During his Ignite @ ASU presentation on November 2011, Justin shared an idea to create a new tool for learning a new language and preserving unique dialects. Here is what he said about his experience at Ignite @ ASU:
“I’m a recent ASU graduate with degrees in Biology and Anthropology. My hope is to create a tool that aims to preserve the diversity of languages and dialects throughout the world.
The thought that many citizens in foreign countries have mastered two different languages is very impressive in my mind. I definitely feel a little left in the dust when meeting with people that are multilingual. Ignite @ ASU was an awesome way for me to present my idea on creating a multilingual community that spans the entire globe. Meeting the other presenters and hearing their innovative ideas was very exciting. Such innovation only further inspires me to do my part to help solve a problem that I see in the world.
Take a look at some of the other ideas that were presented that night and I hope you will feel the same way I do. Every solution starts from a simple idea, so when you find something you’re truly passionate about, pursue it until you reach your goal.”
Matt Eckhoff, founder of Peligre Hope Partners, a nonprofit organization dedicated to igniting community driven development, spoke at Ignite @ ASU in fall 2010. During his presentation he spoke about the need to be opportunistic, especially in times of disaster.
After an earthquake struck in Haiti in January 2010, Matt decided to start an organization to foster community development. He saw an opportunity to help recover and develop Haiti arise from a disaster.
Watch his Ignite @ ASU video to see how he created Peligre Hope Partners and how out of lemons he made lemonade.
An American theologian, Robert McAfee Brown, once said, “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.” In preparation for the next Ignite @ ASU: Envisioning our Future, we offered presenter workshops that stressed the importance of storytelling when sharing ideas. Children love listening to fairy tales and bedtime stories, and even once we grow up our love for stories remains. That is why an audience will connect more to a presentation when it is presented as a story.
Last year at Ignite @ ASU, Alex Wilson utilized the power of storytelling to create a memorable presentation.
Alex Wilson is an undergraduate student at ASU studying Kinesiology. At Ignite @ ASU: Everyone a Changemaker, he shared his story about RISE, a trade school that he wants to start in Tanzania. While spending the summer in Tanzania teaching the community about HIV/AIDS, he decided to build a community shower. This experience sparked his desire to start RISE. In the end, he shares, “the shower changed me, it changed an entire community, and I hope it changed you.” Watch the video to see how building a community shower changed Alex Wilson.
This year the event will be on April 7th from 6-9 p.m. in the Kiva Lecture Hall on the West campus. 12 diverse presenters will share, in dynamic 5 minute presentations, their ideas about what small actions we can do to impact our future. Come to Ignite @ ASU: Envisioning our Future to witness other amazing stories. For more information and to RSVP go to http://community.asu.edu/dialogues/.
ASU became the first university in the southwestern United States to join the Ashoka Changemaker Campus Consortium in August 2010. One of the best aspects about being a part of the consortium is the access to world class social entrepreneurs. Access to veteran changemakers creates bridges between practitioners on the ground and aspiring student changemakers unsure about how to leave their mark in the world.
In fall 2010, Ashoka Fellow Greg Van Kirk inspired students, faculty, and staff with his story of change. Greg created the Micro-Consignment Model (MCM), a model that fills the gap between Micro-Credit and donations and allows low income entrepreneurs start their own business without risk. Greg’s model was recently featured twice in the New York Times. While the first feature gives an overview of the MCM model and the potential for change, in the second feature the writer responds to comments posted and addresses the reader’s concerns. Showcasing how Sun Devils are creating change, also mentioned in the articles is ASU alum George “Bucky” Glickley, who partnered with Greg to begin CE Solutions an enterprise established to help implement the MCM all over the world.
Connecting with role models is so important, AshokaU made it one of their six “elements of excellence” or core ingredients needed for a comprehensive cross-campus social entrepreneurship program. As a Changemaker Campus, ASU develops ongoing relationships with leading social entrepreneurs through speaking engagements, joint grant proposals and mentoring and internship opportunities for students.
In fall 2011, ASU will host another Ashoka Fellow for the grand opening of Changemaker Central, a student-run centralized resource hub for social change. Even sooner, on February 15, student finalists for the ASU Innovation Challenge will present elevator pitches to a group of diverse and renowned judges in hopes of winning up to $10,000 to advance their ideas. ASU’s continued cultivation of partnerships with role models also contributes to another “element of excellence” – building community and culture.
ASU creates an enabling environment for social entrepreneurs and changemakers to thrive and maximize their impact by celebrating the success of our role models, like Greg and Bucky. You can contribute to the culture at ASU by getting involved with a student organization or following the success of our own entrepreneurs by reading PULSE, ASU’s monthly entrepreneurship newsletter.
As a part of Global Entrepreneurship Week on November 16 and 17, students had a unique opportunity to interact with leading social entrepreneur and Ashoka Fellow Greg Van Kirk. He met with 4 different classes and shared his story and idea that made him an Ashoka Fellow.
Students from the GlobalResolve class, a capstone course that works together with a range of partners to develop sustainable programs in the developing world, received one on one advice to advance their projects. David Metoyer, a student in the Global Resolve class, was thankful for the opportunity to interact with Greg.
I thank him for sharing his story with GlobalResolve and providing his experienced opinion to a group of young entrepreneurial-minded students hoping to influence constructive change around the globe.
Greg Van Kirk began his career as an investment banker. After 5 years, he decided to drop his successful career and join the PeaceCorps in Guatemala where he hoped to use his business skills to create a large scale impact. During his 2 years of service, he started a restaurant and funded local businesses to stimulate job creation in Nebaj, a small town in Guatemala. Inspired by his work in Guatemala and driven by the desire to reduce poverty and unemployment in rural Latin America, he created the MicroConsignment Model (MCM).
MCM creates access to health care-related goods and services in isolated rural communities by empowering local people to become entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs, often women, are consigned health-care related goods and are given the skills and support to effectively sell them. Once the goods have been sold, they pay back the cost of the good, keep the profit and invest in more products. The MCM provides a sustainable model for economic development that fills the gap between donations and microfinance by eliminating the need for start-up capital and consigning the good rather than loaning the good. To learn more about the MCM, check out Greg’s interview on CNN Money.
Greg also met with winners of last year’s ASU Innovation Challenge, “It was very valuable to have someone of his experience explain the business operations in undeveloped areas,” said Raphael Hyde who was funded for his team’s idea to create a device meant to bring electric light to villages in rural Africa.
At ASU, students who want to change the world are given the tools and the resources to advance their ideas. Not only do student get opportunities to interact with leading social entrepreneurs and apply for different funding sources, but there are always new events an opportunities going on to foster innovation and idea sharing.
If you would like to learn more about what is going on with entrepreneurship at ASU visit our Facebook page or sign up for the PULSE Newsletter.
Believe it or not, if you are connected to a group of people because of a shared value or idea, you are part of a modern day tribe. Whether you are affiliated with a religious or political tribe or a tribe that fights global warming, I want to show how you can leverage your connections to spread ideas that create change.
I first learned about tribal marketing by watching a TEDtalk delivered by Seth Godin, a marketing expert and entrepreneur. Seth explained the powerful ripple effect that occurs when an idea spreads from tribe to tribe. During his talk he said,
It is tribes, not money… that can change our world… Not because you force them to do something against their will but because they wanted to connect. That what we do for a living… is find something worth changing and then assemble tribes that assemble tribes that spread ideas and spread ideas… [The idea] becomes something far bigger than ourselves. It becomes a movement.
Cole Wirpel is an ASU student studying global studies and political science who recently used the principles of tribal marketing to rapidly spread information about AIESEC, a student run organization that provides students with internship opportunities abroad. During his five-minute presentation at Ignite @ ASU, Cole shared his idea with 250 people in our audience. As a result, more people know about AISEC. Students can tell their friends about the international opportunity, faculty/staff can tell their students and community members can provide internships and form partnerships with AIESEC.
After sharing his idea with the Ignite @ ASU tribe, he sent a link to the video of his presentation to his AIESEC tribe. AIESEC included the video in their global newsletters. Tribe members sent it to other tribes who sent it to other tribes. After only three weeks, over 1,000 people have seen the video from countries including China, Australia and all over the United States.
A high level of connectedness is a key part of why tribal marketing is a powerful method to spread ideas. What made Cole’s video spread quickly was not just that he had a compelling story, but that he shared his story with people who cared about his work.
Cole’s story about his passion is traveling around the world. How will you share your ideas? More importantly, with whom will you share them? How do you currently utilize your networks to spread ideas? How can you improve?
If you have an idea that you think is worth spreading, consider presenting at the next Ignite @ ASU. Information about how to apply will be available in January 2011.
In a recent New York Times column, David Brooks stated his argument for the value of education in the humanities – “history, English and art classes” – even as today’s job market worsens. As he noted the many benefits of a well-versed familiarity with the humanities, he could have included the example of Mike Mesquita, an Arizona State University graduate who received his B.A. in history from the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences in 2006.
Since his commencement and the traditional touching of the Paley Gates at the university’s West campus, Mesquita has reflected his New College education in the humanities during a two-year hitch with the U.S. Peace Corps and as he prepares for his pursuit of a master’s degree in international relations and, specifically, Central Asian securities studies.
He will enroll at the end of this summer in graduate courses at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, the English-speaking world’s third-oldest university, after considering opportunities at Fordham University, the University of Maryland and the University of Denver.
He says his New College coursework and the school’s professors helped shape his interest in international relations and making an impact on others’ lives.
“Studying at ASU sparked my interest for international relations,” said the 1999 graduate of Peoria High School in Peoria, Ariz.
Xanthia Walker, who is receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree in youth theatre from the Herberger Institute School of Theatre and Film, has distinguished herself not only academically, but by her commitment to meeting the needs of the community. She has been a teaching artist at the Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development in Phoenix and the El Nido Family Centers in California as well as for Free Arts Arizona.
Walker took the initiative to make connections to Black Canyon School in the Arizona Juvenile Corrections Program. There, she works with a group of young, incarcerated women creating a theatre piece featuring the voices and the poems of the young women focusing on pro-social behaviors and body image.
She has a sophisticated understanding of social justice, recognizing the complex issues involved, according to Linda Essig, director of theatre and film.
“Walker works with youth to extend their understandings of self and other while focusing on teaching the young people positive choice-making and democratic dialogue,” says Essig.
Walker’s dedication to working with marginalized communities as a community-based artist was recognized early by the School of Theatre and Film faculty. She was chosen to work directly with assistant professor Stephani Woodson as an artist/facilitator in the Place: Vision & Voice program.
“I have been nothing but impressed with her commitment and enthusiasm to working with this difficult population,” Woodson writes of Walker. “She handles herself with aplomb no matter what event occurs, from youth who need hospitalization to youth who need to be asked to leave because they are not sober. The center manager shared with me privately that he has been quite impressed with her artistic facilitation and her leadership-through-example.”
Walker is a dedicated artist, teacher and scholar who represents the core values of the School of Theatre and Film: collaboration, collegiality, creativity and, most especially, community.
Students of Phoenix Collegiate Academy Las Artes collaborated to create two murals for Global Youth Service Day, April 23, 2010. Preparation to create this body of artwork on Global Youth Service Day began more than 5 weeks ago through an enrichment program at Phoenix Collegiate Academy coordinated by the Cultural Arts Coalition and facilitated by Silvia Rodriguez, Harvard graduate enrollee for fall 2010. The students meet with Silvia 4 days a week for 45 minutes.
The structure of this program aligns with artspace – an initiative spearheaded by the Phoenix Office of Arts & Culture (POAC) in partnership with Arizona Department of Education, ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts and Arizona State Libraries. The vision of artspace is to establish a new model of educational experience to ensure students are self-confident and successful in school and can make a positive impact in their community, developing the abilities of students to create work and respond to creative work in many disciplines, building skills for the imagination and innovation necessary for the 21st century workplace. Connecting organizations that share ideologies with artspace, such as the Cultural Arts Coalition and Phoenix Collegiate Academy, is essential to shifting thought around the role of arts in education.
To prepare for the mural creation, the students were read three books: Life Does Not Frighten Me by Maya Angelo, illustrated by Jean Michele Basquiat, Alejandro’s Gift illustrated by Silvia Long and written by Richard Alpert, and Antelope Woman written and illustrated by Michael Lacapa. In addition, the students engaged in art making activities and art history lessons about the Huicholes people living within the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico to prepare for the design and painting of the canvases. Throughout the classes, the students focused on two concepts: We are all interconnected and interdependent upon not only one another, but all living organisms on the planet. We are therefore to “…Honor Family and all things Great and Small.” (Antelope Woman). The students’ comprehension of the art history, art inquiry, personal reflection and art making experiences resulted in the creation of two beautiful morals created on Global Youth Service Day.
Submitted by Judy Butzine of the Cltural Arts Coalition
Arizona State University and the University of Tokyo are joining forces to advance photovoltaics technology
Arizona State University has established a partnership with the University of Tokyo, Japan, aimed at strengthening research and educational endeavors at both institutions to advance solar energy technology.
The University of Tokyo is rated by the Global University Ranking organization and others as one the leading universities and research institutions in Asia, and it is the leading solar-energy research institution in Japan.
Its Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology recently was awarded almost $100 million over a seven-year period from the government of Japan for the Solar Quest program on advanced photovoltaic design, said Stephen Goodnick, director of the Arizona Initiative for Renewable Energy at ASU.
Photovoltaics is the field of semiconductor technology that involves converting sunlight into electrical power.
Goodnick also is a professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, a part of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. At the invitation of the University of Tokyo, he and fellow ASU electrical and energy engineering professor Yong-Hang Zhang attended an international photovoltaics workshop last year in Japan. The idea for the partnership grew out of meetings Goodnick and Zhang had with Japanese colleagues during the conference.
Under the three-year partnership agreement, the two universities will collaborate on research projects, exchange educational information and materials, conduct joint lectures and symposia and exchange services of faculty members, research staff and students.
