Opportunities & Events: February and Beyond

We're officially one month into 2014--how are your resolutions coming along? If you have big dreams of taking your leadership abilities and organizational impact to new heights this year, bookmark this list of upcoming opportunities and events for young social entrepreneurs. Tip: sign up soon to lock in early-bird rates for many of the conferences happening later this year.

Opportunities

Emerging Institutions Fellowship Program
LDI Africa
Deadline: January 31, 2014
LDI Africa seeks young business and development leaders for its Emerging Institutions Fellowship Program (EIFP) across Africa. The EIFP provides pro-bono consulting opportunities in Africa's leading investment companies and social enterprises. Fellows participate in 6 to 12-month fellowships working to position African emerging businesses towards the path of long-term sustainability and scale. To learn more and apply, click here. 

StartingBloc Fellowship
StartingBloc
Deadline: February 18, 2014
The StartingBloc Fellowship is a life-long membership with StartingBloc’s global community of 1,900 emerging leaders. Fellows are young leaders (ages 18-30) from all sectors who share a common set of values. They believe that economic value creation and social value creation are complementary. They believe in making money and doing good. During the Institute for Social Innovation, StartingBloc candidates work with speakers, academic institutions, and corporate partners who are on the cutting edge of innovations in their respective sector. There is a $35 application fee involved, as well as a $1,000 tuition fee which may be waived on the basis of merit and need. Learn more.

Venture Labs Investment Competition
University of Texas McCombs Business School
Deadline: February 21, 2014
The Venture Labs Investment Competition (VLIC) and its affiliated competitions are designed to mimic the real-world process of raising venture capital. The competition allows graduate students to gain real experience while developing and growing new ventures based on their own ideas and technologies or those developed by others. Teams from around the world compete for prizes including a cash prize of $78,000, an invitation to close the NASDAQ OMX Stock Market, the Austin Technology Incubator Launch Package valued at $25,000, and consulting time with leaders in the field. Learn more about the rules and register now!

International Holcim Next Generation Award
Holcim Foundation
Deadline: March 24, 2014
The 4th International Holcim Awards competition celebrates projects and visions that contribute to a more sustainably-built environment and features total prize money of US$2 million. The competition is open for projects in architecture, building and civil engineering, landscape and urban design, materials, products, and construction technologies that contribute to the five target issues for sustainable construction. The Next Generation award will be issued to a young person, aged 18-30, who has visionary projects and bold ideas.

Social Impact Immersion Experience
Social Entrepreneur Corps
Deadline: Rolling
Social Entrepreneur Corps is a social enterprise that leads innovative and dynamic international internship programs in Guatemala, Ecuador, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic to support the creation, development, growth and impact of social innovations focused on intelligently and sustainably alleviating poverty. Click here to apply. 

 

Events

Unite for Sight Global Health & Innovation Conference
April 12–13, 2014
New Haven, CT, USA
The Global Health & Innovation Conference (GHIC) is the world's leading and largest global health conference as well as the largest social entrepreneurship conference, with 2,200 professionals and students from all 50 states and more than 55 countries. This must-attend, thought-leading conference convenes leaders, change-makers, and participants from all sectors of global health, international development, and social entrepreneurship. Unite for Sight was founded by YouthActionNet alumna Jennifer Staple-Clark.

Aid and International Development Forum Water Security Summit
April 23-24, 2014
Bangkok, Thailand
AIDF brings together leading experts in water security, including policy makers, researchers, development agencies, NGOs and the private sector, to share ideas on how to develop more effective policies to improve sustainable water management, economic opportunities, and water related disaster relief in the Asia Pacific region. Learn more.

Humanitarian Technology: Science, Systems and Global Impact 2014
May 13-15, 2014
Boston, MA, USA HumTech 2014 is an exciting, relevant, and technically-focused international conference that will explore emerging technologies that further enable global humanitarian assistance. Specific focuses include disaster response, health and disease management, international development, and poverty alleviation.

Global Development Network Annual Conference
June 18-20, 2014
Accra, Ghana
GDN’s flagship event is its three-day Annual Global Development Conference held in different countries, each year, across the globe. These conferences aim to connect developing countries' researchers and students with the world’s most influential researchers, corporate leaders, and political figures on a common platform where they can interact with each other, share research, and discuss the most pressing challenges in social and economic development. The defining features of the GDN conference are the empowerment of researchers in developing countries, the strengthening of research skills, and the mobilization of research for public policy. Learn more.

Poverty Alleviation Un-Conference
October 12-17, 2014
Ixtapa, Mexico
This four-day problem-solving, strategic retreat is for nonprofit leaders, for-profit social entrepreneurs, grant-makers, and impact investors engaged in economic justice enterprises. On World Poverty Day, break down the silos of unproductive competition and go beyond the boundaries of conventional poverty alleviation. The gathering leverages resources, shares innovations, enlists allies, builds coalitions, and creates force multipliers. Learn more.

PopTech 2014
October 24-25, 2014
Camden, NJ, USA
The PopTech conference is a celebration for the intellectually engaged. Participants will meet an eclectic network of industry leaders and one-of-a-kind innovators bound together by an intense curiosity about the forces shaping our future. The content of the conference is as diverse as the network itself – presentations range from the nature of disruptive innovation to the economics of human happiness; from the future of deep space exploration to new approaches to environmental stewardship. In the words of one participant, PopTech provides powerful “optics on the future.” Register now for PopTech 2014.

Shared Connection in Nairobi

By Irene Irene Hofmeijer

Adam and I

Last October, at the UN SEED Awards ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya, something serendipitous happened. During a workshop for awardees, I glanced around the room at the social entrepreneurs being honored. More than half appeared middle-aged, and several were in their thirties, but a young man across the room was the only person who seemed similar in age to me--25. 

Intrigued to find out who he was, I approached him during a break. I must say I was disappointed to learn that Adam is a few months younger than me, so the title of "youngest awardee" went to him. However, it was thrilling to find out that we are both YouthActionNet alumni, part of the same network of over 800 young social entrepreneurs!

The SEED Award was founded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It awards innovative small-scale and locally driven entrepreneurs around the globe who integrate social and environmental benefits into their business models from the beginning.

A 2013 recipient of the SEED Award, my new friend Adam Camenzuli is a 2013 YouthActionNet Laureate Global Fellow and the Executive Director of KARIBU Solar Power, a social enterprise that aims to bring about an affordable solar revolution in Africa through modular solar lanterns that leverage a "pay as you go" model.

I am a 2013 Peruvian Fellow, receiver of the Premio Protagonistasdel Cambio award. I received the SEED award for my environmental work at the social enterprise I founded called Life Out Of Plastic. Our mission is to raise awareness about plastic pollution by funding environmental education campaigns in innovative ways.

Adam and I were glad to find each other and share our YAN experiences from across the globe. We are both new to the YouthActionNet network, but have quickly realized the benefit of being able to instantly relate to peers with similar dreams and challenges. This crazy planet feels much smaller when you can connect so closely to someone from halfway across the globe!

Why Every Leader Should Have a Balcony Moment

By Fredrick Ouko

I am often reminded that I cannot change the world by myself, nor do it overnight. The business of changing the world is a process and requires concerted efforts that can only be achieved through team work, and teams require a leader who inspires and drives them towards the desired goal.

We often find leaders burning midnight light to conquer particular milestones in their path to “great success.” Consider the term “the buck stops with the leader.” The understanding is that the ultimate responsibility for success or failure lies entirely with the person at the head of the organization.  

A leader is often regarded as one who knows it all, has solutions to any problem and is able to detach himself emotionally—because his main role is to make sure things get done, not to please everyone.  

I used to belong to this same school of thought until I won a fellowship in 2009. As a YouthActionNet Fellow, part of the experience was a one week leadership training in Washington, DC. This training really changed my perspective on leadership and how one can and should re-energize to meet the demands of his or her calling as a leader.

The words of our trainer are eternally engrained in my mind. Dr. James Toole emphasized the need to withdraw from your work periodically to charge your energy, get new ideas, and evaluate yourself so that you will come back with better strategies that can steer your work forward.

His term for this withdrawal from leadership roles for reflection was "going to the balcony," taking many steps back from your daily tasks to have a conversation with yourself and decide the path that will lead you to the next milestone. This reflection time helps alleviate the usual burn-outs associated with leadership roles, including the fact that you treat every task as urgent, forgetting your health and personal life in the race. 

The possibility of your body shutting down physically or emotionally is imminent when you don’t provide it time for relaxation—a very real issue for founders of start-ups. When it happens, your goals will not be achieved as planned due to something that may have been avoided by incorporating more rest and quiet thinking moments into your schedule. 

In the past, I would not take my leave days because I felt that there was going to be a void in the office—I felt the need to be permanently present! My perspective really changed with Dr. James` perspective on the true measure of a leader. The fact that one is not planning to be on the balcony at any point in the year gives an indication of weak leadership skills—it reflects negatively on the team. It is assumed that no one can step-up to fill your shoes or that you are not willing to nurture leaders from within, resulting in a shaky succession plan for the organization.

It has been four years now, but this view of leadership has helped guide my actions as I continue pursuing my professional goals. If one asked me the greatest learning I took from the Fellowship, it is surely the reminder to go the balcony every so often as a leader to look at where you have come from, your current position and the future you want to navigate.

Fredrick Ouko is a YouthActionNet Fellow and disability rights activities based in Kenya. Fredrick founded Action Network for the Disabled (ANDY), and currently advises the Disability Rights Fund and the Global Disability Rights Library. Fredrick was also elected an Ashoka Fellow in 2012, and you can follow his work on his personal website or Facebook.

A Living Network

How many networks do you belong to? From university alumni associations to professional organizations, even LinkedIn groups, most of our names can be found on a plethora of network lists. But how many of those networks really work for you? Who do you turn to during your most vulnerable leadership moments and with whom are you most excited to share amazing news?

Our most valuable networks are those comprising like-minded individuals who have a vested interest in the greater cause that brings them together. Members of these networks are more than names on a list; they are people we count on to challenge and inspire us not only professionally, but personally. The most valuable networks are living networks because one hundred email addresses on a listserv can’t replace a thoughtful conversation had across the table from a kindred spirit in a new city, or the relief of scheduling a video chat with someone who has lived through your current challenge. 

In 2013, nearly 200 young social entrepreneurs participated in YouthActionNet Fellowship programs around the world. Through intensive in-person trainings, each Fellow forged close ties with up to 19 like-minded peers from their class. Founders of organizations ranging from six volunteers to six hundred, Fellows come from diverse backgrounds and approach social change from different angles, but one sentiment is universal—each agrees that the opportunity to share and engage with others who have devoted their life to a cause is the most valuable aspect of the Fellowship experience. Many admit that entrepreneurship is a lonely endeavor, and begin to realize the potential for a larger movement towards social good when they learn that they now belong to a growing community of over 880 alumni like them. 

At YouthActionNet, we can build a network of the best and brightest in the world, but it can only truly come alive with the active engagement of each of its members. We see that buy-in time and time again through our alumni, young CEOs and founders who connect despite disparate time zones, busy schedules, and even language barriers. From midnight Skype sessions over gut-wrenching staffing decisions to meeting up at global conferences like the Clinton Global Initiative, our network comes alive through connections facilitated by our program, but driven by the basic need of the young leaders we serve to feel that they are not alone. 

The slideshow below is a collection of photos shared by our alumni of their meet-ups with one another (and YouthActionNet staff) around the world. Some are old friends, and some are meeting for the first time. This new year, think about how to make your networks work for you; and remember, we often get out what we put in to our networks. Make time to connect in person, not just on paper, to increase the net worth of your network.

YouthActionNet Meet-ups by Slidely Slideshow

If you are a young social entrepreneur interested in applying to become a Laureate Global Fellow, follow us on Facebook to be the first to hear about upcoming application dates.