NORTON, Massachusetts,
May 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --
Currently at Wheaton College in
Massachusetts there is a room full of 18 college age
students spending a week of their summers from May 22nd to May
26th at the second ever Meaning Makers Social
Entrepreneurship Boot Camp held by the Global Center for Social
Entrepreneurship Network (GCSEN).
Photo -
http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/516516/Global_Center_for_Social_Entrep_Luke_ONeill.jpg
These 18 peers, both genders equally represented, are learning
how to make sustainable social impact with their truly innovative
ventures. The breadth of these ideas would astound you and amongst
GCSEN's students there are budding entrepreneurs focused on:
reducing bullying rates in schools, teaching how to best implement
technology in schools, making beauty products less harmful on skin,
providing stress relief for Syrian refugees and so many more
awe-inspiring passions.
The GCSEN Foundation is a ground-breaking program sponsored by
the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation. Diana
Davis Spencer is a visionary philanthropist and Wheaton College class of '60 alumnae who saw the
transformative power of teaching college students how to start
their own social enterprises. The Meaning Makers Boot Camp is
designed to inspire, teach, and support college students. These
students are experiencing the importance of social entrepreneurship
and learning key methods and frameworks used for actualizing their
visions of helping move the world to a better place.
To do this they will focus on creating a "4P-Impact©" people,
profit, planet, and place. GCSEN does this by teaching students to
think both globally and locally when considering how to make a
change.
The President of Wheaton College,
Dennis Hanno, one of America's most
innovative and effective college presidents, understands the power
of the GCSEN model for change and the power of a 4P-Impact focus
for millennial students. He established Wheaton College as GCSEN's national pilot campus.
In President Hanno's words, "I believe that innovative social
entrepreneurs can create the kind of change we need now to address
the critical problems we are facing. Wheaton has chosen to work with GCSEN so that our
students can develop the confidence and skills needed to become
true change makers."
Wheaton is committed to creating
opportunities and hiring former students like Luke O'Neill creative writing major and graduate
of the Meaning Maker Boot Camp '16. He has his own business called
Wolf and Tiger Games that is in the development process creating a
Tabletop Role-Playing game thanks to the teaching of GCSEN
foundation.
He came to the Meaning Makers Boot Camp a year ago with an idea
to start a board and role-playing game company with my friend. He
had the belief that by focusing on physical games, together they
could move people away from their digital screen isolation and
depression. By the end of the boot camp he left with a plan to
create our tabletop role-playing game.
He and his business partner, Deen
Naji, will use the game as a platform to work with community
centers and engage people through games and help reduce stress and
anxiety levels across the country. Deen
Naji had previously used role-playing games as a way to
overcome depression. Both Luke and Deen want to spread that relief
to those who are suffering.
He has now been hired by GCSEN to write short biographies for
their 18 certified Meaning Maker entrepreneurs. When asked about
his belief on writing for others he said, "Every person is the main
character in their own story and I want to tell those stories."
Luke O'Neill grew from his
experiences with GCSEN and other college students can as well.
GCSEN is increasing confidence in college students and raising
their ability to make meaning and make money for real, before
graduation. Professor Mike Caslin,
the founder of GCSEN, has built a world class program that offers
social entrepreneurship education from staff members who are best
in class, experienced members of the business world in their own
right. This world renowned program is practical, academically
rigorous, and action oriented.
GCSEN also supports its students beyond the summer boot camp
with its recently launched web-based THEOS Community (Together We
Help Each Other Succeed). It is a life-long alumni support
community that includes coaching, professional references, access
to capital, access to a social enterprise incubator and
accelerator, advanced manufacturing, and intrapreneur/entrepreneur
networking opportunities.
Of the current 18 students, there are people from across
the United States and from five
different countries around the world. GCSEN has students from:
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, New
York, Connecticut as well
as from Quito, Ecuador; Hongzhou,
China; Chongqing, China; Gibenyi, Rwanda; and Mumbai,
India.
These students: Adaeze Anaebonam, Amber-Marie Wright, Claudine Humure, Dami
Olubusi, Darshil Rathod, Enyu Wang,
Gracie Callaghan, Heather Rothman, Joshua
Alabre, Kyle McNicoll,
Mateo Espinosa, Matthew Wollrath, Nathaniel Chretian-Mansur, Patrick Wang, Rebecca
Rosenzweig, Richard Davies,
Sol Martinez, and Sophia Hatzikos
have similarly come to GCSEN with issues they care deeply about and
solutions they want to focus on just like the previous boot camp
did a year before them. In this program the students will gain the
skills they need to advance their ideas and move the world to a
better place.
GCSEN's innovative flipped classroom is using a program
developed for NASA called "Think Tank". In using Think Tank,
students were asked to place a slider on a number between 1 and
100. The number indicated how confident they felt about being able
to launch their business. At the start of the day students averaged
at 64% confidence towards their goal. By the end of just the first
day that number had already increased to 77%. By the end of the
fourth day the average confidence score had been raised to
89.9%.
GCSEN believes that millennials using social entrepreneurship
will be the most productive and practical driving force for peace
and prosperity around the globe. They have also designed their
program using the leading edge MIT-edx
learning platform, which is currently being used by 300 of the
world's top universities.
GCSEN's mission is to accelerate social entrepreneurship in
higher education through innovative programs and learning
technologies. Their goal for this week is to help put each student
one step closer to launching a 4P Venture. GCSEN is encouraging
college students to step out of their comfort zones, struggle
towards enlightenment and then return to teach those insights to
others, spreading GCSEN style learning to even more people around
the world. GCSEN is a trail blazer in a rapidly growing global
social entrepreneurship movement.
GCSEN is an emerging global leader in accelerating social
entrepreneurship for college students not only in the United States but also globally. They are
well on their way towards making their vision happen. With more
visionary sponsors, college campus partners and students they will
achieve their transformative scale. By 2027, GCSEN is projected to
be working with 100 colleges, 100,000 college students, and 10,000
4P social enterprises. From the 18 students in this room you can
see the forming of a powerful movement. Come join GCSEN in making
meaning and making money and making a difference.
Contact: Mike Caslin, Founder/CEO, GCSEN Foundation,
1-212-444-2071, info@gcsen.com
Related Links
http://www.gcsen.com