Posts Tagged ‘Non-profit organizations’

Scaling new heights

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Seven undergraduates design academic experience and work with social enterprises in India

Summer internships help college students acquire valuable life skills, but Amyaz Moledina, associate professor of economics at The College of Wooster, and a multidisciplinary team of students have taken the concept to a new level with the Global Social Entrepreneurship problem-based learning experience.

The program is similar to Wooster’s Applied Mathematics Research Experience (AMRE), which assigns exceptional mathematics and computer science majors to serve as consultants for businesses, educational institutions, government agencies, and non-profit organizations.

The latest endeavor has been “quite a few years in the making,” according to Moledina. “We were looking for ways in which to innovate from the AMRE model. We thought, why not try to do what we do so well in our local community, globally?”

As Director of Social Entrepreneurship, Moledina asked a team of students to design a unique global social entrepreneurship program that had a field component. Students designed and wrote a comprehensive social entrepreneurship education plan. On the strength of this plan, Moledina and one of his students, Marianne Sierocinski, traveled to India the previous summer to visit with 10 organizations and begin constructing a framework for the seminar and field experience. Moledina then organized and received approval for a special preparatory seminar. “We tried to set-up a situation where we could observe a problem through the lens of an organization that works with people in need,” he says. “The design of the seminar was unique in that I put the students in the driver’s seat and let them take charge of the learning process. I think this is the first time students have been involved in designing their own academic experience. I know of few other academic experiences that begin from a student-authored business plan.”

Shortly after the seminar ended in May, the students began their field experience, which recently concluded in Banglore, India. Student teams provided consulting services for two internationally recognized local social enterprises: Dream a Dream, which works with underprivileged children to inculcate life skills, and Enable India, which provides training and placement services to Fortune 500 companies for people with disabilities.

“Our goal has been to help the students use their skills to understand and solve the problem given to them,” says Moledina. “What’s interesting and exciting is that the problem is always evolving and ambiguous. This rarely happens in a regular academic experience.”

Dream a Dream is hoping to improve its impact assessment on the children it serves, and the Wooster students have been deeply involved in the effort. Enable India wants to look at various business models so that the organization can reach more people with its services, and Wooster students invested their critical thinking skills in that project as well.

The two organizations benefit from the free service, and the students, who come from a range of academic disciplines (including sociology, anthropology, economics and international relations), benefit from the experience of working with people of different age groups from different cultures.

“I believe that if we truly are a college that changes lives, we need to empower our students to learn continuously and help them connect to the world,” says Moledina. “The global landscape is changing rapidly, and we need to give students a chance to experience it as it happens. Their vision is evolving, and I don’t want to put any limits on it.”

To learn more about the students’ experience check out their blog and see the pictures on Flikr.

Students present ideas for social change!

Friday, April 30th, 2010

While most people celebrated Easter by taking a break, twelve students diligently put final touches to business plans for local non-profits. This years’ local SE group worked with four organizations: Goodwill, Every Woman’s House, Wooster City Schools and Cleveland Jazz Orchestra (CJO). In preparation for their final pitches to the Board of Directors of their respective organizations, students presented their plans to a group of their peers on Saturday, April 2 .

Early communication suggests that this year was a success. Erika Federman of CJO said,  our “board was impressed-as am I-by the quality of your work and by your professionalism. I loved your presentation-you did a wonderful job of presenting a LOT of information in a very succinct, easy to digest manner.  Your instincts and your line of thinking/questioning have been right on point. We will be implementing some of your suggestions in the very near future.”

Chris Miller presents Goodwill's Recycling Project

Students also report high levels of satisfaction. For example, Josh Madsen ’10 who worked with Goodwill Industries said, “Working in the capacity of business consultants through the social entrepreneurship program provided our team with a sense of confidence. Learning how to interact with a group of passionate and motivated student consultants taught our teams valuable collaborative skills that we will undoubtedly draw upon in a professional work environment.” Chris Miller ’11 also commented that the program “demands creativity, passion and versatility from students to be effective in ultimately satisfying the client. I am now comfortable communicating… with a wide range of professionals and entrepreneurs.”

To see more pictures of the day, follow our Flikr photostream.

SE 2010 Update

Friday, March 26th, 2010

The SE program at the College of Wooster began 2010 in a growth mode. The SE program uses an experiential learning or “live case” approach. It promotes social entrepreneurship and problem solving by connecting clients with real organizational problems and student teams to find meaningful solutions. This year there are two parts to the program, a local seminar/internship and a global experience.

sepan

The local seminar is 12 students and a small group of teaching faculty. The are working for a variety of Northeast Ohio non-profits. The four projects this semester are:

These projects are advised by Dr. Lisa Verdon (Economics), Dr. Matthew Broda (Education) and Ms. Theresa Ford (Director of Assessment), Dr Jen Roche (Mathematics) and finally Dr. Russ Ormiston (Economics).

Global SE is an inter-cultural, inter-generational, experiential-learning, problem-based experience with two components – an on-campus seminar and an international experiential-learning consultancy. This experience was designed and developed by Wooster students last year. Facilitated by Moledina, a group of eight students, selected from a group of 25 of the best applicants to the program, are preparing to consult with social enterprises in Bangalore. They will work with Dream-a Dream and Enable India beginning in May 2010 and be supported by a local capacity building enterprise called the Center for Social Initiatives and Management.

  • Dream a Dream seeks to empower children from vulnerable backgrounds by developing life skills and at the same time sensitizing the community through active volunteering leading to a non-discriminatory society where unique differences are appreciated.
  • Enable India seeks to empower people with disabilities by offering training and job placement services.

To prepare themselves students partake in inter-cultural training, designing their own curriculum within the parameters of the project and are attending a heady number of seminars and on campus events. Part of the class is a series of guest lectures.

For example, students met Matthew Bishop, American Business Editor and New York Bureau Chief for The Economist. Philanthrocapitalism, his 2008 book (with Michael Green) on the business of philanthropy was described as “terrific” by the New York Times, and called “the definitive guide to a new generation of philanthropists who understand innovation and risk-taking and who will play a crucial part in solving the biggest problems facing the world,”

The SE program also designed a Social Venture Capital Clinic for students and clients. We welcomed Nell Edgington of Social Velocity, Jennifer Thomas of the Civic Innovation Lab and other notable speakers on January 30th in historic Kauke Hall in Wooster. The Clinic gave SE students and clients the opportunity to learn about HOW social enterprises fund their mission. Through interactive workshops led by practitioners, participants understood and gained practical tools to access the variety of financing options that exist for social ventures including non-profits. Some tips from the Clinic have already convinced some students to access funding from Sparkseed.

Finally, the SE program will jointly fund summer fellowships in innovative urban gardening projects in Northeast Ohio. Stay tuned for announcements.