CLUB HOPPING
Social Entrepreneurship at Universities Whether thinking about starting an enterprise or wanting to be a changemaker, students are coming together to discuss pressing social problems and arrive at new solutions. Abhiyan Where: Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow, India Contact us: misterjain@gmail.com At the crossroads: Abhiyan was started in 1999 to connect entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, academicians and professionals. Organized efforts: We organize events, talks and competitions to enhance student-entrepreneur interactions. We have “Drona - The Gurukul,” an advisory board for virtual incubation and mentoring, and publish a quarterly newsletter “Enterpre.” Initiating interactions: We are associated with the Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN), National Innovation Foundation (NIF), India. StudentBusinesses.com, Seedfund, Indian Angel Network, Barings Private Equity, techTribe, Nucleus, IndiaCo, Band of Angels, Capital 18, and e-cells and incubation cells of premier business schools and engineering colleges in India. What’s cool: Nirvaan is our annual national level event where start-ups and MBA and engineering students get an opportunity to procure VC & angel funding and mentorship. We also organize “Whackopreneur”, a creative idea contest; interactive talks & workshops. Social Entrepreneurship Club Where: Foster School of Business, University of Washington Chapter, USA Contact us: sammierayner@gmail.com From 0 to 50: A social entrepreneurship course in the MBA program in the fall of 2008 brought together the eight of us who wanted to do something in social entrepreneurship and later we expanded to fifty members. We attract all kinds: We have students from International Studies, Biology, Art and Political Science as members. Partnering beyond campus: Our partners are Washington CASH (Community Alliance for Self-Help), SeaMo (Seattle Microfinance network), Kiva Club (on campus), Water1st, Krochet Kids International, TOM’s Shoes, Village Volunteers, Mary Gates Foundation, and Global Business Center (on campus). Special engagements: We organized a speaker event with Kiva’s CEO and Founder, Matt Flannery on 5th March, in partnership with SeaMo. We will continue to assist CASH with their outreach strategy and will build on Lumana Credit, an offshoot of the micro-credit program we established in Ghana.
Social Entrepreneurship Club (NSEC) Where: NUST SEECS (School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), Pakistan Contact us: shamila.keyani@seecs.edu.pk Integrate to ideate: NSEC is a platform where students identify social problems and together they find innovative and sustainable ways to solve them. Socially responsible and relevant: We are working with UM-Healthcare Trust on a “tele-healthcare” project and with Brightspyre (Pakistan’s online job portal) to arrange seminars, career counseling sessions and startup coffee insider sessions. STEP (Special Talent Exchange Program) and NSEC are working on conducting seminars and skill training session on people with disabilities. We also collect waste paper from university and get it recycled in a paper recycling plant, DIU. Health..for us and for the environment: We are organizing a medical camp as part of the tele-healthcare project, lady health workers’ training program, seminars to raise awareness of physical disabilities and social and environmental issues. 50
beyond profit may/june 2009