StartingBloc Institute for Social Innovation: NYC 2008

Grace Augustine — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:30:00 -0500

We are all looking for opportunities to develop our ability to address poverty and underserved markets with business solutions. One forum that brings together students and young professionals to connect around these ideas is StartingBloc.

I was encouraged to apply to StartingBloc through WRI staff who have attended in the past and who recommended the program. I was then fortunate enough to be admitted as a New York City 2008 StartingBloc fellow, and I would like to share some of my experiences thus far.

The first of three weekend gatherings was held at NYU-Wagner in mid-February. 115 students and young professionals from 21 countries convened to kick off the program. During the course of the day, we talked about Scojo, Grameen, Acumen Fund, D-Lab, Kiva and numerous other BoP initiative poster children.

The agenda was packed with speakers and sessions on these well-established organizations. Those stories, as exciting as they were, have been told before. I felt that the more unique aspect of the day was meeting the other fellows, who ranged from the ages of 20-35 and carried a sense of unbridled idealism and curiosity.

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StartingBloc Institute for Social Innovation: NYC 2008