The Brown Daily Herald Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Campus News 5
New fund to help create ‘entrepreneurial community’ continued from page 8 are invited to present their ideas to people interested in the entrepreneurial process. Peer critiques allow students to hear critical questions and suggestions and force them to see the gaps and strengths in their models, Harlam said. “What we’re in the process of creating is a true entrepreneurial community,” Beckman wrote. “The programming tied to the launch fund will bring entrepreneurs together to share their ideas — and when entrepreneurially minded people get together to do that, the results are often amazing.” Though a safe place for discussion is crucial, the fund also helps students improve their pitches — honing the ability to sell an idea, not just trying to expose its flaws — said Roger Nozaki, director of the Swearer Center. Tim Natividad ’12 plans to apply with his project, Social Exposures. The project is work in progress, he said, but involves combining mobile applications with non-profit organizations. It will solicit photo essays from a different nonprofit each month, later compiling the photo essays into a publication. The fund’s three-tiered system
makes sense, he said. Projects get the funding they need to leave the ground, and more money is available later if necessary. The application process tries to gauge the viability of each project, he said. “Can we transfer this from paper to practice? That’s the big take home question.” Hao Tran ’14, who is working with an organization called FUNDaFIELD, is also applying to the fund. FUNDaFIELD, run exclusively by students, aims to build soccer fields near primary schools in South Africa, Uganda and Kenya. The organization has built seven fields, with an eighth in a fundraising stage, Tran wrote in an email to The Herald. It has raised $140,000 since 2007. “Another goal of FUNDaFIELD is to provide children with a safe place to play and to reintegrate former child soldiers (and) victims of HIV/ AIDs … back into the community through sport,” he wrote. Tran plans to travel to Uganda this summer and hopes to receive support from the fund, he wrote. He has gained support from the Sport and Development Program at the Watson Institute for International Studies, and he has been working with Eli Wolff ’00, a visit-
Students offered spring quarter at Dartmouth continued from page 1 Boeglin said affected students he had talked to are also leaning toward enrolling for a quarter at Dartmouth. The Office of International Programs will help students transition into Dartmouth with the help of specific departments at Brown and colleagues at Dartmouth, Brostuen
wrote. “These students will continue to receive support throughout their study experience at Dartmouth and until their return to Brown for the fall semester,” he added. Boeglin said digesting the University’s decision was definitely difficult. “It’s a lot of crazy news in a very short period of time,” Boeglin said.
ing fellow in international studies. To receive the first level of funding, Tran must quantify the potential social impact of his program. The goal is to show the number of kids who have access to fields, the change in attendance and enrollment at schools, the number of students moving onto secondary school and officials’ reactions to the
program, he wrote. If he receives additional funding, Tran can investigate how FUNDaFIELD impacts communities at large. He wrote he is optimistic he will move on to the second- and thirdlevel grants and expand the initiative’s operations to South Africa and Kenya, where FUNDaFIELD has already begun its work.
The fund is looking forward to its first round of applications, which will be evaluated on a rolling basis. There is a two to three week period before applications are accepted to assure ideas are not simply based on early applications. Harlam predicts that the first official review process will begin just after spring break.
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