P A T H W A Y
T O
THIRD EDITION
A C T I O N
THE RESOLUTION PROJECT PRESENTS
P A T H W A Y
T O
A C T I O N
Third Edition By the Fellows, Volunteers, and Staff of The Resolution Project
Editor | Kelsey Overby Creative Director | Sarah Evans Managing Editor | Victoria Gordon Special Thanks to Joey Cheng and Taylor Hemenway.
THE MISSION OF THE RESOLUTION PROJECT
I S T O D E V E L O P S O C I A L LY- R E S P O N S I B L E
YOUNG LEADERS AND EMPOWER THEM TO
M A K E A P O S I T I V E I M PAC T TO DAY.
Photo provided by Resolution Fellows Tahsin Sharif and Wahid Hossain of Oikkyotan.
THE VISION OF THE RESOLUTION PROJECT
I S TO C R E AT E A G E N E R AT I O N O F
LEADERS WITH A LIFELONG COMMITMENT
TO S O C I A L R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y.
Resolution Fellow Annie Ryu of Global Village Fruit
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These students have the
energy, idealism, and will to solve some of the world’s
most persistent problems.
G
iven new ways for people to connect, more flexible financial support, and evolving
technologies, it is increasingly possible for entrepreneurially-minded people to build businesses and ventures without traditional infrastructure. In this context, undergraduate students around the world convene in youth conferences, identified as “leaders of tomorrow.” These students have the energy, idealism, and will to solve some of the world’s most persistent problems, but lack the access to capital, training, and ecosystem of support to realize those goals today. With the best of intentions, they hope to make a difference, but senior conference speakers often exhort them to take advantage of the training they receive as “leaders of tomorrow,” implying that their time has not yet arrived. Having managed youth summits themselves, the founders of The Resolution Project saw an opportunity for change and took action.
THE BEGINNING In its first few years, Resolution tested methods to activate these young leaders with its first conference partner, Harvard World Model UN (“WorldMUN�). In 2007, Resolution launched an online platform for WorldMUN attendees to connect. In 2008, this evolved into a mini-case competition, through which conference attendees submitted a short essay on a global or local problem, and how they would create an actionable venture to solve it. Resolution received nearly 60 submissions, but the question was: how could Resolution channel this outburst of entrepreneurial spirit?
Carlos Garcia and his team present in the first Resolution Social Venture Challenge Finals at WorldMUN 2009 in The Hague, Netherlands.
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n the absence of access to the social sector or project funding, it was unclear how students would fund the ventures they submitted in the mini-case competition, or to whom
they would turn for advice and expertise during implementation. But it was more than clear: a market existed. The fact that 60 solutions were developed in a few days revealed that this marriage of a student conference and a social venture competition could galvanize new leaders who might not otherwise have tried to launch a socially-responsible project. In a world in which so many students go to the private sector for lack of other obvious options, this was a breakthrough. This underserved community of undergraduates was hugely diverse in so many ways—geographically, academically, ethnically, and economically. They decided to attend WorldMUN, often at great cost and with huge fundraising efforts and preparation. They had irrepressible energy
The finalists and judges from Resolution’s first Social Venture Challenge.
and optimism, but no obvious pathway to action after the last day of the conference.
Resolution co-founders Oliver Libby and George Tsiatis announce the first Resolution Fellows at WorldMUN 2009.
Judges from Resolution’s first SVC Final Round pitches, including Advisory Board member Ariel Dora Stern and co-founders Oliver and George.
In 2009, Resolution travelled to WorldMUN in The Hague to launch the first Social Venture Challenge (“SVC”). Over 20 teams made it through three online rounds to present their ideas during the Social Venture Forum. Hundreds of their peers streamed through the science-fair-like setting, marveling at these youth-led social ventures. In the Finals, a pitch session with a panel of judges, competitors earnestly presented about the state of their hometowns, the plight of battered women, and the need for technology in rural areas. Five inspiring young leaders were chosen, becoming Resolution’s first class of Resolution Fellows, and launching their proposed Ventures immediately.
THE SVCMODEL Having built a strong, proven system in partnership with WorldMUN, Resolution began partnering with more Host Conferences in 2012 to increase its sources of undergraduate student leaders. Because of the scalability and portability of the SVC model, the organization was able to expand its portfolio of Host Conferences rapidly. The SVC also proved to be a compelling proposition for youth conferences, given its ability to extend student impact beyond the final day of the conference and add to the conferences’ value proposition to students.
Social Venture Challenge Forum at the Youth Assembly at the United Nations in February 2015.
Resolution SVC Forum at CGI U 2015
SVC winners at CGI U 2015
Resolution has a proven model for identifying and inspiring young leaders through our SVCs and Fellowships: We collaborate with existing youth conferences. We invite undergraduate students attending these conferences to propose social ventures through the SVC. This is a multi-stage competition, combining web-based submissions, live rounds of presentations, and due diligence. We award Resolution Fellowships to those young leaders with the most compelling personal leadership characteristics and promising social venture proposals. We support our Fellows with dynamic, hands-on mentorship, seed funding, and access to world-class global advisory resources from our dedicated team of volunteers and Guides. The impact of activating potential young leaders through social entrepreneurship is inspiring; they become engaged early in making positive changes in the world and the character of their leadership is infused with social responsibility. Resolution’s current Host Conferences include Harvard WorldMUN, Harvard National Model United Nations, The Youth Assembly at the United Nations, The Clinton Global Initiative University, Semester at Sea, African Leadership Academy, and The Igniting Innovation Summit.
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The Resolution Project
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has shown that sociallyresponsible young
entrepreneurs who want
to create a positive change no longer have to wait for
tomorrow, but are capable of leading today.
—Chelsea Clinton
Photo of Chelsea Clinton, Vice Chair of the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation with the Social Venture Challenge Winners and the Resolution team at CGI U 2015.
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The Resolution SVC at CGI U 2015 is our largest event of
the year involving more than
495 student competitors and dozens of Resolution team members.
Resolution’s SVC Forum at CGI U 2015.
Social Venture Challenge Forum participants at the Youth Assembly at the United Nations in February 2015.
SVC Forum participants from HNMUN 2015
SVC Winners from WorldMUN 2015
OUR FELLOWS Resolution’s mission is to develop socially-responsible young leaders and empower them to make a positive impact today, and its vision is a generation of leaders with a lifelong commitment to social responsibility. Resolution is empowering a global community of Resolution Fellows to begin their lifetime of positive impact early—as undergraduate students—while becoming effective and connected leaders for good in the world.
Resolution Fellow Mojia Shen from Revive
A
lthough the Ventures that Resolution Fellows create have great impact,
they also serve as the crucible for the development of their leadership. Whether Fellows continue with their original ventures or not, these experiences infuse Fellows with social responsibility and effective management skills. Resolution thus creates multiple layers of impact, from social ventures, to successful young leaders, to engaged and inspired volunteers. Even in the few short years of Resolution’s existence, its Fellows have done incredible work and have helped shape communities around the world. The following pages highlight just a few initiatives that our Fellows are actively pursuing, organized by Resolution’s seven core areas of sustainable impact.
IMPACT
BASIC NEEDS
DEVELOPMENT
E D U C AT I O N
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
EQUALITY & EMPOWERMENT
H E A LT H & W E L L N E S S
H U M A N I TA R I A N A I D
Photo provided by Resolution Fellow Anderson Lima of Casa de Áak.
KOUZIN DLO
basic needs Tackling high rates of unemployment and a poor quality of water in Haiti through a simple filtration system. Resolution Fellow Jessica Laporte.
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellow Jessica Laporte of Kouzin Dlo. A participant in Sales Agent training washes her hands before lunch.
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esolution Fellow Jessica Laporte is the founder of Kouzin Dlo, a social venture that is simultaneously tackling the problems of
high female unemployment and low access to clean water in Haiti. Clean drinking water in Haiti is prohibitively expensive, and contaminated sources lead to 20,000+ deaths in children under 5 each year. In response to the cholera crisis, Jess and her team established Kouzin Dlo to build a network of female entrepreneurs who can distribute effective, affordable and easy-to-use water purification products throughout urban and peri-urban areas where there is existing water infrastructure but it is not reliably clean. To date, Jess has trained over 100 women as sales agents across 9 sites, selling more than 1,500 bottles of chlorine, reaching more than 12 communities. With plans to scale over the next 12 months, Jess and her team are providing income-generating opportunities for women, empowering these women to act as health educators and water purification advocates, and facilitating consistent access
Participants practice door-to-door outreach using role plays at Sales Agent training.
to affordable purification methods for communities across Haiti.
Photos courtesy of Resolution Fellow Jessica Laporte of Kouzin Dlo.
Participants present picture stories, tracing the spread of disease through a community, at Sales Agent training
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Contaminated drinking water leads to 20,000+
deaths in children under 5 each year in Haiti.
These women are acting as health educators and water purification advocates in communities across Haiti.
EL CARRIZAL BUSINESS CENTER
development Building a business center in Honduras to offer subsistence farmers a way to support themselves and their families while providing entrepreneurship training. Resolution Fellow Antonio Peralta.
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l Carrizal, Namasigue is a small underdeveloped community located in Honduras that suffers from widespread
poverty, unemployment, and an overall lack of infrastructure. El Carrizal’s residents are mostly farmers, but without resources and proper training they are unable to support themselves and their families. Having grown up in this small community, Resolution Fellow Antonio Peralta grew increasingly frustrated with its members’ unrealized potential. To help increase opportunity in the area, Antonio is building the El Carrizal Business Center. The Business Center will provide tools and training for local farmers to plant, grow, and sell excess produce to the Business Center so they can receive a share of the profit from its resale at market. Farmers will have the opportunity to participate in entrepreneurship seminars, increasing
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellow Antonio Peralta of El Carrizal Business Center.
their likelihood of becoming small business owners.
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The Business Center
will provide tools and skills for local farmers in
El Carrizal, Namasigue.
E M E RG I N AT I O N A F R I C A
education Connecting high school students in Zimbabwe with mentors to provide counseling services for educational and professional guidance. Resolution Fellows Prince M Abudu and Taku Machirori.
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ublic high school students in Zimbabwe often lack the educational counseling services that students need when
applying to universities and developing professional skills. Fellows Resolution Fellows Prince M Abudu and Taku Machirori identified that the lack of counseling stems from a lack of financial resources, access to skilled counselors, and brain drain. They also recognized that making strategic life-shaping decisions at a young age is difficult without proper guidance. Through Emergination Africa, Prince and Taku are connecting Zimbabwean high school students to college students and professionals of the Zimbabwean diaspora in the United States through weekly video call sessions, panel discussions, and project-based learning activities. Their goal is to support, foster, and encourage students to pursue higher education, while helping them navigate the challenges
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellows Prince M Abudu and Taku Machirori of Emergination Africa.
associated with the college application process.
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Emergination Africa is
connecting Zimbabwean high
school students to professionals to discuss opportunities to
pursue higher education and interesting career paths.
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellows Prince M Abudu and Taku Machirori of Emergination Africa.
B R I G H T E R T O D AY
energy&environment Promoting energy efficiency, reducing household electricity bills, and changing future generations in India through the switch of a light bulb. Resolution Fellow Mansi Prakash.
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellow Mansi Prakash of Brighter Today.
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esolution Fellow Mansi Prakash is brightening the futures of generations to come in Behlana village, a rural town in India, one
light bulb at a time. Through her Venture, Brighter Today, she is replacing 60-Watt incandescent bulbs with 11-Watt energyefficient compact fluorescent (“CFL�) bulbs, which uses around 80% less energy. Starting with 100 households, Mansi will spread awareness that while CFL bulbs seem more expensive, they are actually much more cost effective, thereby saving households a very material sum. Should the pilot venture prove viable, Mansi plans to develop a buy-one give-one model in the United States to promote CFL replacement in rural villages, promoting energy efficiency and lowering energy bills. These savings will allow families to spend more of
Resolution Fellow Mansi Prakash (left) with community members in India.
their incomes on other basic needs, such as education, healthcare, and food.
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellow Mansi Prakash of Brighter Today.
Resolution Fellow Mansi Prakash installing CFL light bulbs to promote energy efficiency and lower energy bills in India.
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Replacing a 60-Watt
incandescent light bulb with
an 11-Watt energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulb uses 80% less energy.
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellow Mansi Prakash of Brighter Today.
PA I N TA S T I C K I D S !
equality&empowerment Using art therapy to heal and help with the emotional development of homeless children in Indonesia. Resolution Fellows Muhammad Hadley Aulia, Rasilia Palmi, and Nuriasani Yukendri.
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellow Muhammed Hadley Aulia, Rasilia Palmi, and Nuriasani Yukendri of Paintastic Kids!
D
ue to persistent natural disaster events, many children in North Sumatra and Central Java are
displaced, homeless, and/or orphaned. As such, many do not have access to resources that would grant them the ability to explore their own self-expression and creativity. Believing that an inability to outwardly express feelings would further impact their psychological state, Resolution Fellows Muhammad Hadley Aulia, Rasilia Palmi, and Nuriasani Yukendri founded Paintastic Kids! to create an arts education program for street children, natural disaster victims, and children suffering from illness and disability in Palambang, Indonesia and provide a safe space for them to explore their creativity. The paintings will be sold in auctions, with 100% of the revenues given back to the children to provide a source of income and aid their survival. Paintastic Kids! will allow the children to escape the harsh realities of the street through a positive cultural experience while also
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellows combating societal stigma against children Muhammed Hadley Aulia, Rasilia Palmi, and Nuriasani Yukendri of Paintastic Kids! with disabilities.
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellows Muhammed Hadley Aulia, Rasilia Palmi, and Nuriasani Yukendri of Paintastic Kids!
Participants of Paintastic Kids!, an arts education program for street children, natural disaster victims, and ill or disabled children.
Resolution Fellows Muhammed Hadley Aulia, Rasilia Palmi, and Nuriasani Yukendri with participants of Paintastic Kids!
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellows Muhammed Hadley Aulia, Rasilia Palmi, and Nuriasani Yukendri of Paintastic Kids!
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100% of the revenues from
the paintings will be given back to the children to provide
a source of income and aid to their survival.
S A N I TA R Y S O L U T I O N : C O M P O S T I N G TO I L E T S
health&wellness Installing composting toilets and educating locals about sanitation in Honduras to resolve the widespread issue of water pollution and reduce disease. Resolution Fellow Raquel Granados.
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n La Teja Santa Ana La Paz, Honduras, illness permeates the small community, particularly children, due to the lack of a proper sanitation system. Not
a single house in La Teja has a toilet and thus, human waste causes water pollution, infecting drinking wells with dangerous levels of the Cryptosporidium bacterium. The community lacks the necessary access to medical assistance, which increases the danger of pollution. Resolution Fellow Raquel Granados is working with locals to fix these issues by building composting toilets and educating the locals on the merits of using them - how composting toilets will be effective, reduce illnesses, and provide economic benefits to the area.
Resolution Fellow Raquel Granados (center) with community members building composting toilets in La Teja.
She then hopes to scale her Venture to surrounding communities.
Raquel and her team installed composting latrines throughout the community, including at the local church and school, to help alleviate many of the problems caused by water pollution and poor sanitation.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND JOB RECRUITMENT CENTER
humanitarian aid Building a career development center in Georgia to help displaced peoples discover their passions through job recruitment, training, and mentorship. Resolution Fellows Mariam Getiashvili and Akaki Gotsiridze.
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n the northwest region of Abhazia in Georgia, there are approximately 250,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who live without access to basic needs, such as food, health
insurance, education, medical assistance, and comfortable housing. The IDPs are forced to live on a monthly income of approzimately$17 USD per a person, around five times less than the estimated living wage in Georgia. While often professionally and skillfully qualified, IDPs lack the resources and proper training to compete in the local job market. To help with this, Resolution Fellows Mariam Getiashvili and Akaki Gotsiridze created The Career Development and Job Recruitment Center, a facility in which IDPs receive career development training and opportunities to
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellows Mariam Getiashvili and Akaki Gotsiridze.
network through career fairs so they can gain employment and finally afford basic needs.
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellows Mariam Getiashvili and Akaki Gotsiridze.
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellows Mariam Getiashvili and Akaki Gotsiridze.
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Our research and interviews of
IDPs revealed that, from the many
problems which IDPs face, the most
serious is their unemployment. Being without a job means no income for
their families and results in financial and social pressure.
Resolution Fellows Akaki Gotsiridze (left) and Mariam Getiashvili (right) with a member of the team from the Career Development and Job Recruitment Center.
L O O K I N G
Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellow Mansi Prakash of Brighter Today.
T
he Resolution Project is galvanizing a generation of leaders. Resolution Fellows are among the most
promising students today, with a passion for improving the world by solving its problems. The transformational experience of executing their social ventures, coupled with the training, mentorship, and support they receive through their Resolution Fellowships, helps to ensure they have the greatest chance of success, and the opportunity
FORWARD
to lead not only tomorrow, but today. As Resolution continues to increase its impact through its growing Fellow community and its inspiring Ventures, Resolution will continue to operate with the assurance that leaders of now make better leaders of tomorrow, and that some impact today leads to bigger impact tomorrow. Challenges are threatening to overwhelm the world, and yet Resolution’s hope grows because of the generation of leaders who are starting today and committing their lives to social responsibility.
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FELLOWS
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VENTURES
5 0 + C O U N T R I E S
6 C O N T I N E N T S
AND
GROWING Photo courtesy of Resolution Fellows Muhammed Hadley Aulia, Rasilia Palmi, and Nuriasani Yukendri of Paintastic Kids!
www.resolutionproject.org