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For many, attending college was always part of "The Plan" after high school—a few years of polish (and partying) before earning a degree and finding meaningful employment. But that's not often the case for one segment of the U.S. population: first-generation college goers like Ashoka Fellow...

Around the globe, schools are educating youth based on a world that no longer exists. Educators emphasize traditional subjects, while essential skills like empathy, teamwork, leadership, and creativity continue to be overlooked. As noted by renowned educator and creativity expert Ken Robinson, the...

A convening of five schools in 2012 yielded these tips on cultivating empathy in your school. The StartEmpathy team gathered together educators from Mission Hill School,Lake Forest Park School, the Center for Inspired Teaching Demonstration School, Georgetown Day School, and Prospect Sierra School -...

This is the first of a series of posts featuring Exchange participants discussing “Disruptive Innovation in Higher Education.” This week we feature Laura White, a senior at Tulane University and founder of the nonprofit Swim 4 Success. When you ask Laura White about reforming higher education, she...

If you think social entrepreneurship has to be taught as a stand-alone subject, you haven’t met Jane Turner and Benhür Oral. While teaching English as a preparatory subject in Istanbul’s Özyeğin University, they quickly realized they could incorporate far more into the syllabus than just the basic...

There is nothing more powerful than pattern-changing ideas in the hands of leading social entrepreneurs (as Ashoka CEO Bill Drayton reminds us). The greatest challenge in today’s rapidly changing world is figuring out how to scale-up these good ideas. To discover disruptive innovations with great...

Shai Reshef, president and founder of the University of the People, a nonprofit institution based in Pasadena, California, is bringing free online higher education to millions of young people around the world. Most recently, this Ashoka Fellow was nominated to Wired U.K.’s first-ever Smart List by...

A conversation with Sonali Ojha, Ashoka Fellow and founder of the Dreamcatchers Foundation When the devastating Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami struck at the end of 2004, hundreds of relief organizations rushed to the scene. Sonali Ojha's organization, the Dreamcatchers Foundation, was there too...

Forget the Oscars—this week, the hottest stars on the red carpet are ideas for improving higher education. Six sustainable, scalable teaching and partnership models to bring disruptive social innovation education have won the 2012 Ashoka U – Cordes Innovation Award. Ashoka U, Ashoka's initiative...