Podcasts about ashoka fellowship

It might be Liberation Day today, but according to Paul Rice, founder of US Fair Trade and author of Every Purchase Matters, Trump's tariffs are dumb. Rice firmly distances Fair Trade from Trump's controversial trade policies, calling them "backward" and "bad for American business." He explains how Fair Trade - which has expanded beyond coffee to include 40 products, from produce to furniture - certifies products through rigorous standards ensuring workers receive fair wages and environmental protections. Every purchase does indeed matter. And, in contrast with Trump's short sighted tariffs, Rice's Fair Trade movement is worth celebrating today. Five Key Takeaways * Fair Trade is fundamentally different from Trump's tariff policies - Rice strongly distinguishes between Trump's "big stick diplomacy" approach to trade and Fair Trade's focus on equitable market transactions that benefit workers and the environment.* Fair Trade certification involves rigorous standards - Products earn certification through a 200-point checklist covering social, labor, and environmental criteria, with independent annual audits ensuring compliance.* Sustainable products don't necessarily cost more - Rice challenges the "fallacy" that ethical products must be more expensive, citing companies like NatureSuite that have adopted Fair Trade standards without raising consumer prices.* The Fair Trade movement is expanding rapidly - What began with coffee has grown to encompass approximately 40 product categories including tea, produce, apparel, furniture, and even cosmetics, with fresh produce being the fastest-growing segment (32% growth last year).* Ethical consumption is a form of everyday activism - Rice promotes the idea that Every Purchase Matters, suggesting consumers can "vote for change" through their purchasing decisions rather than waiting for political elections.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Paul Rice is a pioneer in the global Fair Trade and sustainability movements. Raised with a deep sense of compassion for the poor, Paul has spent 40 years fighting poverty and environmental destruction. The quintessential social entrepreneur, this passion led him to develop innovative models that harness the power of consumers and business to improve people's lives and protect the planet. Paul launched Fair Trade USA (formerly known as TransFair USA) in late 1998 in a one-room warehouse in downtown Oakland, California. Under his leadership, Fair Trade USA became the leading certifier of Fair Trade products in North America, enlisting the support of over 1,700 major brands and retailers who sell everything from coffee and chocolate to apparel and seafood. By 2024, the organization and its partners had generated over $1.2 billion in cumulative financial impact for over 1 million farmers, workers and their families in 70 countries worldwide. Before founding Fair Trade USA, Paul worked with family farmers for 11 years in the highlands of Nicaragua, where he founded and led the country's first Fair Trade organic coffee export cooperative. This deep, firsthand experience with the transformative impact of Fair Trade in the lives of farmers and their communities ultimately inspired him to return to the United States with the dream of mainstreaming the movement in this country. Paul has been named Ethical Corporation's 2019 Business Leader of the Year and has been recognized four times as Social Capitalist of the Year by Fast Company magazine, which dubbed him a “rebel in the boardroom.” He is also a recipient of the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, the World Economic Forum's Social Entrepreneur of the Year, and the Ashoka Fellowship. He has spoken at the World Economic Forum, Clinton Global Initiative, Skoll World Forum, Conscious Capitalism CEO Summit, TEDx, Consumer Goods Forum, and numerous universities and conferences around the world. Paul is regarded as one of today's leading visionaries and practitioners for sustainable sourcing and conscious capitalism.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Thanks for reading Keen On America! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Today's Guest President of the American Association of Caregiving Youth, Connie was educated at Johns Hopkins and New York University, she obtained her PhD in 2004 from Lynn University to have a bigger voice for family caregivers. Connie never expected her doctoral research to uncover the high prevalence of family health situations and concomitant caregiving with detrimental academic effects upon children in Palm Beach County. Her broad background in healthcare and dedication to diminishing caregiver isolation and struggles led to the 1998 establishment of what is now the American Association for Caregiving Youth. It includes the Caregiving Youth Project, the first US program to support the hidden population of child caregivers. Her dream is for all family caregivers to be honored and respected but especially youth for their contributions to family and to society; no child in the US should have to drop out of school because he or she has to care for a family member. In June of 2009, Connie was awarded a lifetime Ashoka Fellowship and in October 2009 she became one of 10 Purpose Prize winners, a national endeavor honoring persons over 60 years of age who initiated an innovative solution for social change. In September 2010 The Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association presented her with The Distinguished Alumna Award. In 2011 AACY won the Palm Beach County Medical Society's Heroes in Medicine Award for Community Outreach and later that year Connie was named a Woman of Grace by Bethesda Hospital Foundation. During May 2012 she was named a CNN Hero and in September was one the Top Ten Heroes for 2012. https://aacy.org/ About Dr. Raj Dr Raj is a quadruple board certified physician and associate professor at the University of Southern California. He was a co-host on the TNT series Chasing the Cure with Ann Curry, a regular on the TV Show The Doctors for the past 7 seasons and has a weekly medical segment on ABC news Los Angeles. More from Dr. Raj www.BeyondThePearls.net The Dr. Raj Podcast Dr. Raj on Twitter Dr. Raj on Instagram Want more board review content? USMLE Step 1 Ad-Free Bundle Crush Step 1 Step 2 Secrets Beyond the Pearls The Dr. Raj Podcast Beyond the Pearls Premium USMLE Step 3 Review MedPrepTGo Step 1 Questions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For new parents and early years educators, there's a wealth of guidance and support for how to understand what's happening for our babies and toddlers, but when it comes to the stories we tell about adolescence, an equally important period of significant change, sometimes it's more just get your head down and get through it! As millions of young people make the big transition to Middle School, I was very curious to learn from one of the real experts, not only of the patterns of change and development at this time, but also of how to create educational environments that really take these young people seriously!  Chris Balme is an education leader, writer, and school founder, passionate about helping young people discover more of their human potential. He is the author of Finding the Magic in Middle School: Tapping Into the Power and Potential of the Middle School Years, which was published in 2022.  Chris currently serves as Founding Principal at Hakuba International School. He is also the Founder & Director of Argonaut, an online advisory program for middle schoolers around the world. Prior to this, Chris co-founded and served as Head of School at Millennium School, a highly successful lab school in San Francisco. Chris has received the Ashoka Fellowship as a leading changemaker in education, and regularly speaks, trains, and writes for parents and teachers around the world. For more, see Chris's newsletter, Growing Wiser. Social Links LinkedIn: @chris-balme - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbalme/ Instagram: @chrisbalme - https://www.instagram.com/chrisbalme/ 

Dr. Connie Siskowski joins Ron Aaron and Carol Zernial to talk about the experience of young caregivers on this edition of Caregiver SOS. Educated at Johns Hopkins, New York University and Lynn University, her doctoral research uncovered the high prevalence of caregiving by students in Palm Beach County, FL. In 1998 she established what is now the American Association of Caregiving Youth with its successful Caregiving Youth Project and Caregiving Youth Institute. Connie has contributed to multiple publications. Awards include an Ashoka Fellowship, Purpose Prize, Distinguished Alumna Award (Johns Hopkins University), Top Ten CNN Hero, a star on Boca Raton's Walk of Recognition, and a faculty appointment to the RAISE Family Caregiving Advisory Council. Hosts Ron Aaron and Carol Zernial, and their guests talk about Caregiving and how to best cope with the stresses associated with it. Learn about "Caregiver SOS" and the "Teleconnection Hotline" programs. Listen every week for deep, inspiring, and helpful caregiving content on Caregiver SOS!

Dr. Connie Siskowski joins Ron Aaron and Carol Zernial to talk about the experience of young caregivers on this edition of Caregiver SOS. Educated at Johns Hopkins, New York University and Lynn University, her doctoral research uncovered the high prevalence of caregiving by students in Palm Beach County, FL. In 1998 she established what is now the American Association of Caregiving Youth with its successful Caregiving Youth Project and Caregiving Youth Institute. Connie has contributed to multiple publications. Awards include an Ashoka Fellowship, Purpose Prize, Distinguished Alumna Award (Johns Hopkins University), Top Ten CNN Hero, a star on Boca Raton's Walk of Recognition, and a faculty appointment to the RAISE Family Caregiving Advisory Council.  Hosts Ron Aaron and Carol Zernial, and their guests talk about Caregiving and how to best cope with the stresses associated with it. Learn about "Caregiver SOS" and the "Teleconnection Hotline" programs. Listen every week for deep, inspiring, and helpful caregiving content on Caregiver SOS!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are so excited about this season of the Igniting Imagination Podcast as Rev. Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean and Rev. Lisa Greenwood have conversations with four exceptional, innovative faith leaders who are profoundly influencing the way we think about the church's mission and witness. It's stunning and inspiring! Our guest this week is Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III. Heber's story, the story of how the Black church he served in Baltimore birthed a network of hundreds of churches and black farmers to feed thousands of people with healthy, fresh food, is remarkable. Truly. Nothing short of the powerful work of God! We pray Heber's story will ignite a new conversation, a new way of thinking, a new imagination in you.In this conversation, you'll hear:Co-host Rev. Dr. Kenda Creasy Dean shares the qualities of innovative leaders she's observed.Heber's God-sized vision for a small plot of land on his church property.How networking allowed something small to have an outsized impact.Heber's call to a mission, not a church.About Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, IIIRev. Dr. Heber M. Brown, III has been a catalyst for personal transformation and social change for more than 20 years. For nearly 14 years, he served as pastor of a Baptist church in Baltimore, where he saw and personally experienced the impacts of food apartheid. This helped to inspire him to launch the Black Church Food Security Network which advances food security and food sovereignty by co-creating Black food ecosystems anchored by nearly 250 Black congregations in partnership with Black farmers and other food justice stakeholders. He serves on the board of Bread for the World and has garnered numerous awards including an Ashoka Fellowship. He is the author of the forthcoming book Nothing More Sacred: Radical Stories of Black Church Faith, Food and Freedom.For more information about Rev. Dr. Brown, visit his website: https://www.heberbrown.com/For more information about the Black Church Food Security Network, visit: https://blackchurchfoodsecurity.net/Read all about the Locke Innovative Leader Award on our website: https://wesleyanimpactpartners.org/locke-leadersTo view videos of podcast episodes, please go to the Igniting Imagination YouTube.Subscribe to our Learning and Innovation emails here. We send emails about each episode and include additional related resources related to the episode's topic. We know your inbox is inundated these days, we aim to send you content that is inspiring, innovative, and impactful for your life and ministry.If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts / iTunes?

How does technology affect our rights? Do we need protection from the state and Big Tech? Apar Gupta joins Amit Varma in episode 353 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss his battle for digital rights in India. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out 1. Apar Gupta on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, IFF and YouTube. 2. Internet Freedom Foundation. (Donate to it!) 3. Apar Gupta's application to the Ashoka Fellowship (effectively a mini-autobiography). 4. IFF Wrapped, Unwrapped -- 2022 year-end event. 5. The Fine Line of Free Speech in India -- Apar Gupta. 6. When lawyers speak, they argue -- Apar Gupta. 7. I Don't Know -- Apar Gupta. 8. The archives of India Law and Technology Blog. 9. Aakar Patel Is Full of Hope — Episode 270 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel). 10. The Life and Times of Teesta Setalvad — Episode 302 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Amartya Ghosh on Spotify. 12. Neighbours Envy, Owners Pride -- Onida commercial. 13. Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne. 14. Permanent Record -- Edward Snowden. 15. Nehru's India -- Taylor Sherman. 16. The Life and Times of Vir Sanghvi — Episode 236 of The Seen and the Unseen. 17. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality — Amit Varma. 18. The Shallows -- Nicholas Carr. 19. The Incredible Curiosities of Mukulika Banerjee — Episode 276 of The Seen and the Unseen. 20. Why India Votes— Mukulika Banerjee. 21. Vlogbrothers, Tom Scott and Hardcore History. 22. The Techno-Optimist Manifesto -- Marc Andreeson. 23. Zero to One -- Peter Thiel. 24. Narendra Modi interviewed by Rajeev Shukla. 25. Sacred Games. 26. The Road Ahead -- Bill Gates. 27. The Prem Panicker Files — Episode 217 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Vladimir Nabokov on Wikipedia and Amazon. 29. The Great Gatsby -- F. Scott Fitzgerald. 30. Ruth Bader Ginsberg on Wikipedia and Amazon, 31. The Notebook Trilogy — Agota Kristof. 32. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 33. Jinnah -- Jaswant Singh. 34. Gujarat High Court lifts ban on Jaswant's book on Jinnah -- Saeed Khan. 35. Shreya Singhal v. Union of India. 36. Charges dropped against girls held for Facebook post -- PTI. 37. Nikhil Pahwa on Twitter, LinkedIn, MediaNama and his own site. 38. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Nikhil Pahwa: 1, 2, 3. 39. Chandrahas Choudhury on Instagram, Amazon and The Middle Stage. 40. Chandrahas Choudhury's Country of Literature -- Episode 288 of The Seen and the Unseen. 41. Kiran Jonnalagadda on Twitter and Hasgeek. 42. Sedition charges dropped against Aseem Trivedi -- PTI. 43. Justice K.S.Puttaswamy(Retd) vs Union Of India. 44. Hello world - and happy Independence Day! (2016) -- Apar Gupta. 45. IFF on Reddit. 46. Twitter and Tear Gas — Zeynep Tufekci. 47. Radically Networked Societies — Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 48. Anushka Jain's thread on SRK and digital rights. 49. IFF's Aarogya Setu Infographic. 50. The AgriStack: A Primer -- Rohin Garg. 51. Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India — Episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen. 52. The Struggle And The Promise -- Naushad Forbes. 53. Shruti Rajagopalan on our constitutional amendments. 54. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 55. The Ideas of Our Constitution — Episode 164 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Madhav Khosla). 56. Emergency Chronicles — Gyan Prakash. 57. Gyan Prakash on the Emergency — Episode 103 of The Seen and the Unseen. 58. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 59. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 60. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 62. Why Freedom Matters — Episode 10 of Everything is Everything, hosted by Amit Varma and Ajay Shah. 63. India's Far From Free Markets (2005) — Amit Varma in the Wall Street Journal. 64. Don't Insult Pasta (2007) — Amit Varma. 65. The Matunga Racket (2007) — Amit Varma. 66. One Bad Law Goes, but Women Remain Second-Class Citizens (2018) -- Amit Varma. 67. The Colonial Constitution -- Arghya Sengupta. 68. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 69. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh. 70. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 71. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 72. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 73. Roland Barthes and John Berger on Amazon. 74. Bombay Progressive Artists' Group and Gond art. 75. Bill Evans on Spotify and YouTube. 76. Night Song and Mustt Mustt -- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan with Michael Brook. 77. Doppelganger -- Naomi Klein. 78. Automating Inequality -- Virginia Eubanks. 79. The Speaking Constitution --  KG Kannabiran. 80. The Wages of Impunity -- KG Kannabiran. 81. The Good Fight. 82. Court and The Disciple -- Chaitanya Tamhane. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It's free! Episode art: ‘Carrying a Torch' by Simahina.

Im täglichen Austausch, den die U.S. Botschaft in Berlin mit Deutschen pflegt, wird klar, viele Deutsche haben irgendeine Beziehung zu den USA. In “AmerikaStories” sprechen wir mit verschiedenen Gästen darüber, was sie mit den USA verbindet. In Episode #10 von AmerikaStories spricht Robert Greenan mit Gregor Hackmack. Gregor Hackmack ist Mitgründer und Geschäftsführer der Internetplattform abgeordnetenwatch.de sowie Vorstandsmitglied und Mitgründer der Petitions- und Initiativplattform innn.it. Von 2014 bis 2022 war er Deutschlandchef der internationalen Petitionsplattform Change.org. Er studierte Internationale Beziehungen und Politiksoziologie an der London School of Economics, wurde 2008 als einer der führenden Social Entrepreneurs mit der Ashoka Fellowship ausgezeichnet und 2010 in das Young Global Leaders Netzwerk der Schwab Foundation aufgenommen. Gregor ist auch IVLP Alumnus.Im Juni 2022 benannte sich Change.org e.V. in innn.it e.V. um und betreibt seitdem eine unabhängige Petitions- und Initiativplattform. Neben Petitionen können auf innn.it auch direktdemokratische Initiativen veröffentlicht werden, die bei Erfolg zu einem Bürgerreferendum führen können. Shownotes:Innnit:https://verein.innn.it/Abgeornetenwatch:https://www.abgeordnetenwatch.de/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chris Balme is an education leader, writer, and school founder, passionate about helping young people discover more of their human potential. Chris currently serves as Founding Principal at Hakuba International School. He is also the Founder & Director of Argonaut, an online advisory program for middle schoolers around the world.  Prior to this, Chris co-founded and served as Head of School at Millennium School, a lab school in San Francisco, where he helped pioneer new learning methods based in developmental science.  Chris has received the Ashoka Fellowship as a leading changemaker in education, and regularly speaks, trains, and writes for parents and teachers around the world. His book, Finding the Magic in Middle School, was published in 2022.  Join us for this conversation exploring the critical importance of authenticity, achievement, and belonging in the middle school years and how we can help them gain the independence they need to grow.   IN THIS EPISODE, WE DISCUSS: Authenticity, achievement, and belonging in middle school. Why middle schoolers need to have a sense of belonging. The peak periods of brain growth in our lives.  How we can help middle schoolers gain the independence they need to grow. Building education differently to give students the time they need to pursue projects. Using advisory as a place where students have unconditional belonging.  The power and significance of rituals.    RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Connect with Chris on LinkedIn.  Get your copy of Finding the Magic in Middle School: Tapping Into the Power and Potential of the Middle School Years.  Learn more about Rebel Educator, explore our professional development opportunities for educators and students, and check out our project library. Visit us at UP Academy to learn more about our personalized and inclusive learning environment. Connect with Tanya and UP Academy on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram and learn more about her journey here.   Check out my book Rebel Educator: Create Classrooms Where Impact and Imagination Meet: amzn.to/3AcwlfF   Enjoying the show? Leave us a rating and review and help more people find us! bit.ly/RebelEducatorApplePodcasts   We'd love it if you could take a few minutes to fill out this survey to let us know how we can bring you the best possible content:  forms.gle/JcKHf9DHTZnYUmQr6    Interested in being on the Rebel Educator podcast? Fill out this form and we'll reach out to you if we think you'd be a great fit for an upcoming episode. forms.gle/zXR2KGPK3WEmbrRZ6    Want to learn more about opening your own UP Academy? Check out the Rebel Educator Accelerator: www.rebeleducator.com/courses/the-accelerator   MORE ABOUT THE REBEL EDUCATOR PODCAST: In each episode of the Rebel Educator podcast, I deconstruct world-class educators, students, and thought leaders in education to extract the tactics, tools, and routines that you can use as teachers and parents. Join me as we discuss how to shift the classroom, the learning environment, the mindset, and the pedagogy, to resist tradition, reignite wonder, and re-imagine the future of education. This podcast is dedicated to all of the educators who work thankless hours to make our next generation the best it can be.  It was designed to begin conversations on how we can redesign education for the future of work and the success of our students.  It is meant for teachers, students, administrators, homeschoolers and anyone who interacts with and teaches youth. 

A member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, Chef Sean Sherman was born and raised in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Cooking in kitchens across the United States and Mexico for over 30 years, Chef Sean is renowned nationally and internationally in the culinary movement of Indigenous foods. His primary focus is the revitalization and evolution of Indigenous foods systems throughout North America. His extensive studies on the foundations of Indigenous food systems have led to his deep understanding of what is needed to showcase Native American cuisine in today's world. In 2014, Chef Sean opened the business, The Sioux Chef, designed to provide catering and food education in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area. He and his business partner, Dana Thompson, also designed and opened the Tatanka Truck, which featured 100% pre-contact foods of the Dakota and Minnesota territories. In October 2017, Sean and his team presented the first decolonized dinner at the prestigious James Beard House in Manhattan. His first book, The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen, received the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook for 2018 and was chosen one of the top ten cookbooks of 2017 by the LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Smithsonian magazine. That same year, Chef Sean was selected as a Bush Fellow and received the 2019 Leadership Award from the James Beard Foundation. Chef Sean currently serves on the leadership committee of the James Beard Foundation Investment Fund for Black and Indigenous Americans and was recently awarded The Ashoka Fellowship. In July 2021, Chef Sean and his partner Dana opened Owamni by The Sioux Chef, Minnesota's first full service Indigenous restaurant, featuring healthy Indigenous food and drinks. Owamni received the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant in June 2022. The Sioux Chef team continues with their mission to help educate and make Indigenous foods more accessible to as many communities as possible through their non-profit arm, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS) and the accompanying Indigenous Food Lab professional Indigenous kitchen and training center. Working to address the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways, NĀTIFS imagines a new North American food system that generates wealth and improves health in Native communities through food-related enterprises. On this episode, Sean joins host Mitchell Davis and discusses preserving culinary traditions of Native American communities, advocating for Indigenous food systems globally, and navigating cultural appropriation in the 21st century.  

John-Son Oei's EPIC social enterprise was born out of guilt.This former Rain oppa lookalike (time to check out his photos!

Our guest today is Sugandha Sukrutaraj, founder of AMBA and author of its pan-India copyrighted © curriculum. An Ashoka Fellow with 18 years of experience in developing a sustainable livelihood solution for adults with moderate to severe intellectual disability, the focus was on visual data entry and peer training. This, along with 11 years of experience in Aviation & IT, gives her the mainstream know-how for enabling sustainability. AMBA's concept has been shared with 475 Special Institutions across 25 states in India, helping them become small hubs for Learning and Earning. She was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship in 2007 for her initiative in conceiving the holistic AMBA concept for the moderate to severely intellectually challenged adults who do not have the social skills to work directly in the mainstream. AMBA can only be sustainable with work, with the presence of community participation from individuals and mainstream companies to draw -upon their network to sustain work … Listen in as she shares her journey, the proud moments, & the current challenge. She along with the team at Amba invites Volunteering Partnerships to generate more opportunities and possibilities of work post Global Automation. Appreciating the Smart minds participating in exploring more opportunities of back-end work from the volunteers' Network, Sugandha believes that “This support is critical to AMBA and the community they serve going forward as Existing Processes could get further automated. Their target is to enable work to 150000 beneficiaries by 2030.” AMBA's Accolades: BHARATHI SRINIVASAN runner up CII Women exemplar 2017 for education. CEGEO TEKKAL is the winner of the Hellen Kellar Award in 2016 for being the outstanding employee of the year. JEET BOPANNA has won the Maciver Rotary Award online during the pandemic PRIYA CHANDRASHEKARAN manages the virtual curriculum training and is the winner of CII women exemplar 2013 for education. Women Transforming India Awards (WTI) 2021 Ms. Sugandha Sukrutaraj Senior Citizen Entrepreneur Award 2020 – Runner-up Digital India Award in the category ‘Good for India-Digital Innovation in Skills and Employment solutions' AMBA - The Collaboration between Oklahoma University, UNHQ & AMBA to take AMBA Global (beginning 2017-18) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-third-eye1/message

Hi Friends and welcome to JOY IS NOW! The podcast where we take a psychologically minded look at life. I'm your host Lisa Anderson Shaffer, coach, consultant, and resident psych enthusiast.This week I am excited to host for a THESE THREE THINGS segment discussion, Co-Founder and Head of School at Millennium School in San Francisco, founder of Argonaut an online program to bring social-emotional learning to students virtually, recipient of the Ashoka Fellowship as a leading change maker in education, and author of  Finding the Magic in Middle School, soon to be published in August 2022, CHRIS BALME.  Chris shares his most valuable life lessons about surprise, the importance of groups, and kindness. Listen in, it's a good one!This has been JOY IS NOW with me, Lisa Anderson Shaffer, LMFT. You can find me for hire at LISAANDERSONSHAFFER.COM and join the patronage support for this podcast and my daily practice journal, THESE THREE THINGS at patreon.com/lisaandersonshaffer. You can also follow along with my musings at @lisaandersonshaffer on Instagram.A special thanks to my affiliate friends at OSEA - the makers of clean seaweed skincare. Save 10% on your OSEA purchase with this special link and code JOYISNOW10. JOY IS NOW is listener supported. When you buy through shared links, we may earn an affiliate commission.LISA ANDERSON SHAFFER, LMFTNEWSLETTERBOOKPATRONAGEINSTAGRAMEPISODE LINKS:CHRIS BALMEINSTAGRAMFACEBOOKTWITTERSupport the show

Our elders, especially those experiencing dementia and Alzheimer's are often isolated in nursing homes or segregated in elder-care settings, making the final years of life feel lonely and devoid of meaning. But what if we could radically change how we interact with our older loved ones?rnrnAnne Basting, artist and author of Creative Care: A Revolutionary Approach to Dementia and Elder Care, hopes to bring about that radical change. She developed an arts and creative approach that combines evidence-based therapies with methods from theater and improvisation, such as "Yes, and . . ." exercises. This approach fosters storytelling and active listening, allowing elders to freely share ideas and stories without worrying about getting the details "correct."rnrnFor over 20 years, Basting has researched ways to infuse arts and creativity into care settings. She is a MacArthur Fellow, received an Ashoka Fellowship, a Rockefeller Fellowship, and author of numerous articles and four books.

Middle School. Even saying this phrase can immediately bring up memories of awkwardness for many people. But it's also a formative time of life that gives us space to develop our relational skills and shape who we are. As we learn in our conversation with Chris Balme, there are new possibilities when we shift our perspective to view this as an opportunity to build into young people. This can radically change our perspective about this time and equip us as adults to be better guides for this foundational moment of life.*******Click HERE to learn how to support Chris's Kickstarter campaign.*******Chris Balme is an education leader, writing, and school founder, passionate about helping young people discover more of their human potential. As Co-Founder and Head of School at Millennium School, a lab school in San Francisco, Chris helped pioneer new learning methods for middle schoolers, based in developmental science. Chris then founded Argonaut, an online program to bring social-emotional learning to more students. He received the Ashoka Fellowship as a leading change-maker in education, and regularly speaks, trains, and writes for parents and teachers around the world. His book, Finding the Magic in Middle School is about how we can use developmental science to understand and enjoy the middle school years much more, whether we're parents, teachers, or in the broader education world, and will be released in September 2022.chrisbalme.commillenniumschool.orgargonaut.school*******The Third Place Podcast is a weekly podcast that invites listeners into the hard conversations that we have a tendency to avoid.We “go there” on things such as…How anger is beautifulHow to find presence amidst chaosHow to have difficult conversationsHow to be an allyHow to live with griefThe Third Place is a safe place where curiosity is encouraged, differences are welcomed, and empathy is embraced through healthy dialogue.We've forgotten how to talk to each other… Life has become polarized and dualistic - you're either with me or against me. To embrace the complex human experience is to see the world through other's eyes. The Third Place podcast helps with the disconnect. This looks like less conflict and tension and more like a peaceful existence with others. The Third Place podcast restores the art of dialogue.For additional resources and if you're interested in supporting the work of The Third Place Podcast, check out our Patreon page.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-third-place/donations

A member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, Chef Sean Sherman was born and raised in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Cooking in kitchens across the United States and Mexico for over 30 years, Chef Sean is renowned nationally and internationally in the culinary movement of Indigenous foods. His primary focus is the revitalization and evolution of Indigenous foods systems throughout North America. His extensive studies on the foundations of Indigenous food systems have led to his deep understanding of what is needed to showcase Native American cuisine in today's world. In 2014, Chef Sean opened the business, The Sioux Chef, designed to provide catering and food education in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area. He and his business partner, Dana Thompson, also designed and opened the Tatanka Truck, which featured 100% pre-contact foods of the Dakota and Minnesota territories. In October 2017, Sean and his team presented the first decolonized dinner at the prestigious James Beard House in Manhattan. His first book, The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen, received the James Beard Award for Best American Cookbook for 2018 and was chosen one of the top ten cookbooks of 2017 by the LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Smithsonian magazine. That same year, Chef Sean was selected as a Bush Fellow and received the 2019 Leadership Award from the James Beard Foundation. Chef Sean currently serves on the leadership committee of the James Beard Foundation Investment Fund for Black and Indigenous Americans and was recently awarded The Ashoka Fellowship. In July 2021, Chef Sean and Dana opened Owamni by The Sioux Chef, Minnesota's first full service Indigenous restaurant, featuring healthy Indigenous food and drinks. Since its opening, Owamni has received rave reviews from around the globe. The Sioux Chef team continues with their mission to help educate and make Indigenous foods more accessible to as many communities as possible through their non-profit arm, North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems (NĀTIFS) and the accompanying Indigenous Food Lab professional Indigenous kitchen and training center. Working to address the economic and health crises affecting Native communities by re-establishing Native foodways, NĀTIFS imagines a new North American food system that generates wealth and improves health in Native communities through food-related enterprises. Websites: The Sioux Chef: https://sioux-chef.com/ NĀTIFS: https://www.natifs.org/ Food Labs: https://www.natifs.org/indigenous-food-lab Owamni: https://owamni.com/ Facebook: The Sioux Chef: https://www.facebook.com/thesiouxchef NĀTIFS: https://www.facebook.com/NATIFS.org/ Owamni: https://www.facebook.com/owamni/ Instagram: The Sioux Chef: https://www.instagram.com/siouxchef/ NĀTIFS: https://www.instagram.com/natifs_org/ Indigenous Food Labs: https://www.instagram.com/indigenousfoodlab/?hl=en Owamni: https://www.instagram.com/owamni/?hl=en Twitter: The Sioux Chef: https://twitter.com/the_sioux_chef NĀTIFS: https://twitter.com/natifs_org Owamni: https://twitter.com/owamni?lang=en Youtube: Indigenous Food Labs: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZdVMZLJ-VQ1TR6puA1QzSw

In 1998, with only a computer and $30, Ashoka Fellow, Reebok Human Rights Award-winner and leading child sex trafficking advocate Rachel Lloyd established Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS) to support American girls and young women survivors of commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking. Since its inception as a one-woman outreach program in 1998, GEMS has grown steadily, building its services and programs and garnering increased visibility and recognition under Lloyd's leadership. Now the nation's largest organization offering direct services to American victims of child sex trafficking, GEMS' empowers girls and young women, ages 12-24, who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking to exit the sex industry and develop to their full potential. Lloyd is a nationally recognized expert on the issue of child sex trafficking in the United States and played a key role in the successful passage of New York State's groundbreaking Safe Harbor Act for Sexually Exploited Youth, the first law in the country to end the prosecution of child victims of sex trafficking. Her trailblazing advocacy is the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary Very Young Girls (Showtime, 2007) and her memoir Girls Like Us (Harper Collins, 2011). Lloyd's passion and achievements have made her a popular focus of national and international news coverage, with profiles and interviews on CNN Anderson Cooper 360, ABC News, NBC News, NPR, National Geographic Channel, Access Hollywood, and in the New York Times, New York Post, Washington Post, Variety, Essence Magazine, Glamour Magazine, New York Magazine, Village Voice, Marie Claire, and other leading outlets. Lloyd was named one of the "50 Women Who Change the World" by Ms Magazine, one of the "100 Women Who Shape New York" by the New York Daily News, "New Yorker of the Week" by NY1, and a "Notable New Yorker" by CBS TV. Lloyd has a profoundly personal understanding of her work. A survivor of commercial sexual exploitation as a teen, Lloyd knows all too well the hidden, emotional scars such exploitation can leave on children and youth. "There have been experiences I would rather not have had and pain I wish I hadn't felt-but every experience, every tear, every hardship has equipped me for the work I do now," Lloyd says. "I get such deep satisfaction from knowing I'm fulfilling my purpose, that my life is counting for something. It puts all the past hurts into perspective." In addition to being awarded a 2009 Ashoka Fellowship, Lloyd has been honored and recognized with a Reebok Human Rights Award, Child Advocacy Award-The Administration for Children's Services (ACS), the Community Service Award from the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Frederick Douglass Award from the North Star Fund, Susan B. Anthony Award from the National Organization for Women, the Community Service Award from Soroptimist International NY, Prime Movers Fellowship, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Award, Change.org's Changemakers Network, Heroes for Youth Award-National Safe Place, and the Social Entrepreneurship Award from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. Rachel received her Bachelors degree in Psychology from Marymount Manhattan College and her Masters in Applied Urban Anthropology from the City College of New York. Brought to you by the British Consulate General, New York. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Does your farm have the right legal structures in place to protect your livelihood and to keep your farm thriving?  We're joined on the show today by Rachel Armstrong, Founder and Executive Director of Farm Commons located in Duluth, Minnesota. Farm Commons' mission is to empower agricultural communities to resolve their own legal vulnerabilities, within an ecosystem of support. A single legal vulnerability can make or break a farm. But farmers, ranchers, and agriculture communities already have their hands full taking on behemoths like monopolistic agribusiness companies. Farms today are getting squeezed by overwhelming social and economic forces. They need shared tools for legal resilience. Learn how Rachel and her team can provide legal resilience for you and your farm!   You'll hear: What motivated Rachel to establish Farm Commons 1:03 What blanket farm personal property is 11:25 Why it's good to have a solid lease agreement in place 15:39 What legal structures farmers should have in place 23:32 What the rules are surrounding volunteers 27:36 What Rachel recommends for farms offering worker perks such as room and board 32:58 What advice Rachel has for farmers just getting started 37:35 About the Guest: Rachel Armstrong is the founder and Executive Director of Farm Commons, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering farmers to resolve their own legal vulnerabilities within an ecosystem of support. After a childhood and early career in agriculture showed her the vast need for legal education, Rachel went to law school with the exclusive purpose of creating an organization to address that need. Her game-changing vision for how farmers experience business law has been awarded a 2012 Echoing Green Global Fellowship and a 2018 Ashoka Fellowship. As leading authority on direct-to-consumer farm law she has authored dozens of publications and leads workshops nationwide. Rachel instructs continuing legal education classes for the American Bar Association, teaches farm law for the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and is a co-author of "Farmers' Guide to Business Structures," published by USDA SARE. She lives in Northern Minnesota with her husband and 3 children, not far from the old farm where she grew up.   Resources:Website - https://farmcommons.org/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/FarmCommons Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/farm.commons/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/farmcommons

Anne Basting, Ph.D. is an artist, scholar, and educator committed to the power of the arts and culture to transform our lives as individuals and communities. She is Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and founder and President of the award-winning non-profit TimeSlips. Basting's innovative work as both a community-engaged artist and a scholar has been recognized by a MacArthur Fellowship, an Ashoka Fellowship, a Rockefeller Fellowship, and multiple major grants. She is author/editor of multiple books, including her latest, Creative Care (HarperOne); as well as The Penelope Project (U of Iowa), and Forget Memory (Johns Hopkins). TimeSlips fosters an alliance of artists and caregivers bringing meaning and joy to late life through creativity, and has over 900 certified facilitators in 48 states and 20 countries. Her latest book, The Creative Care Imagination Kit, is available for sale beginning June 8th and is a perfect resource for friends, family, and caregivers to make connections with and spark conversation and engagement among anyone living with physical, cognitive, or emotional challenges, including memory loss. Learn more at https://www.anne-basting.com/

The Raven Indigenous Impact Fund provides equity and equity-like capital to innovative, scalable, purpose-driven Indigenous enterprises. The Fund looks to support entrepreneurs who are at the seed and/or early stage. Through the Raven Fund, innovative Indigenous enterprises can access the support they need to grow from a trusted partner. The Fund represents a sustainable, values-driven approach to poverty reduction and community resilience that will directly contribute to the development of an Indigenous middle class. Enterprises are screened through a unique, Indigenous impact lens and receive investments ranging from $250,000 to $2 million. This is an interview about the reason and availability of this fund for Indigenous Entrepreneurs. Paul Lacerte, Managing Partner. Paul Lacerte has provided innovative leadership to Indigenous organizations throughout his career. He is the former Vice-Chair of the Vancouver Foundation Board of Directors, the former Board Chair for Reconciliation Canada, and a former representative to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. He was awarded the Order of BC in 2014. Jeffrey Cyr, Managing Partner. Jeff is Métis from the White Horse Plains area of Southern Manitoba, the traditional Buffalo Hunt staging grounds. For nearly 20 years, he has provided strategic leadership for Indigenous, not-for-profit, and government organizations. Jeff has helped create and implement the community-driven outcomes contract (a unique pay-for-success social finance model) and the Indigenous Solutions Lab process, which earned him an Ashoka Fellowship. Jeff is a proud husband and father of five and currently lives and works on unceded Algonquin lands in what is now known as Ottawa, Ontario. Entrepreneurs are the backbone of Canada's economy. To support Canada's businesses, subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #entrepreneur podcasts and news? Subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter.

Throughout her career, Imandeep Kaur has focused on convening and building community, the role of citizens in radical systemic change, and how we together create more democratic, distributed, open source social and civic infrastructure. Immy is a co-founder and director of CIVIC SQUARE, a public square, neighbourhood lab, and creative + participatory platform focused on regenerative civic and social infrastructure within neighbourhoods. Immy is part of a creative and dynamic leadership team who work alongside the local neighbourhood, to offer a bold approach to visioning, building and investing in civic infrastructure for neighbourhoods of the future. Immy was a founding director of Impact Hub Birmingham, which was open from 2015-2019. Impact Hub Birmingham was on a mission to help build a fairer more equal and just city, through people place and open movements. Immy’s work has been recognised with a series of notable honours and awards. In 2018, Impact Hub Birmingham was named a NESTA New Radical. For her services to the city of Birmingham, Aston University’s School of Life & Heath Sciences granted Immy an Honorary Doctorate in 2019 and in 2020, Immy was awarded a prestigious Ashoka Fellowship.

Guest Bio:As the first female wrestler on her high school boys' team, Cat owns the school record for getting pinned the most and fastest. Her bruises and losses prepared her to come alongside others who need to be “scraped off the mat,” shined up, and put back in the fight. Cat's underdog spirit led her to launch three groundbreaking organizations: Hustle 2.0, Defy Ventures, and Prison Entrepreneurship Program. In 16 years, 8,500 incarcerated people have graduated from her programs. Her efforts have led 7,000 executives, entrepreneurs, and investors to volunteer as mentors and employers. The programs reduce violence and have produced industry-leading recidivism rates of less than 8%. Cat was named a #MakeTechHuman Agent of Change by WIRED and Nokia for being one of “17 Global Influencers Expanding Human Possibility Through Technology.” She has received the MDC Partners Humanitarian Award on behalf of Defy Ventures and was included in Forbes' 40 Women to Watch over 40. She was also named by Fast Company as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business and received an Ashoka Fellowship. Seth Godin published Cat's best-selling book A Second Chance: For You, For Me, and for the Rest of Us, a powerful reflection on the struggles and triumphs of her journey, and on her graduates' journeys.

Sujay worked in IBM & Oracle for over 12 years, before founding iKure in 2010. The social venture was incepted with the vision to provide affordable and accessible, quality primary healthcare up to the last mile using technology intervention. Realizing that there will never be sufficient doctors to treat patients in India individually, iKure led by Sujay is changing the public healthcare system from an individualized curative model to a community based preventive healthcare system to ensure holistic well-being of communities. Within 9 years of its journey, iKure is catering to 8 million underserved people across seven states in India. Today, iKure is recognized as a prominent sustainable primary healthcare model in the world. Sujay’s strong technology & business skills backed by his never-say-die spirit has led iKure to many milestones. In recognition of his outstanding efforts in the field of social innovation, he has been awarded the Ashoka Fellowship & received appreciation by the Hon’ble President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee in 2016 and conferred with the ‘100 Most Impactful Healthcare Leader Award’ by World Health & Wellness Congress in 2018. An eminent speaker across the global platform, Sujay did MCA from IETE and EPGM from MIT Sloan School of Management, USA. Links: Mr. Sujay's LinkedIn Ikure Website Email address: contactusikurein Apply for internships with Ikure in finance, operations and data science by emailing them at contactusikurein --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/manthanshah/message

“We believe that radical, democratic change in education occurs through grassroots mobilization of teachers and students and the empowerment of those most directly impacted by injustice. … [C]onsciousness development is key to our liberatory education model.” – Freedom University Theory of Change Dr. Laura Emiko Soltis is Executive Director of Freedom University, an award-winning, modern-day freedom school for undocumented students who are banned from equal access to public higher education in Georgia. With the aim of “ending modern segregation in higher education” – and of a future where undocumented and documented students can learn in the same classrooms – Freedom University provides tuition-free college preparation classes, college and scholarship application assistance for students seeking higher education opportunities in private universities or outside Georgia, and social movement leadership development for undocumented students. A human rights educator originally from a rural Minnesota town of 1100 people, Emiko was raised in a blue-collar, biracial household as the child of a Japanese immigrant mother and a Vietnam war-vet father who was a second-generation Czech immigrant. She developed passions for working-class politics, immigrant rights, and classical music in equal measure. Emiko's work experience in low-wage industries alongside diverse immigrants in restaurant work, janitorial services, and farm labor inspired her to study interracial labor movements and international human rights. A proud public school kid, Emiko was honored to receive the Foundation Fellowship scholarship at the University of Georgia, where she graduated summa cum laude in 2006. She went on to receive her Ph.D. from Emory University in 2012, where she wrote her dissertation on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ movement for farmworker justice in South Florida. She joined Freedom University as a volunteer faculty member in 2013. Following the departure of the founding faculty and the closure of Freedom University in June 2014, Emiko re-established Freedom University in Atlanta in September 2014, introducing a human rights framework to its mission and pedagogy, and connecting undocumented youth to Black student movement veterans of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Atlanta Student Movement. She also founded Freedom University’s social movement leadership training program and expanded the curriculum to include a creative arts program, STEM classes, and mental health workshops in a year-long academic program. As an experienced social movement strategist, Emiko works to advance the undocumented student movement by building bridges between undocumented and documented student groups, and advocating for fair admissions policies in higher education across the U.S. Emiko co-founded the Freedom at Emory Initiative, which led to Emory’s decision in 2015 to admit and offer and offer financial support to undocumented students. Through strategic direct actions of nonviolent civil disobedience, policy and legal campaigns, and local, national, and international partnerships, she and Freedom University seek to change college admissions policies and transform the public debate on immigrant justice and undocumented student access to higher education. As an active Professor of Human Rights and public scholar, she writes and lectures frequently on topics like human rights advocacy, immigration and higher education, and workers’ rights and economic justice.  She’s the recipient of numerous accolades, including the Telemundo Heroe Luchadora Award, an Ashoka Fellowship, and the Ford Foundation’s Public Voices Fellowship.  Her artistic side finds expression as an accomplished photographer, violinist, and vocalist who has performed in Carnegie Hall with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus.  She's a polyglot who speaks a "messy combination" of English, Spanish, Japanese, and French, and enjoys dancing bachata, practicing kung fu, and "loving on her three rescue dogs."   Join David Bonbright and Rahul Brown in conversation with this impassioned educator, artist, and champion of human rights.

Lifeed is the social impact EdTech company that creates innovative solutions for human capital development, engaging the corporate world to make a real change. Since 2015, it’s been transforming life transitions and caregiving activities - such as parenthood, caregiving or going through a crisis - into an opportunity for personal and professional growth.By mixing digital and real life experiences in an augmented learning platform, Lifeed promotes a continuous learning method that creates work-life synergy, generating wellbeing, engagement and professional efficacy. Lifeed programs are based on years of scientific research and validated at an international and national level through the scientific committee and academic partners, such as Università Ca’ Foscari, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca and Kellogg School of Management. Named by McKinsey & Company as one of the 10 most innovative companies in the world for employee reskiling, today Lifeed’s augmented training is used by over 15,000 people in 70 companies. Over the years, Lifeed and its founder Riccarda Zezza have received various awards, including Ashoka Fellowship (2016), UBS Social Innovation Award (2017) and the Sole 24Ore Social Impact Award (2018).

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has - Margaret MeadMy guest, Dublin Firefighter Neil McCabe is a prime example of one person who has made tremendous impact on both the immediate, and wider community around him. His story starts in a Dublin Fire Station 12 years ago. Neil wanted to boost morale in his unit and introduced energy-saving initiatives to give the crew a sense of purpose and community. As you will hear, the well-intentioned idea grew arms & legs taking Neil to The White House in America, to designing the multiple-award winning Green Plan accreditation initiative; to being awarded the very prestigious Ashoka Fellowship. And to say this is the tip of the iceberg is an understatement. We chat about his ethical clothing company and his new venture into forestry. Neil is the ultimate social entrepreneur. And all this while still holding down the day job with the Dublin Fire Brigade. TOPICS DISCUSSED:Journey into role as firefighter with Dublin Fire Brigade in Kilbarrack, to becoming a social entrepreneur and environmental activist with global impact Developed 'The Green Plan' initiative – 2 core principles: behavioural change and then, emissions reduction. Achieved world’s first carbon neutral fire station in 5 years – Kilbarrack Fire Brigade, Dublin. The initiative has since been implemented worldwide. Ring-fenced their energy-saving costs to roll out across other fire stations. Saved €11 million EURO of tax payers money by following his Green Plan initiative Awarded an Ashoka Fellowship for his work on The Green Plan “Going Green, For Social Good” Corporate Social Responsibility Greenwashing for corporate brand image Plastic waste in the oceans “How can we stimulate behavioural change?” Textile industry – second highest pollutant in the world GROWN Clothing – ethically-sourced clothing brand Building brand community and followers rather than customers GROWN - Ireland’s first certified Fair Trade clothing company, and members of '1% for the Planet' (alongside Patagonia)Challenges developing a transparent supply chain Supports collaboration for innovative ideas Social Entrepreneurship Won Irish Product of the Year in 2017 at the Irish Green Awards GROWN Forest – new company born out of the clothing company. Plant native Irish trees and creating forestry Gifting a tree instead of buying ‘stuff’ people don’t actually want “What can I do to make a difference?”RESOURCES MENTIONED:The Green Plan: http://thegreenplan.ie/GROWN Clothing: https://www.grown.ie/GROWN Forest: http://grownforest.com/Ashoka: https://www.ashoka.org/en1% for the Planet: https://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org/Irish Green Awards: https://www.greenawards.ie/2018-winners_________________________________ Subscribe to YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/3jLTdaqRate & review Journeying on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/journeying/id1529912826Like Facebook Page: https://bit.ly/33kp4bU

Who are Youth Caregivers? Caregiving youths are children and adolescents who are 18 years of age or younger and who provide significant or substantial assistance, often on a regular basis, to relatives or household members who need help because of physical or mental illness, disability, frailty associated with aging, substance misuse, or other condition.Connie Siskowski’s broad background in healthcare and dedication to diminishing caregiver struggles led to the establishment of the American Association for Caregiving Youth (AACY), headquartered in Boca Raton, FL. AACY integrates healthcare, education, and the community to provide a strong foundation for the youth and their families.Connie authored the book, I’m a Teen Caregiver. Now What?  She has received many awards including the lifetime Ashoka Fellowship, Purpose Prize, Distinguished Alumna Award from Johns Hopkins University, and Top Ten CNN Hero for 2012. Connie is now on the faculty of the national Family RAISE Caregiving Council to give caregiving youth a voice.Resources: NY Time Article: Supporting Children who Serve as Caregivers American Association of Caregiving YouthAACY VideosCNN Hero: Connie Siskowski

There’s no arguing that more consumers are choosing to vary their diets with plant-based foods and drink, but what does this mean for the future of meat? Is a blanket ‘no meat’ future the best for sustainability? Or does that blanket approach show a lack of understanding for agriculture? On this Table Talk Podcast, recorded back in March 2020 as COVID-19 lockdowns were just taking shape in the UK, our panel argues that perhaps we should change the conversation around meat and future diets. Joining us are Patrick Holden, Founder & Chief Executive, Sustainable Food Trust, Shefali Sharma, Director, IATP Europe, Ursula Arens, Author, One Blue Dot and Jimmy Woodrow from the Pasture Fed Livestock Association. Find out how they see the future of meat taking shape, in an increasingly plant-based world. About our panel Patrick Holden, Founder & Chief Executive, Sustainable Food Trust Patrick Holden is founder and chief executive of the Sustainable Food Trust (https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/) , an organisation working internationally to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable food systems. Between 1995 and 2010 he was director of the Soil Association, during which time he pioneered the development of UK and international organic standards, policy incentives for organic production and the organic market. His policy advocacy is underpinned by his practical experience in agriculture on his 100 hectare holding, now the longest established organic dairy farm in Wales, where he produces a raw milk cheddar style cheese from his 80 native Ayrshire cows. Patrick is a frequent broadcaster and speaker, was awarded the CBE for services to organic farming in 2005 and an Ashoka Fellowship in 2016. Shefali Sharma, Director, IATP Europe Shefali Sharma is the director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP (https://www.iatp.org/) ) European office. From the global production of feed grains to meat processing and retail, her current work and publications focus on the economic, social and environmental impacts of the global meat and dairy industries. She continues to examine how international trade rules and global governance on food security and climate intersect with the sector. Shefali established IATP’s Geneva office in 2000 and led its Trade Information Project for several years. She has worked with and consulted for several other civil society organisations, such as the Malaysia-based Third World Network, as the South Asia coordinator of the Bank Information Center, based in Delhi, and ActionAid International. She has a MPhil from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in Sussex and a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from the College of William and Mary. Ursula Arens, Author, One Blue Dot Ursula Arens is currently a freelance nutrition consultant writer. She is a monthly columnist with Network Health Digest magazine (www.nhdmag.com), which is read by 6000+ dietitians in the UK. She has a degree in Dietetics and has spent most of her career working in the food industry: with a retailer, with a pharmaceutical company and at the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF). She is a member of the Nutrition Society, the British Dietetic Association, and the Guild of Health Writers. She is very interested in the environmentally sustainable diet: what it is, and what it is not. She is part of the expert group behind the report, One Blue Dot (https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/one-blue-dot.html) , produced by the British Dietetic Association. Jimmy Woodrow, Pasture Fed Livestock Association Jimmy is primarily responsible for growing the market for Pasture for Life (https://www.pastureforlife.org/) products through building public awareness of the PFLA’s activities and developing pasture-fed supply chains. In addition, he is leading on the PFLA’s upcoming ten-year strategy. Jimmy started his career in corporate finance and has recently spent seven years in a range of senior roles within the food industry, including at Neal’s Yard Dairy and GAIL’s Bakery. He is now freelancing and focused on the financing and development of agroecological supply chains.

Dr Urvashi Sahni is a social entrepreneur, women rights activist and educationist. Through her various organizations, she has been working for the rights of children and women for over three decades. She is a leading expert in school governance, curriculum reform and teacher training with a special focus on girls' education and the use of technology in education. Dr Sahni is a non-resident fellow at the Center for Universal Education - Brookings Institution. She has been recognized by the Obama Foundation Global Girls Alliance and the Clinton Foundation as a Change Maker. In 2017, she was declared the Social Entrepreneur of the Year India by the Schwab-Jubilant Bhartiya Foundation, and joined the international fellowship of Schwab social entrepreneurs. Dr Sahni was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship in the year 2011. She received Berkeley's Haas International Award for her efforts to reform education in India and bolster education for girls in the year 1994. Dr Sahni was also invited to be an honorary member of the Clinton Global Initiative. She was also a member of the sub-committee on school education of the Chief Minister's Advisory Council in Rajasthan (2013 - 18). She founded Suraksha, a women rights organisation, in 1983 in Uttar Pradesh, India. She is the founding president and CEO of the Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF), under which she has established three K-12 schools including Prerna Girls School, providing affordable high quality rights-based education to over 1000 girls from urban slums. SHEF directly provides education to over 4000 students including middle class urban children, disadvantaged girls and boys from poor areas, out-of-school children, and rural children. She is the co-founder and director of the Digital Study Hall, which extends the pedagogical practices developed by the foundation to rural and urban schools in Uttar Pradesh and reaches out to over 1,00,000 students and teachers. A prolific social entrepreneur, Dr Sahni also founded DiDi's, a social enterprise generating sustainable livelihoods for women, where she employs 65 Prerna graduates and their mothers. She has a Masters and a PhD in Education from the Graduate School of Education in UC Berkeley. She has presented academic papers at many national and international forums and universities, including Columbia, NYU, Chicago, and Berkeley, and has given Keynote addresses at international drama and education conferences in Edinburgh, Jamaica, Plymouth, Toronto, Northern Ireland and New York. She has published extensively on Critical Pedagogy, Theatre in Education, Feminist Pedagogy, Child Cultures, and Girls' Education and Empowerment. Her current research focuses on developing and scaling her Girls' Empowerment Program in India with the help of curricular reform, teacher training, and affordable technology. Her latest book – Reaching for the Sky: Empowering Girls through Education – draws on her 14 years of work with Prerna Girls School, and argues that education can be truly transformative if it addresses the everyday reality of girls' lives and responds to their special needs and challenges with respect and care --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/future-school-leaders/message

This conversation with Anne Basting covers her ground-breaking approach to engaging with patients in the midst of dementia and cognitive decline - a new, generative, and playful way of imagining elder care. Basting's work has challenged conventional wisdom and resulted in extraordinary changes for patients and caregivers alike. We discuss storytelling and our human need for narrative, relationships and the value of living in the present moment, and what is driving Anne's personal sense urgency at this moment. She opens up about her own mom’s experience with dementia, shares stories of infusing creativity and joy into care-giving, and explains what she calls “beautiful questions.”Anne Basting is Professor of Theatre at the Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and founder and President of TimeSlips. Her innovative work as an artist and scholar has been recognized by a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, an Ashoka Fellowship, a Rockefeller Fellowship, and several major grants. She is author/editor of multiple books, including the Penelope Project (U of Iowa), Forget Memory (Johns Hopkins), and the new Creative Care (Harper One). TimeSlips fosters an alliance of artists and caregivers bringing meaning and joy to late life through creativity, and has certified facilitators in 47 states and 18 countries. Creative Care (released May 19, 2020): https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Care-Revolutionary-Approach-Dementia/dp/0062906178TimeSlips: https://www.timeslips.org/Anne’s 2014 Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPA6lklMQxMMore about Anne: https://www.anne-basting.com/about

Right before the holidays, TGOW had the pleasure of interviewing another former boss of mine, Susan Sygall. She is as badass as they come and such a wonderful role model to me. Susan is the CEO and co-founder of Mobility International USA, a wheelchair rider, author, lecturer, and a passionate disability rights activist. She has edited and authored several publications to advance the rights of persons with disabilities around the world. She has received numerous awards and distinctions in recognition of her work, including the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, an Ashoka Fellowship, a Rotary Scholarship Alumni Award, Jewish Women International’s Women to Watch Award, Kellogg’s Matusak Courageous Leadership Award, the “President’s Award” from the Honorable Bill Clinton and an honorary doctorate from Chapman University. She lives in Eugene, Oregon with her partner, Tom, and her dog, Yumyum. --- Website: https://www.traipsingglobal.com/

David Cuartielles is the co-founder and co-creator of Arduino the open hardware platform Arduino, which has become a leading platform for DIY electronics and which earned the team an Honorary Mention at the Ars Electronica Digital Community Prix 2006, the SER price 2015, the FIUM price 2017, and an Ashoka Fellowship 2017, among others. David's work spans... The post Arduino Co-founder David Cuartielles on the Open Source Movement and Future of Education appeared first on The Syndicate.

PPS: This episode is full of surprises! From crackers bursting in the middle of a normal day to recording in Bangalore traffic!About I Live Simply movement:A unique crowd-funding campaign where the contribution made is not monetarily, rather by pledging a greener and simpler lifestyle changes.As leaders of tomorrow, students' participation in this movement can have a huge impact on fighting global warming. Some of the pledges today's youth can make could be: Making your college campus plastic-free, planting more trees in your campus and around, adopting bike-pooling or using more of public transport, reducing unnecessary water consumption, less data consumption which meant lesser online streaming, taking initiatives to partner with waste management organisations for proper recycling of e-waste, TetraPaks, plastics etc.PS: To measure the impact of this episode I urge you to use #ilivesimply #TheGalataPodcast  Link: https://www.ilivesimply.org/ About Sonam Wangchuk,A mechanical engineer by education, Sonam has worked in the field of education reform for 27+ years. The man who inspired the popular “Phunsukh Wangdu” character in the Bollywood hit Three Idiots, Sonam has been instrumental in changing the face of education in the mountains. His sessions throw a whole new perspective on innovation and entrepreneurship that embraces social change.In 1988, he founded SECMOL (Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh) that aims to reform the government school system in Ladakh. In 1994 he was instrumental in the launch of Operation New Hope, a triangular collaboration of the government, village communities and the civil society, whose work has been instrumental in improving the pass percentage of 10th graders in the region from a dismal 5% to 75%.For students who still failed in their state exams, he founded the SECMOL Alternative School Campus near Leh, a special school where the admission criterion is a failure in exams and not grades. As an engineer, Sonam Wangchuk has been teaching innovation at the SECMOL Alternative School, where together with the students, he designed and built solar heated buildings that are low cost, made of earth/mud but maintain +15 C even when the outside temperature is –15 C in Ladakhi winters.His “Ice Stupa” artificial glacier has claimed fame for helping solve the water crisis in the region due to climate change and fast melting glaciers. The Ice Stupas store water in the winter in the form of giant ice cones or stupas, which melt over summer and provide water to the lands, just in time for irrigation.Sonam is the recipient of several awards, The Rolex Award for Enterprise 2016 in Hollywood USA, The Terra Award 2016 for World's Best Earth Buildings in Lyon France, The UNESCO Chair for Earth Architecture for India in 2014, ‘Real Heroes' Award by CNN IBN Channel in 2008, ‘Green Teacher' Award by Sanctuary Asia Magazine in 2005, Ashoka Fellowship by Ashoka: Innovators for the Public in 2002, ‘Man of the Year' by The Week magazine in India in 2001 and the Governors Medal by the J&K State Government in 1996.Introduction Credits: Outstanding Speakers Bureau.Links to reach Sonam:Twitter: https://twitter.com/Wangchuk66Website: https://secmol.org

Wietse Van Der Werf is an award-winning social entrepreneur and conservationist, pioneering regenerative blue economy ventures. For his innovative approach which mobilizes business, government and citizens to form uncommon partnerships for the social economic and ecological regeneration of coastal and ocean areas, Wietse was previously awarded the Future for Nature Award (2016), Ashoka Fellowship (2018) and Summit Fellowship (2019). His current venture, the Sea Ranger Service, trains unemployed young people from port cities with the help of navy veterans to manage Marine Protected Areas. A new type of sailing work vessel has been developed for the Sea Rangers; operating at sea cost-effective and with zero emissions.

Donny B.U. is the co-founder of ICT Watch, an Indonesian CSO whose goal is to lay the foundations for the safe and responsible use of the internet through its national campaign initiative Internet Sehat. In 2012, he was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship for his focus on freedom of expression online, cyber activism, and citizen journalism. In addition to his engagement in ICT Watch, Donny is one of the founders of the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFENet) and the Indonesian Internet Governance Forum. He now is serving as Expert Staff to the Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT) for Digital Literacy and Internet Governance and still teaches from time to time at leading universities in Indonesia.

Nicole Rycroft is the founder and Executive Director of Canopy. Nicole is the recipient of an Ashoka Fellowship, a Canadian Environment Award Gold Medal, and numerous conservation and publishing industry awards. With a drive and passion for harnessing corporate power Nicole has dedicated the last 20 years to Canopy?s growing success. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be relied upon as investment advice or the basis for making any investment decisions. The views and opinions expressed may not be those of UBS Financial Services Inc. UBS Financial Services Inc. does not verify and does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information presented. In providing wealth management services to clients, we offer both investment advisory and brokerage services which are separate and distinct and differ in material ways. For information, including the different laws and contracts that govern, visit ubs.com/workingwithus. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. Canopy and UBS Financial Services Inc. are not affiliated.

David Cuartielles (@dcuartielles) is the co-founder and co-creator of Arduino the open hardware platform Arduino, which has become a leading platform for DIY electronics and which earned the team an Honorary Mention at the Ars Electronica Digital Community Prix 2006, the SER price 2015, the FIUM price 2017, and an Ashoka Fellowship 2017, among others.David's work spans the fields of programming, education, research and product development and since the late nineties he has developed robotic, mobile and net-based interactive art installations and open source tools for live performance and education. He is a passionate speaker on the how we can reform education through practically enabling children and young people to play and test, engineering ideas in partnership with peers and experts others. David works to enable such learning to take place through various initiatives including the Institute Of Interactive Objects laboratory at Malmö University, the Arduino community and his academic research and forthcoming Ph.D. at Malmö University You can listen right here on iTunesIn our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including: * How opensource is affecting education and improving lives worldwide * Why open source software is different than open source hardware * What makes hardware so hard * How to recreate the education system for the modern era * The reason edtech startups so often fail * Why Arduino took forever to finally make money * What David thinks about Sweden's political system and the importance of healthcare * Why technology is not good or bad * The reason cities make more sense than nation-states for governanceMake a Tax-Deductible Donation to Support FringeFMFringeFM is supported by the generosity of its readers and listeners. If you find our work valuable, please consider supporting us on Patreon, via Paypal or with DonorBox powered by Stripe.Donate  

Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, is not only responsible for the incredible regenerative agriculture system happening at Main Street Project and the recent recipient of a lifetime Ashoka Fellowship as a result of this work, he’s also the author of In the Shadow of Green Man: My Journey from Poverty and Hunger to Food Security and Hope. The book weaves his own firsthand experience of growing up hearing traditional fables in revolution-torn Guatemala, and his story will delight and inform readers in equal measure. Tune in to hear about… How the character of Green Man manifested in Regi’s own life The role of poultry in regenerative agriculture and how Regi credits the chickens his family raised with the fact that he is not simply another child hunger statistic The relationship between economic poverty, intellectual poverty and poor nutrition How we could re-haul our entire food system with poultry!

Larry Rosenstock is President, CEO and Founding Principal of High Tech High, a network of thirteen incredible public charter schools K-12 in California. With a remarkable career in education receiving the Ford Foundation Innovations Award, an Ashoka Fellowship, and the McGraw Prize in Education, he has also served as an attorney at the Harvard Center for Law and Education and as a visiting professor at UC Berkley. We explore the philosophy of HTH that has lead to quality learning and outcomes for students.

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: An Interview with Jessica Jackley Co-Founder, kiva.org Date: September 29, 2008 Jessica Jackley: Kiva Lucy Sanders: Hi, this is Lucy Sanders. I'm the CEO for the National Center for Women and Information Technology or NCWIT. This is one in a continuing series of interviews that we are doing with women who have started either IT companies or organizations that are based on information technology. We are very excited that we have Jessica Flannery here today from Kiva to talk to us. Also with me is Larry Nelson, from w3w3.com. Hi, Larry. Larry Nelson: It's really a pleasure to be here and I must say we are getting tremendous feedback from not only adults who are having their children listen to some of these interviews, but some of the employers that are looking for more women and more technical people to get into the business which is sometimes a very good step to becoming an entrepreneur. Lucy: Also with me today is Lee Kennedy who is a Director of NCWIT and a serial entrepreneur herself. Right now, her current company is called Tricalix. Hi Lee. How are you? Lee Kennedy: Hi Lucy. Hi Larry. It is so good to be here. Larry: It is. We are the three L's, right? Lucy, Lee and Larry or something. Lucy: Or something. Welcome Jessica. We are very happy to have you with us today and the topic that we are going to talk about, I mean, you're fabulous social entrepreneur, and I think that this whole area of micro-finance and what Kiva is doing is just fascinating. And as part of this interview, we all went and spent time on the Kiva site and just really got lost in all the wonderful stories that are our there. So welcome. Jessica Flannery: Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. Lucy: Well, for our listeners, I'm sure everybody knows but it bears repeating that Kiva is the first peer to peer micro loan website. It really demonstrates how the Internet can be used to facilitate these meaningful types of connections between people who want to lend money and entrepreneurs all over the world especially in developing countries, how we can all help each other really move the economies ahead. It's a really fascinating website. So Jessica, why don't you just spend a minute and tell us a bit about Kiva. Jessica: Sure. You said it very, very well and very concisely. We are the world's first person to person micro lending website so anybody in the world can go onto the site, browse business profiles and entrepreneur profiles really I should say. Whether that person is a farmer or selling small goods in their village or a seamstress or a restaurant owner, there are all different kinds of small business. And you can lend as little as $25 to that entrepreneur and over time you get updates on that business and then you get paid back. Larry: Wow! Lucy: Well, and Kiva is a fairly young organization. I read someplace that you started a bit of a hobby website and it just exploded. Jessica: Yeah. It's been a very, very busy last four years. Four years ago, I learned about micro-finance and decided that's what I want to do. I quit another job and I went to East Africa for a few months to see it up close and personal. While I was there it was impossible not to be deeply moved by the stories of success of people that I was meeting. People who had used often just a $100 to change their lives and lifted their families out of poverty. So, I became really excited about these stories and wanted to share them with my own friends and family. And as I did that, my husband Matt and I kept asking not just "Oh, this is great. Micro-finance works, but wow, how do we, and our friends and family, how do we enable people to lend money directly to these individuals we're meeting?" So, it started out with a very specific way, very specific context with individuals who we had met face to face in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda who we wanted to help. We wanted to participate in their amazing stories, and we wanted to see them get to the next level. So what we did was basically Matt came to visit me during his time in East Africa, and then he went back home, built our website. We emailed our friends and family and said "Hey, we have seven businesses in Uganda that we'd like to lend a total of $3,000 to. Do you want to pitch in?" Then overnight that money came in and we sent that along to Uganda. We had a six month kind of beta round with these seven entrepreneurs in Uganda. After the six months they had repaid, we took the word beta off of our website and that launched us. And that was just in October of '05, so not even quite three years ago. Our first year was $500,000 a month, the second year was $13.5 million more, and today we're just around $45 million, and we haven't even finished our third year. So it's grown very rapidly. Lucy: And you have an incredible payback on the loans, incredible payback percent. Jessica: Yeah, it's in a high 90 percentage. That's representative of a micro finance alone, not just our site. Lucy: But wow, that's just and incredible history and such a good cause as well. One of the things that I noticed there was a Soft-tech video on YouTube that I watched that I thought was very interesting. Where you mentioned that you all created the tool that Kiva uses really to match lenders and entrepreneurs without really knowing how the world would use it to your previous story. This gets us to our first question which is around technology, and I thought you would have a really interesting spin on this. You know, how in general do you see technology helping missions like those of Kiva? Slightly different than potentially a four-profit business but you have incredibly interesting uses of technology. So what do you see in the future? Jessica: Kiva does a lot of different things, but our mission is to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. The real key there is to connect people. The money transfer is very interesting, and technology obviously helps that happened, but what really we care about is this connectivity. Loans happen to be a great tool for poverty alleviation as well as connectivity. I mean, if you lend me something and I have it and I'm fully giving it back to you, you're going to pay a little bit more attention usually, than if you just donate something and I tell you how that's going forever and ever. That back and forth communication is obviously free or a lot less expensive. It's quick. It's real time. You can see on the other side of the planet how this person is waiting right now today for that $200 that's going to allow them to start their business. So there are all these elements, but then technology makes it faster, more efficient, less expensive and just overall easier to have that human connection happen. Very specifically while I said the money is not the point, it's a great tool for a lot of things. For example, we've had a lot of help from great technology leaders out there that we've been able to leverage. So PayPal, we're the first non-profit to have PayPal generously agree to provide free payment transactions. So we have literally zero variable costs for sending these little bits of money back and forth all around the planet every day. Lucy: Well, one thing too, I'm a technologist so I'll get off this question in just a minute. I know Larry and Lee are looking at me like "Let's move off the technology." But I do have one more thing to observe here, because this is a different kind of interview than we've done. There is a whole growing area called ICT for D which is Information and Communication Technology for Developing World and one of the things that I have read that you either have done or will do is you make an offline browser so that people can conserve power on their computer, sort of a low energy kind of browser so they don't have to be always plugged in. That's an example of the type of technology around ICT for D that you have to start thinking about the climates and the situation and the resources that people have all around the world. Jessica: It's been very, very interesting for us to see, even how sometimes we'll have really wonderful generous lenders say, "Hey, I also want to donate financially or otherwise." And let's say they send a great batch of brand new video cameras for us to send out to the field. Well, sometimes actually a lower tech solution is better, because of the technology that's available in the field. So maybe we don't need the highest quality photos, the highest res photos, maybe a lower tech solution is better. That's been interesting to watch, just figuring out really what's the best and what's the most appropriate tools to get the job done. Lee: That's exactly right. Lucy: So, we normally ask what it is that you love about being an entrepreneur, but since you're working with entrepreneurs it would be great to hear about the stories from the entrepreneurs out of Kiva, as well as what it is that love about this whole environment and the entrepreneurship. Jessica: OK. This is a really good question. What I found is the idea of being an entrepreneur, I think that's really attractive to a lot of people. I think there are some, I don't want to put value judgments on it, good or bad, better or worse, but I think sometimes it has to do with freedom or this idea of being your own boss, or something like that. For me, my introduction to business and my entrepreneurship at all was in Africa seeing people who were gold hunters, or subsistence farmers, or fishermen, or people who were basically entrepreneurship to them was doing what they needed to do every day to survive. It was definitely not an option. They had to do the next thing, figure out the next step to get closer and closer to their goal to find food, and they could survive that day. It was very hand-to-mouth sort of entrepreneurship. It wasn't what we usually think of in Silicon Valley as entrepreneurship being super innovated perhaps or anything like that, but in context it was as innovative as anything else in Silicon Valley would have been, and as much entrepreneurship as anything else that you would see in other places of the world. For me, it's funny. I guess yet that it's true, when you look back at what we've done in Kiva the last four years, great! We have been social entrepreneurs, but we didn't go out thinking, I definitely thought over the years, over the last few years, "Oh, social entrepreneurship. How great! I want to do something like that." Then what happened is you have to get specific. You have to start with something specific. So, we started to do Kiva, a very, very specific mission of Kiva, and then retroactively we're like, "Oh, yeah. I guess that's what we're doing. It's pretty entrepreneurial, isn't it?" It came down to, "We have this mission, and we're going to do whatever we need to do everyday to make it happen. We're going to be scrappy if we need to. We're going to iterate. We're going to put things out there that maybe aren't even perfect. We're going to keep moving, and everyday say, 'What can we do next to meet our goals?'" That's what it felt like to me to be entrepreneurial. I think it's really been informed by the people that originally inspired us in the first place, and these micro-entrepreneurs all over the world. Lucy: You know what? That's just what entrepreneurs do. Everyday they're looking around, trying to figure out what they can do better. Do you have a story or two that you can share with some of the entrepreneurs that have taken loans and been successful, and then paid the loans off? Jessica: Sure. I mean there are so, so many. It's actually one of the hardest questions I get, because really I mean every one of them is amazing. If you want an amazing success story, I can tell you for example there was a woman that really was one of the very first people I ever met in East Africa. She did such amazing stuff. She had started one business, like a charcoal selling business. She had gotten them $800. For that initial business, she did like the equivalent of what a multi-national corporation would do, like all the principals were there. She started the one business, and then she diversified. Then she expanded, not from her local market, she went to markets in other trading centers and other villages. She extended beyond her geographic region. She started five other small businesses of all different types. I mean really things that you really wouldn't think would be related. What she did was she got practice, and then she got very good at seeing market needs and seeing opportunities. So, she had the capitol after time, and she was able to say, "Huh." I think of a very small caring business that you could start with $200 or $300. I think that's what made it. So she did that, and she did the next thing, and the next thing. She just blew me away, because you knew that had she just been dealing in another environment with bigger numbers, she would be the head of a huge multi-national corporation that was doing all sorts of different things really well. So, people like that just always blow me away. I would say truly, it sounds like a bit of a cheesy answer, but the real truth is any story that you read on the Kiva site, there's something to learn, there's something to appreciate, and there's something good. I think say, "Hey! Good job there, " to the entrepreneurs for doing it, because each person is taking a risk even just in accepting a loan, and putting themselves out there and saying, "I'm going to try. I'm going to try to do things differently. I'm going to try and make my life better, and life for my family better." Just taking advantage of that opportunity is something I think should really be applauded, and in and of itself is really a triumph and a great thing, a great thing to see happen. So, that's the hardest question to answer, because all of the entrepreneurs that you can see, I truly find inspirational in something. Lucy: Well, thank you for sharing that. That really is inspirational. Lee: Well, the other thing, and I'm sure somebody has already tumbled to this, there's a business book in this. When you said that she was making all the right entrepreneurial business moves, there's got to be a lot of nuggets of wisdom in there. Larry: You had mentioned offline Jessica, that you are involved with Ashoka? Jessica: Well, yes. I mean, I have found a lot of inspiration in Ashoka over the years, and sort of been introducing the idea of social entrepreneurship through Ashoka. Additionally, he has been honored with the Ashoka Fellowship very recently. We're really excited to be part of that community. Larry: Congratulations! Let me get on with another question here. Who has been either a role model or a mentor in your career, in your life? Jessica: Oh, my goodness! Now, that's the hardest question. I feel like I have been so blessed and so surrounded by encouragers. I mean, can I say like my top five? Larry: OK. Jessica: My parents first and foremost have always given me... Actually, it was really funny. I watched the Emmys last night. I actually don't have a television, but I was with and brother and sister-in-law in L.A., and we were watching the Emmys a little bit. She was saying something funny. She was like, "Thanks to my mom and dad for giving me confidence, that was to the portion that was my looks and ability." It was like "that's what my parents said." My parents first and foremost made it without question an obvious thing, that I could do anything I wanted to in the world. So, that was kind of the foundational piece in a very supportive family. There's been a few others. When I heard Dr. Hamadias speak, his story spoke to me like no others had at that point. That's what propelled me to quit my job and go off and try to figure out micro-finance for myself, and try to do something like what he did, like walk around meet people, listen to their needs, and help. So, he gave me a huge inspiration. Then I guess, the other person I'll mention is Brian Reynolds actually gave me that opportunity to go. He is the Founder and Executive Director of a really great organization called "Village Enterprise Fund." They give $100 grants to entrepreneurs for business creation. They really start people on the very first string of the economic ladder. These are actually folks who are doing such risky things like their systems filing that "If it doesn't rain, everything is lost." Really, really small businesses, who their commissioners wouldn't take a loan probably because they would be not in the right position to do so. Their organization is amazing. I basically met with Brian right around the time I decided I was going to figure out a way to work in micro-finance. He really gave me that opportunity. He listened to me, kind of met me where I was and said, "Hey." Even though I had no skills that I could really name. I had studied philosophy and poetry undergrad. I had done event planning, and administrative things in my job. I really didn't have a lot to go on to say "look, this is why you should hire me, and let me go do micro-finance," but he gave me that chance. On that trip. out to East Africa with Village Enterprise Fund, that's what changed my life, and that's where we had the ideas for Kiva. So, I am absolutely grateful for him, among many, many other in my life over the last decade. There's a lot of people. Lee: Well, that's the good thing about entrepreneurship as well that there are lots of other good people around to encourage you, and to offer wisdom. One piece of wisdom that we've been getting lots of interesting answers too on this particular interview series is the toughest thing you've ever had to do. So, we're curious. What is the toughest thing so far, that you've had to do in your career? Jessica: That is a really good question. I would say without a doubt that it has been...really tough to... you know when you do something that you care about so much, and also something that is like with the social mission I think, it becomes your baby. It becomes like your...I don't know there all these analogies, your right arm, you just feel so attached. It has been a challenge I think to do the work life balance thing in any way because you just feel so driven, so consumed by it, and you want to spend all your waking hours on it, but that can be unhealthy and actually lead to burn out and that sort of thing. So finding the right balance has been probably the biggest challenge and also being removed enough to make objective decisions. You know, it's always a challenge when you are so in love with the work that you get to do. Lee: So speaking of personal and professional balance what do you do to bring balance with all the entrepreneurs you're trying to help, and the changes on the website, how do you manage that? Jessica: Well, I think it's just about kind of knowing what your priorities are and knowing what your boundaries are of what you can control and what you can't and then just working away. I think it is just a daily reminding and daily recalibration saying, "OK, here is what we are about. Here's what we can do. Here's what we can't do and let's just keep moving forward." I think another trick too is just checking yourself often to make sure you are not making decisions others fear or panic in any way. We haven't really... we're an interesting state where we haven't had a competitors per se really, and we don't even think that way. But if we were forced to look at other kind of collaborative organizations out there as competitors, even if we saw them as such, I think it would be the wrong move to be driven to make any sort of decisions, or move to out of the place of fear. Just like it is in life, just kind of knowing who you are, and what you're about, knowing who you're not and just doing that, like the trying to respond to what else is out there or what someone else is doing. I think staying true and pure to your own mission is what it is about. It will make you stay sane. Larry: You have actually kind of covered part of the question I was going to ask you and that is, you've done so many things Jessica and you work with all kinds of people around the world but if you were right now sitting down in front of a young potential entrepreneur, what advice would you give them? Jessica: OK, I have the privilege of getting to do this quite a bit. This is the number one thing I would say, two things. Follow whatever you are really passionate about. It can be something that doesn't make a lot of sense like what do you do when we were passionate about the stories, how do you follow that? We loved them, we celebrated them, we read them ourselves, we laughed, we cried, we just got into those stories and then by sharing those stories, the thing that we are passionate about with the people that we were passionate about, our friends and family, that led to some really great stuff. So just follow as best you can, the stuff that you are passionate about would be number one. Two, if you're going to do something and start something and you really believe that's kind of what you were meant to do next, I would say don't be afraid to start small. In fact, that is really the only way to begin. I just finished my MBA at Stanford. I can't say enough good things about that place and that community. It was amazing. Additionally, it's a place where it is easy to think big very quickly and say "let's go change the world in these huge huge ways and let's have..." you know you don't want to start something unless it's scalable and unless it is going to touch three million people in its first two years or whatever. Easy to say think big or go home and what's your plan for scalability? You need to know that right now. I would say to a budding entrepreneur, don't be afraid, to be very, very specific about what you want to do, and how you want to begin. You should definitely think long term, too. But goodness, it's not a bad thing to start small, and in fact I really really believe that is kind of the way you have to do it and just do a little plug. There's a wonderful man who I would consider a mentor and certainly someone I have looked up to and learned a lot from. His name is Paul Polak, and he wrote a book called "Out of Poverty." He really talks a lot about being in contact like designing whatever you are designing, particularly if it's a program, or a service, or a product to serve the poor, go be with the people that you want to serve. Go get to know them as individuals and design things for individuals not this group of statistic of statistics or the masses. Go meet real people, design for them, start with the, serve them, and then see how you can grow things. That would be my recommendation, don't be afraid to start small and be really passionate about what you are doing because that's the way good things happen. Lucy: Dare I say that that I am old and wizened woman but you know your advice about starting small and don't be afraid to do that, it feels a lot like something I've come to view as being true. You just often don't know what the next turn is going to be. You have to live it a while, and see how things change and mature, and then be opportunistic about which way things are going to go because you often don't see the end. Jessica: Oh, yes and you can't. Lucy: You can't. Jessica: You actually probably sometimes cannot see the next step. It is totally impossible until you make the first one. Lucy: That's fine and that's actually part of the fun, isn't it? Larry: It is part of the fun. It's also by the way a big part of the book that I'm just finishing. Lucy: Oh, you had to plug your book. Larry: "Master and change," yes. Lucy: You had to plug your book. Larry: Oh well. Lucy: Well so I think we have a book here. So I have to ask you though, is there such a big about entrepreneurism and Kiva about teaching the basic elements of entrepreneurship? Jessica: No, not yet, but I think there are about 20 books we can write with them, different angles, different experiences, Web 2.0, the power of connecting people, what have we learned about business from the entrepreneurs out there? There's a lot of potential. Lucy: Oh, absolutely. I look forward to it. Jessica: Yeah, me too. Lucy: You've already really achieved a lot. It's quite inspirational to talk to you and kiva is just such a great organization. What's next for you? We just talked about how sometimes you can't see around the corner, do you have any long term vision that you want to share with our listeners about what's next? Jessica: No, I don't, but I will say that something that's been crazy is just this feeling that... I mean this is like my life dream. You read my favorite business school. I would say it was from three years ago. I would say it was basically someday maybe maybe I will get to be a part of something like this. I feel like the luckiest person in the world and to think that there could be other things in the future just blows my mind. I feel overwhelmed even thinking about it but overall in the most positive way because I already feel like this is my life. If my life ended tomorrow, I would be very a really thankful, happy person because I feel like I've gotten to see my dream kind of come true. Everything else is icing on the cake. What I am trying to do is to stay open to possibility, and learn, and read, and talk to people, and stay open to observing what is going on out there. I am thankful for kiva, and I am thankful for whatever the future hold, but yeah I'll let you know when I know. Larry: All right. Lucy: That has to be the most inspirational thing I have ever heard. I mean just to hear the passion in your voice and the excitement, it gives me goose bumps. I'm happy for you. I hope other people benefit from all the work that you are doing. Jessica: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I just feel very very lucky. Larry: Wow, Jessica I want to thank you for joining us today. This was marvelous plus. Jessica: Thank you. Man 1: By the way you listeners out there, would you pass this interview along to others who you think would be interested. We will make sure that we have a website link to kiva. Say your website. Jessica: It's www.kiva.org. Larry: Sounds wonderful. This has just been great here we are with the National Center for Women and Information Technology. You are doing some great stuff by bringing these messages out for people who are doing wonderful things. Thanks. Lucy: Well thanks and listeners can find these interviews at www.ncwit.org and at w3w3.com. Larry: You bet. Lucy: So thank you very much. Larry: Thank you. Transcription by CastingWords Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Jessica JackleyInterview Summary: Jessica is a remarkable social entrepreneur who is Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of www.kiva.org -- the first peer-to-peer micro-lending website. Kiva connects lenders with entrepreneurs from the developing world, empowering them to rise out of poverty. Release Date: September 29, 2008Interview Subject: Jessica JackleyInterviewer(s): Lucy Sanders, Larry Nelson, Lee KennedyDuration: 25:02

Van Jones is working to combine solutions to America's two biggest problems: social inequality and environmental destruction.In 1996, Van founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Named for an unsung civil rights heroine, the Center promotes alternatives to violence and incarceration. As an advocate for the toughest urban constituencies and causes, Van has won many honors. These include the 1998 Reebok International Human Rights Award, the international Ashoka Fellowship, selection as a World Economic Forum "Young Global Leader," and the Rockefeller Foundation "Next Generation Leadership" Fellowship.Van is also a national environmental leader, having served on the boards of the National Apollo Alliance, Social Ventures Network, Rainforest Action Network, Bioneers and Julia Butterfly Hill's Circle of Life organization.Van's dual roles have given him a unique perspective on the country's problems and its potential solutions. He is calling for green economic development for urban America. The City of Oakland has adopted the Ella Baker Center's "Green Jobs Corps" proposal, which will train youth for eco-friendly "green-collar jobs."  Now Van is pushing to create the first-ever Green Enterprise Zone, to attract environmentally-sound industry to Oakland.A 1993 Yale Law graduate, he is also a husband and father. A rising star, Van champions the most hopeful solutions to America's toughest challenges.You can read a transcript of this interview on my blog, Have Fun * Do Good.

Paul Rice is the founding President & CEO of TransFair USA, the only Fair Trade certification organization in the U.S. today. Since launching the Fair Trade Certified label eight years ago, TransFair has established Fair Trade as the fastest growing segment of the $19 billion coffee industry.  TransFair is rapidly expanding Fair Trade certification into tea, chocolate, rice, sugar, bananas and other fresh fruits. Previously, Paul worked for 11 years as a rural development specialist in the Segovias region of Nicaragua, where he founded and led an organic coffee export cooperative called PRODECOOP.  In 2000 he received the international Ashoka Fellowship for his pioneering work as a social entrepreneur in the Fair Trade movement. Paul was also honored by the Klaus Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship as one of the world's top 40 Social Entrepreneurs in 2002.  More recently, Paul spoke on Fair Trade at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2004 and 2005.You can read a transcript of this interview on my blog, Have Fun * Do Good.