student leaders

Chris Bennett is a rising senior at Stanford University, majoring in Earth Systems, an interdisciplinary environmental studies program. Chris has previously interned with the Millennium Challenge Corporation, researched renewable energy and economic development in India, and studied tropical ecology in Australia. Chris is excited by new approaches to solving global problems, traveling, and documentary video. Feel free to contact him at cbennett10@gmail.com

Imagine that it’s the year 2020. Billions of dollars in aid and charity are no longer needed in the developing world. Instead, local businesses have flourished over the last ten years in places like sub-Saharan Africa, creating wealth and possibility for those previously left behind. Businesses in areas like agriculture, information technology and health services transform the lives of those who previously lacked access to proper healthcare and quality education. It’s an exciting prospect that begs a simple question: how do we get there? Acumen Fund’s work in empowering transformative businesses to solve poverty is groundbreaking, but they can’t do it alone. Acumen has started the conversation, but students and young professionals will be important allies in extending this work to new places and driving change towards this vision for the future.

I was fortunate enough to attend the Acumen Fund’s inaugural Student Leader Workshop two months ago, an exciting step towards building this alliance. I came to the workshop with high expectations, but the experience was far more exciting than I could have imagined. I attribute this to the power of the community I was introduced to over those three days, both within Acumen Fund and the students I met from around the world. What I was fortunate enough to experience was an intellectually rich and yet action-oriented discussion in which we decided to roll up our sleeves and walk the talk.

Leadership on the campus level can sometimes come off as little more than an exercise in resume building or staying busy. That notion was strongly challenged by my three days at the Acumen Fund office. In our first session at the workshop, Seth Godin made the case for action by arguing that the only thing holding us back from transformative action is our inability to decide to do so (I highly recommend watching his talk). The extraordinary thing about the workshop is that I decided, and I’m confident the other 16 students in attendance did as well.

The workshop acted as a spark for exciting change, both personally and among the community of leaders we formed. The experience solidified my decision to pursue a career with impact. This summer, I’m in Washington, DC, interning with Ashoka’s University Program as well as engaging in social media work for a small non-profit called the Solar Electric Light Fund. Some of my more adventurous fellow student leaders are now working with or starting social enterprises around the world, from Argentina to India. We are excited to bring new ideas and methods of solving old problems back to school in the fall.

As a result of our Student Leader’s workshop, we’ve proposed developing an Acumen product, which we hope to sell on campuses to raise funds and awareness for Acumen’s efforts to shift the conversation on global poverty. One of the potential ideas is for an Acumen bag tag for a luggage piece, backpack or purse. We hope this would spark conversations, whether on campus or in an airport, and demonstrate the interconnectedness of our world. Stay tuned!

In addition, we’re creating a network of students interested in making the same decision that we made. To do so, we are putting together a collaborative video that will demonstrate our generation’s global interconnectedness and interest in confronting the challenges of poverty. Check out The Poverty Message on Facebook to learn more!

We realize that this movement will need more than a small group of students creating a video and raising funds. We’ll need teams of students and young people on college campuses across the country, ready to help change the way our generation confronts poverty. In addition to Facebook, we also invite you to join our online communities on LinkedIn and Ning. We’re looking forward to starting the conversation! The task before us is huge, but so are the possibilities. In the words of Victor Hugo: “There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.”

Contributed by Acumen Fund summer associate Aden Van Noppen

When Acumen Fund decided to plan our inaugural Student Leaders Workshop, we didn’t know what to expect. Our hunch was that we would have a lot to share with young leaders committed to tackling global poverty and that they would have a lot to share with us. But we could not have predicted the level of energy, inspiration and collaboration that filled our conference room for three days at the end of May!

The second video features our friend Seth Godin, best-selling author and Acumen Advisor. Seth kicked off the workshop by telling the students that leading means deciding to create something with no formula and learning from the inevitable cycles of failure along the way. Seth’s talk set the tone for a weekend of questioning assumptions and deciding to lead. Watch him here:

The student leaders continue to demonstrate the energy in these videos as they work together to support Acumen Fund’s mission—stay tuned for more news of their progress!

Guest blogger Aden Van Noppen is a recent graduate of Brown University, where she earned a degree in International Development. She is also an intern for Acumen Fund, where she works to develop programs that teach college students about private sector solutions to poverty. Aden was formerly an intern for Dalberg Global Development Advisors, where she worked on the development of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs.

By Aden Van Noppen

“I will develop a social enterprise major on my campus.” “Thousands of incoming freshmen will read the Blue Sweater as their first taste of college.” “We will create a viral video that reaches millions.” “Students will learn about and engage with social enterprise through the online hub we will build.” “We will change the way our generation tackles poverty.”

The seventeen student leaders who took Acumen Fund’s New York office by storm last week committed to accomplishing all these goals and more. Acumen’s inaugural Student Leaders Workshop was meant to ignite the fire under a cohort of young leaders who will return to their campuses in the fall as champions of social enterprise. The workshop and the students exceeded all expectations, and time will tell what they will accomplish together.

History tells us that college students are frequently on the cutting edge of social change. We (as a recent graduate, I still count myself among them) are often unsatisfied with the status quo and have the energy and passion to demand new ways of solving old problems. However, young people today are not protesting or rioting—instead, we are proclaiming ourselves social entrepreneurs and actively searching for the best models to address poverty. The movement for social enterprise is brewing on campuses across the country and the world, and seventeen young global leaders left Acumen Fund’s workshop last weekend inspired and driven to bring it to a new level.

We spent much of the workshop asking ourselves hard questions. What is development? How do we measure poverty alleviation? When can market-based solutions sidestep the barriers of traditional approaches? What is leadership? How do we know when to step forward and when to step back? How do we change the way our generation tackles poverty? There are still more questions than answers, but the participants now look to Acumen as an inspiring model and to each other as a dynamic group of leaders who can continue searching for the answers together.

If the last few days are any indication, their excitement, curiosity, and commitment will continue to grow. Social media tools are buzzing as they stay in touch, collaborate, and strategize. What they accomplish together is still to be seen, but I have no doubt that they will inspire many on their campuses and beyond to question the status quo and embrace a new model of fighting poverty.

In the coming months, the students will demonstrate the power of young people and of building a tribe of individuals who, as Seth Godin told us when he kicked off the workshop, “Decide to say yes.” Two days after leaving, one participant wrote, “The workshop left me with hope and inspiration. I now have a better idea of the field and how it works but most importantly, the workshop gave me the confidence to aspire and dare to dream.” These seventeen leaders will return to their campuses in the fall as extensions of the Acumen Fund team, ready and equipped to support Acumen’s mission to change how the world tackles poverty.

“Everyone says we should do what we love but doing what you love can be really hard.  Making change in the world is what I love but it won’t be easy.”

~Willa Zhou, Harvard College

They came from India, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, Columbia, and Singapore, from Ohio, California, Florida, Massachusetts, and beyond, in part to learn how they can make a difference.  This was our first cohort of student leaders - a group we see as the sparks that will ignite a network of college students that can help Acumen Fund advance our mission of changing how the world tackles poverty.    

The first part of this journey culminated with a Student Leader’s Workshop held last weekend.  Chosen from a highly competitive group of applicants, each student leader brought diverse experiences to the table: from working with laborers in garbage dumps in Guatemala to distributing bed nets in Ghana. All were hungry to learn how patient capital can be employed to combat poverty. We are honored to have them in our community.

Over the course of a three-day workshop our goal was to share with them our perspective on the social enterprise sector and the role of patient capital, and help them explore their role as leaders that can expand Acumen Fund’s impact in the world by building communities, or “tribes” on their campuses.

Marketing guru and Acumen Fund partner Seth Godin led the first session, discussing the importance of community and leadership.  In addition to addressing the importance of building tribes, an insight he explores at length in his most recent book by the same name, Seth outlined a simple message – DECIDE.  Make a choice about who you are and how you want to lead – then do it.  This call to action set the tone for three days of dialogue, debate and idea-generation.

On Saturday morning, after a late night of teamwork over pizza on Friday, the students presented bold ideas for building awareness and communities around social enterprise. Their ideas included creating an online social enterprise hub aimed at college students, producing a viral video and organizing a conference focused on impact. They each shared concrete individual goals and timelines for things like spreading the word about The Blue Sweater, as well as fundraising and bringing knowledge on Acumen Fund to their networks and campuses.

I was particularly inspired by the students’ desire to understand the range of strategies that can be applied to addressing poverty. Also, in discussing their own approach to leadership, they were honest about their shortcomings, their fears, and their personal contradictions 

As the weekend wrapped up, a commitment was made to moving forward with their proposals. These student leaders are now crisscrossing the globe on their way home, eager to continue what they started, to share their experiences and dedicate themselves to tackling the challenges of poverty.  If these three days are any indicator, patient capital has just gained some powerful allies that will impact our world now and in the future.  We look forward to continuing this journey with them. 

Please feel free to visit their Twibe that they created on Twitter.

This May, Acumen Fund will host its first Summer Student Leaders Workshop. Be sure to get your application in before the April 10 deadline!

More information can be found on Aden Van Noppen’s blog post or on the Acumen Fund web site.

Thanks for your interest, good luck with the mini projects and we look forward to reviewing your applications!

Editor’s note: Guest blogger Aden Van Noppen is a senior at Brown University where she studies International Development. She is also an intern for Acumen Fund, where she works to develop programs that teach college students about private sector solutions to poverty. Aden was formerly an intern for Dalberg Global Development Advisors, where she worked on the development of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs.

By Aden Van Noppen

Young people today are not protesting or rioting—instead, we are proclaiming ourselves social entrepreneurs and actively searching for the best models to address poverty. This movement is brewing on campuses across the country and the world, including my own, and Acumen Fund wants to help us develop the skills and knowledge we need to pioneer new approaches to poverty alleviation.

In response to growing interest among college students in social enterprise, and the potential we have demonstrated to lead social change, Acumen Fund wants to find ways to work with us. To start, Acumen is hosting a Student Leaders Workshop in New York City from May 28-30th to share their knowledge and collaborate with those of us who feel passionate about finding and communicating entrepreneurial ways of addressing poverty.

This workshop is an opportunity for students to gain skills and knowledge about enterprise development and social venture capital, and just as importantly, to communicate with Acumen about how to build meaningful partnerships with young people. The students who participate will return to their campuses in the fall with the opportunity to spread this movement amongst their peers.

If you are a leader for social enterprise on your campus, we want you to apply! If you believe that business and investment are powerful tools for poverty alleviation, we want you to apply! If you want to learn from Acumen Fund and members of Acumen’s community in an intimate setting, and then share what you learn with others, we want you to apply!

If you think Acumen Fund will hold your hand and help you find a dream job in the social sector after graduation, or want to add a cool brand name to your resume, this is not for you. Changing how the world approaches poverty is a big job and the people I have been working with at Acumen Fund are looking for real leaders who want to roll up their sleeves to challenge the status quo. If that sounds like you, we are looking forward to hearing from you.

Click here to find out more about the workshop and how to apply. Hope to see you in New York City this May!