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ASB 2010 - Social Entrepreneurship in the Bay Area - San Francisco Bay Area

Basic Information
Application Process: 
ASB 2010
Trip Name: 
Social Entrepreneurship in the Bay Area - San Francisco Bay Area
Air Travel Trip: 
No
Number of Participants: 
12
Trip Description: 

"Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish, or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry." — Bill DraytonSocial entrepreneurship is a new way of thinking about our world's tough issues. In diverse fields like poverty relief, health, technology, and education, social entrepreneurs look beyond traditional problem-solving techniques in favor of truly innovative approaches. As one of the most innovative places in the world, the Bay Area has served as an incubator for many of social entrepreneurship's great ideas. It is home to organizations like Kiva, recently labeled by Fortune as "The Only Nonprofit That Matters", Kickstart, which developed a water pump that has helped to generate 1% of Kenya's GDP, and Delancey Street, a network of businesses run by ex-felons who develop skills to rebuild their lives. In this course, we will discover what it means to be social entrepreneurs by hearing from and learning about the visionaries behind these ideas.Over spring break, we will embark on a tour of innovative bay area organizations. We will build upon our knowledge from the winter course, where we will have heard from key stakeholders, such as grant makers, founders, executives, and beneficiaries.  Through conversations with social-e's leading thinkers and doers, we will become involved with every step in the process of building a social enterprise.  With this process in mind, perhaps you will be inspired to create a social enterprise on your own!

Trip Leaders
Travis Kiefer

Travis is a junior at Stanford University majoring in Urban Studies with a concentration in Social Entrepreneurship. Since coming to Stanford, he has engaged himself thoroughly with the Stanford entrepreneurship community and is also the Executive Director of Gumball Capital, an organization that engages students with entrepreneurship in the pursuit of ending poverty. Travis is also passionate about issues in education, and feels strongly that technology (and his ninja coding skills) can be used extensively to solve the problems of today. Travis is excited to lead this trip and share in the awesomeness that is Social-E.

Marcia Lee

Marcia Lee is a super-senior studying Computer Science.  Although normally coding into the wee hours of the night, Marcia is excited to lead the Social-E ASB because she wants to change the world (with you) for the better!  Always appreciative of food, Marcia promises to bring delicious snacks to each class in winter quarter.  Just imagine how good the food will be during spring break!  In addition to food and social-e, Marcia is crazy about hacking cool programs, brainstorming strange ideas, and hearing good stories.  You might have seen her before as a CS106/7 section leader at the Lair/Terman computer clusters, and it is also possible that you have seen her lurking around events that provide free food.