“Everyone a Changemaker”, Ashoka and Google

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What an event yes­ter­day night. My wife and I were for­tu­nate to vis­it the Google Cam­pus and attend the Sixth Annu­al North Amer­i­can Fel­low­ship Induc­tion Pro­gram of Ashoka: Inno­va­tors for the Pub­lic, a social ven­ture fund where we have been involved for a num­ber of years, and thanks to which (thanks Michele!) my wife and I met in the first place.

18 new Ashoka Fellows/ social entre­pre­neurs were elect­ed, and after a fun cock­tail recep­tion the cer­e­mo­ny began. Sergei Brin (Google Co-founder), Sheryl Sand­berg (who helped launch Google Foun­da­tion and google.org), Salar Kaman­gar (the mind behind AdWords) gave intro­duc­to­ry remarks. Salar explained how he first heard of Ashoka (through the book How to Change the World, by David Born­stein) and how he saw tremen­dous sim­i­lar­i­ties between Ashoka and Google: both 1) see and sup­port indi­vid­u­als as forces of dis­rup­tion, give them the free­dom to grow and exper­i­ment, while they make sure to “get out of their way”, 2) once the ideas and mod­els grow, they help cre­ate the right con­nec­tions to help scale.

Oth­er speak­ers includ­ed Anousheh Ansari, entre­pre­neur and “first female pri­vate space explor­er”, Mas­ter of Cer­e­monies Don Shalvey, founder of Aspire Pub­lic Schools, Tra­bi­an Short­ers, Ashoka US Co-Direc­tor, and James Jensen, ED of the Jen­e­sis Group, the foun­da­tion that helped Ashoka launch its US chap­ter in 1999. James deliv­ered a very touch­ing a pas­sion­ate wel­come to the new fel­lows, call­ing them “mer­ci­ful mav­er­icks that moti­vate the human heart” and “whose main com­pass is impact and compassion).

Then, of couse, we had the lux­u­ry to hear Bill Dray­ton, Founder and CEO of Ashoka, entre­pre­neur and vision­ary, who helped launch the field of social entre­pre­neur­ship 25 years ago.  Some of his remarks (may not be ver­ba­tim, but close)
— (About the new Ashoka Fel­lows) “based on our his­tor­i­cal data, we can pre­dict that 18 out of the 18 entre­pre­neurs we are wel­com­ing today will still com­mit­ed to their fields in 5 years, that over 90% of them will see their projects repli­cat­ed by third-par­ties nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly, and more than 50% will have influ­enced nation­al pol­i­cy in 5–10 years.”
— “We are liv­ing a his­toric moment, where the monop­oly of ini­tia­tive by a few is being replaced by the new adage that Every­one Is a Change­mak­er, where every per­son can be a full citizen”
— “The busi­ness sec­tor has been so suc­cess­ful for cen­turies because it has moti­vat­ed and reward­ed change­mak­ers very well. The cit­i­zen sec­tor is now under­go­ing the same process”
— “This new atti­tude is not easy. Lead­ing change is more com­plex than learn­ing how to ride a bike; it requires team­work, plan­ning, per­se­ver­ance. Teenagers and young adults must be offered the oppor­tu­ni­ty to prac­tice and prac­tice, as ear­ly as pos­si­ble, which is why we launched and are so excit­ed about Youth Ven­ture ”
— Busi­ness and Soci­ety are com­ing togeth­er. Today there are mul­ti­ple exam­ples of “hybrid val­ue chains’ in which com­pa­nies and cit­i­zen orga­ni­za­tions part­ner in order to accom­plish their goals more successfully
— “We all must give our­selves per­mis­sion to find the answers, con­nect to our dreams, and pre­pare a bet­ter world for the chil­dren of tomorrow”

Some pre­vi­ous relat­ed posts:
Micro­fi­nance, and a very sharp brain

The joy of giv­ing, and the Cog­ni­tive and Emo­tion­al Health Project

Brain and Mind Fit­ness Pro­grams: resilien­cy, on top of atten­tion, memory…

Exec­u­tive Func­tions and MacArthur “Genius Grants”

On being positive

In our view of the world, each of these social entre­pre­neurs are very very sharp brains. Enjoy,ÂÂ

Alvaro

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lisa says

    I was inpsired by the ener­gy and com­mit­ment of every­one in the room at the Ashoka induc­tion cer­e­mo­ny at Google to find ways big and small to make a dif­fer­ence in the world. Every­one is a Change­mak­er is a moti­vat­ing con­cept that says that we are the change that we want to see in the world. We have the pow­er to make a dif­fer­ence. Thank you to all of the sharp, sharp, sharp brains that remind us that we have this pow­er and inspire us to take con­crete steps for­ward to improv­ing our world.

  2. Alvaro says

    Thanks Lisa for your com­ment. I could­n’t agree more, and will join you in thank­ing the thosands of social entre­pre­neurs world­wide who are cre­at­ing and show­ing such pos­i­tive paths.

  3. Fabiola Escribano Angoa says

    Dear Sir: Mr. Burr Heneman
    Alvaro Fernandez

    In answer to the request hers to know the orga­ni­za­tions the Indige­nous Net­work of Tourism of Mex­i­co “Red Indígena de Tur­is­mo de México A. C.”, him ship­ment a list where the name of the same one can be appre­ci­at­ed and place in which one is. 

    Rela­tion of orga­ni­za­tions who con­form the Indige­nous Net­work of Tourism of Mex­i­co. From the 17 of Sep­tem­ber of the 2006. 

    Appre­ci­at­ing all its atten­tions and wait­ing for a quick answer I make its avail­able for any doubt, receives a warm greeting. 

    Fabi­o­la Escrib­ano Angoa.
    Area of Commercialization

  4. Fabiola Escribano Angoa says

    Num­ber. Fed­er­a­tive Orga­ni­za­tion Munic­i­pal­i­ty Trade Name of microcompany
    1 Dis­tri­to Fed­er­al Xochim­il­co Umbral Axochiatl
    2 Dis­tri­to Fed­er­al Xochim­il­co Yoloxmichin
    3 Dis­tri­to Fed­er­al Tlahuac Union of Canoeists of Tláhuac
    4 Dis­tri­to Fed­er­al Mag­dale­na Con­tr­eras Eji­dal Park San Nicolás Totolapan
    5 Edo. De México Ocoyoa­cac Tourist Cen­ter of Ecol­o­gy val­ley of the nuns
    6 Esta­do de México Teoti­hua­can Hand­i­crafts of Obsid­i­ana of Tehoti­hua­can, Quetzal
    7 More­los Tepozt­lan Guide Ecol­o­gist Tlayecanqueh
    8 More­los Amat­lan Atekocolli
    9 Hidal­go Ixmiquil­pan Clev­er­ness Cen­ter and Devel­op­ment Sus­tain­able of mushrooms
    10 Hidal­go Ixmiquil­pan Indige­nous Orga­ni­za­tion Hñañhu
    11 Puebla Cuet­za­lan Maseualsihuamej
    12 Puebla Xochit­lan Teht-Tlan
    13 Puebla Cuet­za­lan Orga­ni­za­tion of Alter­na­tive Tourism of Cuetzalan
    14 Tlax­cala Españita Clev­er­ness Cen­ter Vicente Guerrero
    15 Oax­a­ca Jala­pa de Díaz Ser­vices of ecol­o­gy tourism Nijme
    16 Ver­acruz Catemaco Lake Apompal
    17 Ver­acruz Pajapan Manglar Rojo
    18 Ver­acruz Tatahu­ica­pan de Juárez Sea Turtle
    19 Guer­rero Xochist­lahua­ca Weav­ing Women Amuzgas
    20 Guer­rero Cac­ahuamil­pa Tourist Cen­ter of Ecol­o­gy Grot­tos of Cacahuamilpa
    21 Michoacán Uru­a­pan Tourist Cen­ter of Ecol­o­gy Tzararacua
    22 Michoacán San Juan Nue­vo Inte­gral Devel­op­ment of the Indige­nous Com­mu­ni­ty Nue­vo San Juan Parangaricutiro
    23 Quin­tana Roo Felipe Car­ril­lo Puer­to X‘yaat
    24 Quin­tana Roo Thio­su­co com­mu­ni­tar­i­an Museum
    25 Tabas­co Naca­ju­ca the Voice of the Moth­er Chontal
    26 Campeche Edz­na Ubel Maya
    27 Campeche Pich Iris of Pich
    28 Campeche Hopelchen Emil­iano Zap­a­ta II de los Chenes
    29 Campeche Xpu­jil Tourist Cen­ter Calakmul
    30 Chi­a­pas Ocosin­go Tsol K’in
    31 Chi­a­pas San Cristóbal de las Casas Tourist Cen­ter of Ecol­o­gy Tzeltal-Tzotzil S.C.L. (Chol Xumulja)
    32 Chi­a­pas San Cristóbal de las Casas Women Mayas of Jovel
    33 Chi­a­pas Fron­tera Coma­la­pa Wanin Maya
    34 Yucatán Temo­zon Una­jil-Ek Balam