ASU Students Start Community Ventures

 

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Some ASU students are putting their entrepreneurial skills to work for the benefit of more than just the bottom line. These students are realizing, as Gary Covert points out on the University as Entrepreneur Blog, “Entrepreneurship skills are just as necessary for solving social problems as they are for a profit generating venture. In either case, it is a question of providing value.”

 

Many projects funded by ASU’s Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative, from community loan programs to pet neutering initiatives, create socially embedded, or two-way, relationships between ASU students and the community.  Edson supports student-led teams by supplying them with the tools, resources and confidence they need to start new ventures. The initiative provides office space, training and $200,000 in seed funding to over 15 student-led entrepreneurial projects each year. 

 

TUPO (a Swahili word meaning “we are together”), received funding from the Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative.  TUPO uses student and community volunteers to deliver healthcare to children and families in communities that do not have access to doctors and nurses.  The organization provides services in Arizona and Tanzania. 

 

“Our work is moving forward beautifully in several areas. I am really happy with the impact that we’ve had working in the communities. I’m amazed at how much momentum has been generated as a result of our friends and families contributing to support the work that we’re doing,” says TUPO’s Executive Director, ASU PhD student and social entrepreneur, Damien Salamone. “University education in the United States is facing the challenge of preparing students for jobs in the global economy – an economy that is increasingly moving technical work overseas. Edson steps beyond the walls of the classroom to inspire, teach, and facilitate the translation of ideas into reality.” 

 

Another Edson-supported venture, COAR (Community Outreach and Advocacy for Refugees), recruits and trains volunteers to help people who have fled from violent conflicts in their home country adapt to their new surroundings.  Begun almost three years ago, COAR has taken enormous strides since its inception. This year, enough money was raised to hire a full-time executive director, ASU 2007 graduate Cara Steiner Kiggins. Next year their goal is to hire an executive director from beyond the student community who will have the experience to keep COAR expanding. (COAR was featured in the Community Camera last year: http://community.uui.asu.edu/features/coar.asp)

 

Projects combining entrepreneurship and social embeddedness are diverse and far-reaching. Integral Shelter develops sustainable solutions for inadequate living conditions in poverty-stricken areas throughout the world and Project Literacy promotes reading fluency among disadvantaged elementary school children. Arizona Community Loans leverages community partnerships to provide the underbanked with short-term loans and the Community Spay and Neuter Assistance Program (SNAP) of AZ, is dedicated to ending companion pet overpopulation in the state of Arizona by providing economically under-represented communities with access to low or no-cost spay and neuter services via a mobile surgical animal hospital.

 

And Edson isn’t the only place to find ASU’s rising cohort of social entrepreneurs. ASU Technopolis, Innovation Space, the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, ASU’s Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management, and the Pathways to Entrepreneuship Grants are all programs at ASU that aim to help students and faculty make a difference in the world.

 

Another example is ASU’s Entrepreneur Advantage Project (EAP). It provides students — including those without previous entrepreneurial experience and those who have not taken business courses — with opportunities to turn great ideas into action. The grants are for a maximum of $2,000 per project. EAP will grant 10 awards this year for community service projects, product prototypes, and artistic exhibits.

 

One student-led community service venture that recently received funding from EAP will impact the community in a distinctive way.  Scooty Call aims to provide designated drivers to people who need assistance in returning personal vehicles (and themselves) to their residence after drinking at a local bar. Their idea is, if you find yourself unable to drive, you simply dial up Scooty Call, and a member of their team rides over on a scooter to wherever you are. Then they fold up their scooter, get into your car, and drive you home. Once you arrive safely at home, the scooter comes back out, and the person who assisted you zips back to headquarters. Scooty Call’s EAP grant will allow the organization to purchase a Di Blasi Folding Motor Scooter to get their venture rolling.

 

Whatever their inspiration or area of expertise, entrepreneurs are individuals who see an opportunity for change and take steps to make it happen.  Social entrepreneurs not only see the potential for turning their ideas and talents into a viable exciting career; they also see the potential to make a difference in the lives of others.

 

See a list of ASU classes in social entrepreneurship on the Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management web site.

 

Access a list of additional entrepreneurship-related programs at ASU.

 

ASU also maintains administrative staff who specifically support students in their entrepreneurial efforts.

 

Adapted from Ideas to Impact (Adobe Acrobat File) by Eliza Gregory.

 

To learn more about how ASU is engaged with the community, please visit ASU in the Community’s Program Database which connects you to a wide variety of specific ASU outreach efforts.