemic problems and effect positive social change regardless of their discipline. 

“Universities and colleges are increasingly realizing that if they want to be part of the solution to the most pressing problems we face around the globe, they need to promote creative interdisciplinary problem solving among their faculty and students,” said Greg Dees, Director of Duke’s Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship, and a leader in social entrepreneurship education. “Ashoka's Changemaker Campus program is the perfect partner to stimulate faculty and students to break out of old categories in search of new solutions. Ashoka brings unparalleled knowledge of global social entrepreneurship, a rich history of working with academics through it University Network, and extensive experience breaking down barriers.”