What will it take to make social entrepreneurship a field that Hoyas dive into just as eagerly as they do into consulting and investment banking? At Tuesday night’s panel on “Community Service as an Undergraduate and Beyond”, Moderator Paige Lovejoy (SFS’12) coined a new phrase inspired by panelist and Vice President of Education at Compass Partners Nabil Hashmi’s comment related to the creative culture at Google. “What can we do to build a Georgetown DNA—or does Georgetown DNA already exist?” Lovejoy asked.
Hoyas have kind of an innate desire to make an impact. Georgetown “attracts go-getters and self-starters” who desire tangible impacts on the world, according to Nick Sementelli (SFS’09), Communications Associate at Faith in Public Life . But, as panelists Nabil Hashmi (SFS '11), Victoria Schramm (COL '12) and David Lee (COL '11) agreed, changing the Georgetown culture with more students readily adopting values of being men and women for others means stepping up rhetoric to real action. While “Georgetown talks about cura personalis, it could do more to develop the mind, body, and soul of its students” to more actively promote holistic development, Hashmi believes. Sementelli brainstormed several ideas that can better foster student innovation on campus, including subsidizing unpaid internships, providing group housing support, and general grants to fund everything from the competitive alternative spring break trips to start-up social ventures.
We’ve witnessed Georgetown grads do amazing things already. From Jessica Rimington’s (SFS’09) creation of One World Youth Project, an organization bringing college students to public middle and high schools to encourage cross-cultural, global and community awareness, to David Lee’s (COL’11) Stinky Peace nonprofit, which converts organic waste into useable cooking and heating fuel globally, to Neil Shah (MSB’10) and Arthur Woods(MSB’10)’s Compass Partners,which offers support to student fellows with innovative ideas to change the world through business, Hoyas actively advance values of service in business and non-profit sectors.
While Georgetown is sure to churn out more entrepreneurs, the proposed Social Innovation and Public Service (SIPS) Fund could help ingrain the Georgetown DNA into each of its students eager to have impressions within and beyond the front gates. As Lee says, one of the keys to his success was surrounding himself “with the right kind of people”. Lee believes “SIPS is the perfect way to bring these kinds of students from across Georgetown’s campus” together with the potential for great social impact. The very ideas suggested by Sementelli could be realized by adopting the SIPS mission of increasing opportunity for Hoya innovation.
We’ve witnessed Georgetown grads do amazing things already. From Jessica Rimington’s (SFS’09) creation of One World Youth Project, an organization bringing college students to public middle and high schools to encourage cross-cultural, global and community awareness, to David Lee’s (COL’11) Stinky Peace nonprofit, which converts organic waste into useable cooking and heating fuel globally, to Neil Shah (MSB’10) and Arthur Woods(MSB’10)’s Compass Partners,which offers support to student fellows with innovative ideas to change the world through business, Hoyas actively advance values of service in business and non-profit sectors.
While Georgetown is sure to churn out more entrepreneurs, the proposed Social Innovation and Public Service (SIPS) Fund could help ingrain the Georgetown DNA into each of its students eager to have impressions within and beyond the front gates. As Lee says, one of the keys to his success was surrounding himself “with the right kind of people”. Lee believes “SIPS is the perfect way to bring these kinds of students from across Georgetown’s campus” together with the potential for great social impact. The very ideas suggested by Sementelli could be realized by adopting the SIPS mission of increasing opportunity for Hoya innovation.
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