Looking for "Changemakers"

New Wave staff newwave@tulane.edu
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The Office of Social Entrepreneurship Initiatives is searching for “changemakers” — graduates and undergraduates who can help spread the message about opportunities for social innovation at Tulane.

Now in its second year, the Office of Social Entrepreneurship Initiatives hosts events and programs at Tulane.

Applications are being accepted now for members of a student leadership team to help organize a speaker series, run a peer-to-peer incubator for social venture ideas and build support for various initiatives.

For its programs, the initiative needs students "who are passionate about promoting social innovation, possess a strong sense of leadership and want to help empower change throughout the Tulane community," says Stephanie Barksdale, who directs the office and is a special assistant to Tulane President Scott Cowen.

The deadline for applications is Monday (Aug. 30) at 5 p.m.

“Our aim is to transform Tulane into a new model for higher education,” says Barksdale. “We want to make it a place that serves as an enabling environment where every individual has access to the resources, learning opportunities, role models and peer community needed to actualize their full potential as changemakers. We need student leaders who can help drive this movement forward.”

The student leadership team will provide support for the NewDay Speakers Series that will launch the semester's programs on Oct. 12 at 5 p.m. in Freeman Auditorium at the Woldenberg Art Center, with guest lecturer Earl Martin Phalen, CEO of Reach Out and Read.

Also ahead is the NewDay Challenge, in which students compete for funding for social venture ideas. Barksdale says this year's challenge, to be held later this school year, will focus on undergraduate students who need seed money to jump-start their ideas for projects to help the community.

The new student leaders who join Barksdale's program also will be interacting with other colleges and universities because Tulane is part of the Ashoka Changemaker Campus Initiative.

To provide more information on these programs, a free session called Social Entrepreneurship 101 will be held on Sept. 8 from 5:30 until 7 p.m. in room 202, the Rechler Conference Room, at the Lavin-Bernick Center.