Monday, October 29, 2007

Social Entreprenuers

Social Entrepreneurs and other assignments
On "Frontline: World," I saw a program about a micro-lending organization called KIVA where lenders who want to help small businesses in Uganda. Now KIVA is all over the world. All loans have been paid back 100 percent. Visit http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/uganda601/video_index.html to see the video.

Here is a link from this site to other entrepreneurs. Choose one's that interest you: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/socialentrepreneurs.html

The organization is in San Francisco. There is a link to other Frontline programs about Social Entrepreneurs. Watch this program and over the week, watch two others. Respond to the following questions: What is a social entrepreneur? What problem did the person profiled identify? What is the name of the organization they started? Describe their relationship to the community they serve. Why did they decide to address this issue? What is the local component? How does the community own the process?

You need to define "social," "entrepreneur," and "philanthropy." This should be a part of your introduction. A philanthropist gives money to worthy causes. A entrepreneur is a business person. A social entrepreneur is a business person whose business creates social good and economic development in a community where poverty was a barrier to its financial growth. I will give you a handout to begin your research process tomorrow. If you want to stop by my office the handouts will be in a folder in the bin by Tuesday, October 30.

Visit 3 websites this week -- Monday-Wednesday, October 29-31, and respond to the questions listed above for each social entrepreneur. Post here.

Social Entrepreneur Essay Assignment

For your research project, I want you to find someone, if possible who uses his or her art for social change. This Thursday, November 1, poet, activist, Amiri Baraka is at UC Berkeley at a reading. Friday, November 2, he is at EastSide Arts Cultural Center. He would be a great topic for your research. He doesn't live here,so this is an opportunity to talk to him about art, activism and social change.

Handout: The Social Entrepreneur Essay research worksheet is a way to define what a social entrepreneur is compared to a philanthropist. Jay-Z, Russell Simmons, Lil' Kim, the Waynan's Brothers, Oprah Winfrey are examples of artists and entrepreneurs (businesses people). I don't know if one would call them social entrepreneurs or just philanthropists.

See a librarian at the reference desk to help you define your search and identify the SE you'd like to profile in your 6-10 page essay.

Due dates
The planning sheet and 5-10 sources are due Wednesday, November 7 or Thursday, November 8 to share.

An introduction and conclusion to the essay are due: Monday, November 12.

The first draft of the essay is due: Wednesday, November 19 or Thursday, November 20.

The final draft is due Tuesday, November 27 or Wednesday, November 28. Put the essay, the planning sheet, and all the works cited and bibliography pages on a disk. You can use the same disk the midterm was on.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

An entrepreneur is a person or persons who start up a business. They are business persons. A social entrepreneur is someone who begins a business which will benefit the people and/or community in which it thrives. Social entrepreneur’s are creating a business which will bring about something positive and good in the community.
I watched the video “Nepal : A Girl’s Life” and the social entrepreneur was an American man named John Wood who started a company called Room to Read. John Wood traveled to Nepal and saw the devastating amount of poverty within the country. He decided that he wanted to make a difference. He wanted to help the people of Nepal fight poverty, but he knew that it would be impossible to make a difference without education. Through scholarships given out by Room to Read, young girls of Nepal would be able to attend a private school in which they would normally not be able to afford. Without the scholarship, these girls would have never set foot into a classroom and because of Room to Read, they were given an opportunity to have an education which could ultimately change their lives. Room to Read began building libraries and funding villages 50% of the money needed to build schools. Room to Read required villages to come up with half of the money for schools because they felt that the village would benefit more from working together and the tools and education they would receive, would benefit them more in the long run. Before Room to Read proposed the plan to help fund building schools and libraries, villages were very separated. The separation among the villages caused much fear in the villagers and because the Room to Read plan, the villages each signed a peace agreement among each other and agreed to work as one to help the community to prosper and benefit from the help they were being given.
-Jenni Enderlein

Anonymous said...

A social entrepreneur is someone starting his or her own business that gives a community of poverty an ability to grow financially. Grace Aaya, a peanut butter salesmen in Uganda, made it clear that those living in Uganda live in a poor state of poverty, where civil war has occurred in. Acholle farmers work for less than one dollar a day. However, the microcredit company Kiva helps loan money to on the rise companies in the area. The loaners usually build a close relationship and fondness for the entrepreneurs, because of their courage and willingness to commit to their small businesses. Loaners feel empowered and great to give back to these people living under the harsh conditions and lifestyle of Africa. Also, those at Kiva state that banks give too high of an interest rate to these small companies in third-world countries. The local component is the donations from people from San Francisco, who help Kiva able to loan money to the businesses. The community owns the process by their own initiative and ability to sell something worthwhile to people in Uganda. This close community is able to make a living thanks to the people at Kiva.

-Tristan Jazmin