As Compass finishes selecting our newest class of Fellows, we’ve been enjoying reviewing the “wow moments” that our applicants created for people in their communities. What is a wow moment? In short, it’s a moment that you create for someone that makes him or her stop what he or she is doing to say “Wow!”
For the latest installment of our series about the “Origin Stories” of social entrepreneurs, we talked to Caitlin Koury, a Compass Fellowship alumna and the entrepreneur behind Healthy Leaders, a program to educate young people in the DC area about health issues.
What does the word ‘social’ in social entrepreneurship mean to you?
The word ‘social’ can be defined in a broad sense of the word when applied to entrepreneurship. I believe the term ‘social’ means the entrepreneurial venture is formatted to address a societal concern, i.e. a current problem, conflict or issue within a community.
When I talk to people about why social entrepreneurship is important, I’m often asked whether I think all entrepreneurship is social. “Entrepreneurship creates jobs, and creating jobs is good,” the argument goes.
This post was written by Michael Durante, Compass’s VP of Expansion.
From Gate 17 at Stockholm-Arlanda airport, my final window into Swedish culture after two weeks in this fine country, I write you this message. And what a two weeks it has been. Among navigating new city maps, public transit systems, currencies, and language barriers*, it was easy to forget what I was doing in Sweden: growing the Compass Fellowship.
This post was written by Heather Hingston, a Compass Fellowship alumna, a Compass Mentor at American University, and Founder of the [blank] canvas.
When I was an eensy-weensy high school student, I organized benefit shows in church basements for a charity about which I was very passionate. It had numerous challenges: finding an adult to sign the church’s contract, scrounging up $350 (only $150 of which would be returned as it was a deposit), getting six bands who were civil and peaceful and shared our values without being too expensive, marketing, and finding someone—ANYONE—to run sound.