Archive for Social Entrepreneur – Page 18

SunSaluter

Posted by Casey Compton

· Friday, September 19th, 2014

· 5 Comments

Energy and clean, drinkable water are two privileges that we often take for granted in the United States. Energy is a luxury in some underdeveloped nations, as it is very difficult to make traditional means of conducting energy available in remote areas. Similarly, clean water is limited and not easily accessible. SunSaluter took both of these crucial needs and created a product that addresses both of them.

Developed by Eden Full, SunSaluter is a gravity-powered device in which solar panels follow the rotation of the sun, while filtering at least four liters of water a day. Solar-powered energy panels are heavy, expensive, hard to install, and do not harvest as much energy as possible, because they do not always face the sun. The SunSaluter rotates so that it is in sync with the sun, producing 40% more energy than traditional solar panels. Furthermore, the SunSaluter is easy to install, assemble, and maintain. While the SunSaluter is collecting energy, it is also purifying water, by having a drip mechanism attached to the end of the device. This innovative product solves two extremely important issues and is so simple that even a child can operate it. So far, there have been two successful projects in Kenya, and the product will soon be used in Peru and India as well.

Eden Full is a senior in Mechanical Engineering at Princeton. Starting from a young age, she was interested in engineering and solar energy. At ten years old, Full noticed that her solar panels were not getting maximum exposure to the sun. She began to work with ideas on how to rotate the panels, and at 19, Full had developed the SunSaluter. Instead of pursuing engineering for her own pleasure, or to earn a high income, Full focuses her attention on helping other people, saying: “I don’t just want to tinker because it’s fun for me. I want it to have an impact on someone else.” Eden was able to make a difference when she was young, by applying a great invention with a great need. As young entrepreneurs, we can follow her example of identifying a problem and creating a simple and innovative way to address it.

5 Comments

Categories : Clean water, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Social Entrepreneur, Solar Power

But First… Let Me Take A Selfie

Posted by Turner Delmaso

· Thursday, September 18th, 2014

· No Comments

Most teenagers and young adults are familiar with Snapchat and use it almost every day. Many however, do not know the story behind the widely popular app. Evan Spiegel, a Stanford drop out, started the company with two other guys while they were in college. The idea came to Spiegel when his friend came into his room to complain about a photo he sent that he wished would disappear. This led to the initial idea of pictures that would vanish after a certain period of time upon receiving them. Spiegel and his partner Bobby Murphy, found a programmer who could create a prototype. The app was not very successful in the beginning. The original name was Picaboo, and only hosted around 130 users. Siegel however, did not come out with a clear intention for the app, the team toyed with the idea of marketing the app as an adult picture messaging with the statement “Picaboo lets you and your boyfriend send photos for peeks and not keeps!” Thank God they refrained from publicizing that idea. There was no real intended user for the app, but after looking at patterns in usage, Spiegal and his team discovered that students were using it during class to send notes and communicate because social media such as Facebook was blocked. Snapchat has revolutionized social media. It allows users to practice their photography skills by taking selfies, as well as posting photos to your story and sending temporary photos to your friends. Snapchat has gone toe to toe with Facebook’s app Poke. Poke was an app developed by Facebook that has the same concept of Snapchat. The average age of Facebook’s user went from 18 to 40. Snapchat’s users, on average, are younger than that of Facebook’s, which factors into the success of Snapchat over Facebook. I personally use Snapchat because it is easier than most other social networks and can be more personal. I enjoy sending pictures and short videos to my friends and I can even communicate with my cousins in England instantly and easily. Spiegel had the opportunity to sell his company and cash out and retire at 24. After beating out Facebook’s app, Poke, Zuckerberg offered to buy the company for $3 billion. Spiegel turned down the offer and still runs the company today. Snapchat is still a young company and I am excited to see what will happen to Spiegel and what the future of the company holds.

No Comments

Categories : App, Social Entrepreneur, Technology

Lauren Bush Lauren and FEED

Posted by Alexia Skoriak

· Saturday, November 16th, 2013

· 3 Comments

The Beginning

Lauren Bush Lauren is the niece of former President George W. Bush, the granddaughter of former President George H.W. Bush and the wife of David Lauren, son of Ralph Lauren. Despite, connections in high places, Lauren has seen her fair share of poverty around the world. Lauren acted as a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Honorary Student Spokesperson and was able to travel to Africa, Asia and Latin America and see the program’s effects on the ground. A fashion designer herself, Lauren, in 2006, designed a bag to support the WFP’s School Feeding Program. The bag was designed to imitate the bags used by WFP in distribution, especially with the use of burlap. Lauren labelled each bag with the FEED logo and a number, signifying the number of children the purchase of the bag would help feed for a year. In 2007, FEED Projects LLC. was started by Lauren and her partner Ellen Gustafson.

The Products

FEED currently offers a very wide variety of products to choose from. Now, these products, besides displaying the logo and number of meals provided, also show the country that the purchase supports. Bags from duffle bags to artisan tote bags, laptop cases, bracelets, scarves, t-shirts and even children’s apparel can be found at http://www.feedprojects.com/.

The Impact

$6 million+ has been has raised through FEED Projects, providing more than 75 million meals to 62 countries. FEED Foundation was created in 2008. It is a non-profit designed to provide other services impoverished areas and support other local organizations fighting hunger around the world. FEED Project partnerships have also expanded to include UNICEF, Target and Tom’s Shoes.

Lauren Bush Lauren used her design skills and concern for the hunger across the globe to create products that not only give back, but are becoming a fashion statement (much like Tom’s Shoes).

“When I started FEED I hadn’t even heard of the term social entrepreneur. Now it’s the cool hip buzzword,” Said Lauren when asked about her beginnings as a social entrepreneur,

“It’s part of our generation’s ethos to want to pursue our passions, pursue business, pursue entrepreneurship, but also do it with the world in mind.”

To find out more please visit/watch the links below:

http://www.feedprojects.com/

http://www.thefeedfoundation.org/

3 Comments

Categories : Fashion, Millennial Enrepreneuers, Social Entrepreneur

The Story of Katie Davis and Amazima Ministries

Posted by Alexia Skoriak

· Saturday, November 2nd, 2013

· 3 Comments

Katie Davis was a typical high school student when she took a trip to help in an orphanage in Uganda in 2007. Katie was born in a well-to-do family, graduated top in her high school class and had even been homecoming queen. Instead of beginning college right after graduation, she committed to teach kindergarten in Uganda for 10 months, much to the dismay of her parents. Her commitment to Uganda has now become that of a lifetime. Katie was greatly impacted by the need she saw in Uganda, especially in regards to children, many of whom could not pay their school fees and did not have enough to eat. After beginning to dig roots and developing relationships with the people around her, Katie decided to establish Amazima Ministries, which began by providing meals
and school fees for children in need outside of Jinja, Uganda. Katie began renting a house, just so she had an address needed to certify the organization. As she went about her ministry, Katie came across two girls, a pair of sisters, in need of a place to stay. She readily invited them into her home and as no family members could be found to take them in, she began the process of adoption. Katie is now a mother to 13 Ugandan girls in addition to running Amazima. The organization started out as a miracle, surviving with little financial stability, yet the Lord continued to provide. Today, Katie continues her ministry of running Amazima and raising 13 girls. Amazima continues to expand, now providing a sponsorship program, medical services and bed nets that help to prevent malaria. Katie has become a well-known figure among Christians for her outstanding faith and willingness to go where the Lord called. She has a book called Kisses from Katie, which I highly recommend (seriously – let me know if you would like to borrow it) which describes her story and faith journey in further detail. As fearless millennials like Katie follow God’s calling, the world is slowly being bettered.

3 Comments

Categories : Millennial Enrepreneuers, Social Entrepreneur, Social Justice

Do Your Part: The Tok Project

Posted by Zachary McClelland

· Thursday, October 17th, 2013

· 6 Comments

So, I know this person . . .

Last year I had the wonderful opportunity of being involved in Grove City College’s Children’s Theatre production of Seussical. The show was a blast, and I met some fantastic people; one of whom was Hannah List. Anyways, to get to the point, one day after the end of the school year–around graduation and May intersession–I saw Hannah sewing something as she was sitting on a bench with a friend, just outside of Beans on Broad. I asked her what she was working on and so she showed me: it was a neat, vintage, hand-made bowtie, and with that she shared a story . . .

Micah List

She told me she was making it for her brother’s business. Micah, her brother, had spent the fall semester of his junior year in Bangkok, Thailand. Near the end of his time there, Micah went out with some friends for a fun night of Karaoke at a local bar. When they arrived they found that the bar was not offering Karaoke as an entertainment option. Instead they were approached by twelve young Thai women with deadening looks of despair in their eyes. These were trafficked women, and they were selling sex. Micah was horrified, but in this moment of pain he was overcome with hope and resolution.

The word “Tok” in Acholi means “Hat.” Micah’s huge idea was to take his connections and resources to make everything from hats to bowties, and sell them to raise money to help these women. The goal is to help these women get to safe houses, to remove them from the brothels. Micah hopes to also provide these women with jobs making his products. Not only would he pay them fairly, but it would provide the women a way out. A way to make money without selling themselves.

#DYP

Micah’s motto for the business is “Do your part.” He wants people to understand the problem and to contribute to a solution. For each product he sells, 25% is given to help these women. All you have to do is buy a hat, tie, or shirt. For such a new business, their website is surprisingly intuitive and slick. You really should check it out. They also have some of their products for sale on a rack at Beans on Broad. Come by sometime, you may even see Micah hanging out there–he spends a lot of time at Beans these days. Pull him aside, ask him about The Tok Project, and learn how you too can do your part.

6 Comments

Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Millennial Entrepreneurs, Social Entrepreneur, Social Justice

ThinkImpact: The Spread of Social Entrepreneurship

Posted by Alexia Skoriak

· Thursday, October 17th, 2013

· 3 Comments

The Foundation

At 18, Saul Garlick was already a motivated social entrepreneur. After visiting South Africa and being shocked by the poverty he saw and experienced there, Saul knew he wanted to do something to help. While still in high school he founded a nonprofit called Students Movement for Real Change (SMRC). Quickly, they raised 10,000 to build a school in Mpumalanga, South Africa. During his college years, Saul went back to visit this village and was dismayed to find that it had fallen into disrepair. This was the moment he realized that there was a disconnect between traditional aid efforts and the impact that everyone wanted to see. Saul continued funding projects through his organization, SMRC. As he again and again saw the typical methods of poverty alleviation fail, he became more and more interested in social entrepreneurship. This interest lead him to found ThinkImpact, a for-profit company whose purpose it is to encourage collaboration, entrepreneurship and community development.

ThinkImpact

Today ThinkImpact offers opportunities for students and others interested in social entrepreneurship to learn about development firsthand. Through ThinkImpact Institute, participants live in villages of developing countries and work and brainstorm with members of those communities to come up with innovative solutions. Currently, ThinkImpact works in Kenya and South Africa. The organization also offers curriculum and even a summit that is mostly available to graduate schools and their students. Their programs offer insight into working with development in Africa, social entrepreneurship and innovation and collaboration. Through these programs, ThinkImpact hopes to change the way people think about aid and encourage a perspective of helpingthose in poverty break the cycle of dependence and learn to provide for themselves and their communities.

Interviewing the Founder of Think Impact: Incubating Social Ventures in African Villages from Unreasonable Media on Vimeo.

Sources:

http://www.thinkimpact.com/about-us/

http://socialcapitalmarkets.net/2011/08/30/socap11-social-entrepreneur-spotlight-saul-garlick-think-impact-company-sub-saharan-africa/

3 Comments

Categories : Millennial Enrepreneuers, Social Entrepreneur