Seems like there've been weekly highlights and milestones:
- launching FFF w/former President Clinton at CGIU,
- visits to Acumen Fund, Echoing Green, the Action Center;
- inspiring guest speakers
- a NYC youth-to-youth Investor Pitch,
- a virtual investor pitch featuring entrepreneurs online from Ann Arbor, MI to my hometown, Portland, OR.
Throughout their semester-long academic training program, the Portfolio Student Directors have been considering 14 youth-led social ventures for FFF youth-to-youth social investment. Nominated by four of our Pipeline Partners (this round: Clinton Global Initiative, Global Engagement Summit, NYWomen Social Entrepreneurs, and Teach for America), these investment opportunities address one or more of our four portfolio global social priorities: Poverty Alleviation, Public Health, Climate Change & Energy, and Human Rights & Peace. I can't wait to see what they come up with Thursday. And can't wait to continue working together well beyond the end of this semester. As the poet Tony Hoagland says, "What I thought was an end, turned out to be a middle." And we've only just begun!
Writing this blog I can’t believe that the semester is over as well as the class “Global social entrepreneurship and strategic philanthropy” Many thoughts are crossing my mind about what I have achieved and what I have contributed to FFF as a youth director throughout the semester. The truth is that as a student director of FFF I have gained such a valuable experience in a field that was previously quite unknown to me. From all the class lectures, discussions, talks with peers, and visits to the Acumen Fund, Echoing Green and the Action Center, I did not only grew up as a youth leader, but as a better person,as well. I believe that being exposed to the field of social entrepreneurship, we all became more aware of how we can move forward our ideas for global social changes to real actions.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad that now, when we all became so much more familiar with the field and with the work of FFF, we have to call this an end. Well, it depends on the point of view and on the motivation. To me, an end of something can be the beginning of something else – a new era of youth leaders who invest in youth. I love the way ‘youth investing in youth’ phrase sounds! It illustrates the active young leaders of our time who are willing to ‘invest’ in a long-term process which can hardly be called an end.
From being an FFF student director I realized that even if one does not have enough financial resources to donate for making a great idea come true, one can contribute in many other ways. We, the FFF student directors, have contributed in our own way to make all the 14 amazing projects closer to a real action. Investing has a broad meaning and we can all invest differently in the passionate ideas of the youth leaders. All we need is to start the engine and to make more and more individuals aware of the problems in the world that we face - problems related to poverty, health, human rights and climate change. I strongly belive that as FFF student directors we have already been lit by the fire of social awareness for a global change. However, all we need to do from now on as FFF student directors is to continue the chain-like process of making more and more youth from around the world interested in supporting FFF’s activities.
Recently I encountered a great thought by Ralph Waldo Emerson which says: ‘We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities’. We cannot call this an end, but we can certainly call it a beginning of a great voyage. Some of us will stay in the USA, some will go back to their home countries beyond the ocean, but we’ll should all stay as attached to each other as to FFF and bring together every experience we will have had in this voyage. It is great that we are all so different and that we can contribute in many diverse ways to FFF’s work. We are just starting our voyage which will bring lots of opportunities and hope for making the world today a better place to live in tomorrow. And one day, when we end this voyage or when we meet again we will be able to share new ideas, new experience and thoughts for how to move forward the global change faster.
All in all, I gained a valuable experience from being an FFF student director and a life-time opportunity to become pro-active in investing in our bright future. We all gained the knowledge, and now we should apply this knowledge; we gained the will for an action, and now is the time we should do it! Investing in youth is an action for creating the change in the world we want to see. Something like the FFF that has just started cannot end, it can only grow, flourish, blossom and bring the beauty of our dreams and hopes to reality.
Ivelina
At the end of each experience, I always find it interesting to look back and track how my perspective has changed along the way. When I enrolled in the class in January, I was looking forward to gaining some practical knowledge of entrepreneurship, and to familiarizing myself with how philanthropy works. Since, not only have I discovered the field of social entrepreneurship which has captivated me completely, but I have also been given the chance to contribute to something I consider extremely exciting and relevant. As a student director for the poverty alleviation portfolio of FFF, I participated in the selection process and was offered the opportunity to express my point of view in a public investment pitch. Throughout my 4 months as a FFF student director, I have been constantly challenged to think creatively and to push my limits, and I greatly appreciate the trust and responsibility Diana has invested in me and my fellow student directors.
ReplyDeleteParticipating in the FFF pilot program has taught me that social change is driven by visionary people who take action to bring about the change they want to see in the world. They refuse to resign to a status quo they are not completely satisfied with, they see themselves as change makers, and have a sense of something larger. Lara Galinsky of Echoing Green highlighted some characteristics people with high SEQ (social entrepreneurship quotient) have in common: high optimism, core identity formation or high self-awareness, and plurality or opposite skills. At Acumen Fund, Blair Miller shared with us her personal trajectory of coming into the field of international development and confirmed that it is essential not only to familiarize yourself with certain cultures, but also to become very self-aware. She labeled “moral imagination” the ability to understand the social and cultural context you plan to get involved in.
The first round of proposals to FFF included a project to provide primary health care in Mali, an initiative to expand educational opportunities to K-12 children in Detroit, another to promote clean energy around the United States, another to improve the lives of orphan children in Peru and many more. In the future, I see FFF emanating social change from numerous epicenters around the world, and I would feel privileged to be a part of that.