Symposium
During the Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship second annual symposium we were excited to host over 400 college students from Middlebury and New England, community members, faculty and staff, and local high school students. Over the course of three days, we engaged in topics related to social entrepreneurship and social justice through keynote addresses by Billy Parish and Majora Carter, workshops led by educators and alumni, and conversations with peers. Below you can catch some snapshots from the symposium.
Billy Parish, founder of Mosaic, gave the opening address, titled Following Purpose, on finding our personal purpose and becoming effective agents of social change. The following night, Eco-Entrepreneur Majora Carter, took the stage at Mead Chapel to give the keynote address on Hometown Security. She spoke about her work in her home community of the Bronx and her latest venture with real estate development. Bill McKibben joined Billy Parish and Majora Carter on Saturday morning for a panel on Preparing Students to Lead a Life of Meaning.
Billy Parish and Majora Carter were recipients of the 2013 MCSE Vision Award.
Middlebury College students showcased their research Friday morning. Student interns working with the Outsiders group presented on increasing college access through baseball. Students in the MiddCORE and Social Entrepreneurship classes worked with local community partners to assess social issues in Addison County, from elementary education to food hubs and homelessness.
Six leading educators led workshops on Friday afternoon. Lisa Nitze of Mission Measurement spoke on the importance of assessing social impact to be able to scale it. Katie Sparkes ’09 and Carrie Sparkes ’10 reflected on their path to becoming educators. Kenny Williams ’12 and Edie Stone of GreenThumb spoke about enacting effective community development programs. Anke Wessels of the Center for Transformative Action at Cornell led students through the Business Model Generation Canvas and mapping their ventures. In between the workshop sessions, we took a Runa break, where we sampled Runa’s teas and learned of their great business model developed by two students at Brown University.
Click on the images below to learn about our past symposia.