SEI Newsletter: December Edition

In this Issue of SEI

In this edition, students cover social enterprises that are tackling pressing issues such as pollution and climate change, unequal allocation of resources, and transparency problems facing our world. We highlight a review of Nadia Murad's novel, The Last Girl, as well as a review from SEI's Founder and Director, Professor Shaughnessy, on Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup depicting the thrills of business. Lastly, this edition features summaries of SEI's November Speaker Series with Adriana Aguerrebere and Raymond Horton.

Our thanks go to Charlotte Fall and Alex Dittrich as managing editors of this semester’s SEI Newsletter. We couldn’t have produced the three editions this term without them!

From the Founder & Executive Director

A “What Not to Do” Guide for Business in the 21st Century
By Professor Dennis R. Shaughnessy
A new book called “Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup” by John Carreyrou is an amazing chronicle of the failed life sciences company Theranos and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes. This is one of the best business books of the recent past, on par with “Barbarians at the Gate” for a thrilling ride through the dark side of business. Read more here

Gaming for Social Change and Toya
By Professor Dennis R. Shaughnessy
Playing videogames has become a pervasive activity for young people. Critics suggest that too much gaming can lead to mental illness, with the UN now recognizing excess gaming as a form of mental illness. Other critics suggest that ultra-violent games, especially so-called “first person shooter” games, can lead to desensitizing players and enabling real violence against others. While addiction and violence continue to be much debated topics, there’s little doubt that videogames lead to a wide variety of unintended consequences.. Read more here

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News & Spotlights

BRCK Brings Free Wifi to Classrooms in Africa
by Natascha Elbech
Despite progress in ICT infrastructure over the past decade, accessibility and affordability remain great barriers to digital access in Africa. While technological innovation has fueled social and economic development across urban and rural areas, severe resource constraints, geographic barriers, internet volatility and high market prices prevent a concrete solution to bridging the digital divide across Africa. Read more here.

How Cataki is Modernizing Waste Collection in Brazil
By Allie Kuo
Wittily described as the Tinder for recycling, Cataki is an app that connects Brazilians to their local catadores, or waste pickers. Developed in 2017 by street artist and activist Thiago Mundano, Cataki seeks to increase the visibility and appreciation of the catadores who play vital roles in maintaining public areas but are mostly overlooked. Read more here.

Everlane’s Effort to Make Ethical Fashion a Pleonasm
By Julia Schasfoort
Today, the fashion industry is known for staggering discrepancies between production price and retail price; items are sold at 7 to 8 times the cost. This lack of transparency extends beyond prices, as the steps in the production process are often undisclosed, leaving customers in the dark about where products are made. Read more here.

The Revolution of Waste Management: I Got Garbage
By Arhan Parikh
I Got Garbage is an initiative started by social entrepreneurs in India back in 2013 to increase the efficiency of waste and garbage collection. Through the use of modern technology, they aim to provide some honor to the lives of garbage collectors and eliminate the use of landfills, in order to collect waste in an efficient way. The reason why the founders started this initiative was to provide some sense of respect for waste collectors. Read more here.

A Closer Look at One Socially Conscious Indiegogo Crowdfunding Campaign
By Kenny Mei
Entrepreneurs are coming up with many new, creative and innovative ways to solve any kind of problems, big or small. But they need something to help launch their idea for the public to view. This is where Indiegogo comes into play, it provides entrepreneurs a platform to launch new and groundbreaking products, help surface innovations in tech, design, and much more, all before they go mainstream. Read more here.

How Wonderbag Makes Cooking Safer for Women in Africa
By Gabriella Scarpa
Each year, 3 million of the 4 billion people that rely on open fire to cook their meals die from indoor air pollution-related diseases. Taking this grave statistic into her own hands, Sarah created Wonderbag, a product “to economically empower women and girls across the world by addressing the critical daily challenges of time poverty, self worth and cleaner, healthier cooking. [Wonderbag is] about finding, supporting and innovating culturally relevant solutions to life’s challenges for communities around the world.” [Read more here.

Social Enterprise Ona Uses Data to Prevent Diseases
By Vince Casambre
The power of data analytics is one that has recently gained awareness in the fields of advertising, marketing, and business analysis, but also in the humanitarian sphere and in international development. Ona started as a data analytics provider focused on tackling public health problems in areas that are underdeveloped, and has recently expanded their mission to "ensure equitable access to services for those who need them most." Read more here.

Reading The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and my Fight Against the Islamic State
By Eleanor Patten
The importance of Nadia Murad’s story can hardly be put into words. Her book The Last Girl discusses inconceivable horror with honesty, pain, and unmatched candor. Nadia’s story is one of a Yazidi girl, taken by the Islamic State, who eventually becomes an activist for the Yazidi people. Yet, to summarize her story in such a manner cheapens the significance of her achievements and distracts from the current status of the Yazidi people. Read more here.

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Speaker Series

raymond horton columbia

Founder of the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia University: Professor Raymond Horton
By Charlotte Fall
On November 5th Professor Raymond Horton, the founder of the Tamer Center for Social Enterprise at Columbia University joined SEI to speak to our students and faculty. He shared his insights on social enterprise, entrepreneurship, international development, nonprofit and public management, and corporate social responsibility. He also shared his opinions on the outcome of the 2016 election results and predictions for the following day’s midterm election results. Read more here.

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Founder of Impacto: Adriana Aguerrebere
By Kelly Szaniawski
On Wednesday, November 14th, the founder and managing director of Impacto came to speak as part of Social Enterprise Institute’s Speaker Series. “My vision, my goal is to help close the gap between the poor and the rich and make this a better world for all,” Aguerrebere preaches. Adriana Aguerrebere, a graduate of Northwestern University and a resident of Chiapas, founded Impacto with the goal of pursuing social and economic justice within the community, specifically working with the Mayan women of Chiapas. Read more here.

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Events

▪ End of the Semester SEISA Meeting - Thursday, December 6th, 11:00am, 123 Snell Library
End of the Semester SEISA Meeting - Thursday, December 6th, 11:00am, 123 Snell Library

Opportunities

Social Impact-athon at Northeastern
The Social Impact-athon is a weekend-long challenge focused on promoting environmental justice in Boston by investing in local nonprofit organizations. Work in a multidisciplinary team to develop a strategy for achieving impact by distributing $50,000 among three or more organizations working to promote environmental justice within local communities. The proposal judged to have the greatest potential for impact will be funded in full. Apply here to join Northeastern's first social impact-athon January 18-20th, 2019!

Want to lead a Social Entrepreneurship exploration into the Amazon of Ecuador this summer? Or even live in the Amazon for your international co-op?
Amazon Learning is a fast-growing social enterprise focused on facilitating experiential education programs that foster cross-cultural understanding, field-specific and Spanish learning, personal transformation, and positive local impact through collaboration. Amazon Learning has several different internship opportunities available that would be ideal international co-ops in fields such as Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Development, Environmental Justice, Public Health, and Education. There is a fee which covers coordination, support, housing, 3 meals per day, and much more. Application deadlines are rolling, and you can get more details including a full list of internships here. They are also looking for travelers to lead short-term programs in the summer. Trip leaders assist with recruitment and trip design, thus attending the trip free of cost.

Director of Programs, Michaela D’Amico – a Northeastern SEI alumna – highly recommends this immersive multi-month internship program with customized programming and retreats as an opportunity for international co-op and independent work.

Please email info@amazonlearning.org with any inquiries.

Jobs & Internships

▪ FUSE Corps, Director of Recruiting (Boston, MA)
▪ The Possible Project, Social Enterprise Associate (Cambridge, MA)
▪ Root Capital, Senior Financial Analyst (Cambridge, MA)
▪ Global Impact Investing Network, Research Manager (NY, NY)
▪ Generation Citizen, Program Manager (Bay Area, CA)
▪ Ashoka, Chief Financial Officer (Washington, D.C.)
FUSE Corps, Director of Recruiting (Boston, MA)
The Possible Project, Social Enterprise Associate (Cambridge, MA)
Root Capital, Senior Financial Analyst (Cambridge, MA)
Global Impact Investing Network, Research Manager (NY, NY)
Generation Citizen, Program Manager (Bay Area, CA)
Ashoka, Chief Financial Officer (Washington, D.C.)
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Do you want to write for SEI? Do you have news to share?

We are always looking for newsletter contributors! Contact Charlotte at fall.c@husky.neu.edu for more information.

Contact Us

For all inquires, please con­tact the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute Student Association at sei@neu.edu. For more information, check out the SEI Website.

360 Huntington Ave
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
617.373.8011

Disclaimer: The content of this newsletter is developed by undergraduate students. Submissions are solicited and in some cases edited by students, with the guidance of SEI staff. Nothing herein has been specifically endorsed by the DMSB.

 
         
 
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