Youth Social Entrepreneurship
Date: May 23, 2009
This event has already occured
A Recording of this event can be found here
Synopsis
Increasingly, youth around the world are taking it upon themselves to engage social challenges and effect positive community change. A new generation of socially responsible ventures has emerged that addresses urgent global and local issues such as health, poverty, violence, racism, environmental destruction and civic apathy. This wave of youth social entrepreneurship offers new set of solutions and energy, but also brings with it its own set of professional, financial and personal challenges.
This teleconference will discuss the challenges, strategies and rewards of youth social entrepreneurship. Specific topics will include:
Panelists
Panelist Bios
Philip Rucker (Moderator)
National Correspondent, The Washington Post
Philip Rucker is a national political correspondent at The Washington Post, where he writes about the White House, Congress, the federal government and politicians across the country. He joined the political staff in November 2008 to cover President Obama’s historic transition to power. Previously, he was the newspaper’s national philanthropy reporter, covering charities, disaster relief agencies, foundations and nonprofit organizations. He wrote about trends in giving, social entrepreneurship and international aid. Rucker also covered Maryland state politics and government and reported from the scene of the Minneapolis bridge collapse in 2007 and Hurricane Gustav on the Louisiana Gulf Coast in 2008. Rucker joined the Post in 2006 as a local government and general news reporter in suburban Maryland. He graduated from Yale University, where he earned a B.A. in history and was a reporter and editor at the Yale Daily News.
Andrew Klaber
Founder and President, Orphans Against AIDS, www.orphansagainstaids.org
Andrew is founder and president of Orphans Against AIDS (OAA), an international NGO that has provided more than $100,000 in academic scholarships and basic healthcare to 350 children in the developing world. By focusing efforts on children who cannot afford school because their parents have been afflicted with HIV/AIDS, OAA and its local partners ensure that future generations have the wherewithal - the personal and social resources that come with schooling - to capitalize on opportunities to escape the pandemic. For his dedication to aiding youths affected by the epidemic, he was invited to speak at the 2008 World Economic Forum and named a Goldman Sachs Global Leader, a Marshall Scholar, a Udall Scholar and a Truman Scholar. Andrew is currently completing his JD/MBA from Harvard University. Orphans Against AIDS has been featured in The New York Times, USA-Today, and The Washington Post among other publications.
Svitlana Kobzar
Founder, Forgotten Children of Eastern Europe
Svitlana is the founder of Forgotten Children of Eastern Europe (FCEE), a non-profit organization which helps children in Eastern Europe. FCEE is mostly managed by students and faculty of Alma College and staff in Ukraine. Since 2002, through its Adopt-an-Orphanage Program, FCEE has supported orphans in Ukraine. Initially, the group ‘adopted’ Veselka, a poor orphanage in the small town of Borodianka located within Chernobyl Zone No. 4, the region near the deadly 1986 radioactive disaster. In the following years, FCEE has expanded to help orphanages in Lviv and Odessa. The FCEE has collaborated with five Rotary Clubs in the US and has successfully applied for the Matching Grant to buy computers and educational supplies for orphans. In the past four years, FCEE has developed the Ukrainian Service Vision Program to award American students scholarships to work and study in Ukraine. Every summer, this three-component program enables students to work with an orphanage, intern with an international organization, and meet with policymakers in Ukraine. Svitlana is a doctoral student and Gates Scholar at Cambridge University, where she is researching the ‘European Union factor’ that contributes to democratisation in Ukraine.
Robyn Scott
Co-Founder and Trustee, Mothers for All, www.mothersforall.org
Mothers for All is a non-profit organisation that supports the women in Botswana and South Africa who are caring for children orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS. These women - most poorly educated, and often looking after several children - are taught to make beautiful recycled paper bead jewelry, the sale of which provides them with an income and generates funds for further training. The programs also help develop social support networks, and recently the organisation expanded to include maximum security prisoners who support orphans in their local communities. Robyn has an MPhil in Bioscience Enterprise (Distinction) from the University of Cambridge, where she was a Gates Scholar, and a BSc in Bioinformatics, from Auckland University. She is a writer and an Ambassador of the Access to Medicine Foundation. Mothers for All was founded with proceeds from her book about growing up in Botswana during the rise of AIDS.
Casey Wilson
Co-Founder and CEO, Wokai, www.wokai.org
Wokai is the first person-to person-microfinance nonprofit that connects contributors around the world with with recipients in rural China. Casey leads Wokai’s business strategy and development, Field Partner due-diligence evaluation, and public outreach. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University with a BA in Economics. While at Wesleyan, Casey focused on economic development and its applications in the Chinese context. After graduation, Casey completed a course of study at Tsinghua University and the University of California at Berkeley’s Inter-University Program (IUP) for advanced Chinese. Prior to studying at Tsinghua, Casey spent two summers studying Chinese at the Middlebury College Intensive Chinese School in Vermont. Wokai has been featured in the SF Chronicle and Newsweek.
