The three keys to preparedness are to build a kit, make a plan, and be informed.

The American Red Cross is keeping a close watch on Hurricane Earl as the storm gains strength in the Atlantic Ocean

The American Red Cross is keeping a close watch on Hurricane Earl as the storm gains strength in the Atlantic Ocean

from now – if all of the ducks currently shuffling around waiting for someone to tell them what to do actually get themselves into a line – we will be moving. Well, sort of. Joy will already be ensconced in Northumberland with her Grandma and Granda, as she starts her new school on 8 September. Ned will be in place at his Dad’s nearby as he’ll be studying A’Levels at Kingston College (with season ticket for the East Coast Line in hand). The fleet of juggernauts with all of our worldly goods will be heading up the M1. Yes, 17 September has been earmarked as The Day, although as anyone who has ever bought or sold a house will know, having a provisional completion date is no guarantee of anything. I think it’s time for a gratuitous house picture. This time...

Arizona State University, Duke University and Marquette University selected to join the Ashoka U Changemaker Campuses

Arlington, VA (August 25, 2010) Colleges and universities teaching social entrepreneurship have quadrupled in the past decade. In 2004, 20 universities in the U.S. had a course in social entrepreneurship. Today there are nearly 100 academic institutions in the U.S. that offer courses on social entrepreneurship.

The increased interest is driven by the growing rate of social problems that require attention and the demand from college students who, now more than ever, seek to use their degrees to create meaningful social impact in the world. The adoption rate also signals a changing tide in higher education to remain relevant in a rapidly changing, global society.

Leading the pack are ten “Changemaker Campuses,” selected by Ashoka, a global network of 2,500 social entrepreneur practitioners, for their commitment – in most cases, from the President’s office – to set the global standard of excellence in social entrepreneurship education, thereby laying the foundation to train generations of future social entrepreneurs and changemakers.

Today, Arizona State University, Duke University, and Marquette University will join seven other colleges and universities – Babson College, College of the Atlantic, George Mason University, The New School, Tulane University, University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Maryland – previously chosen as leaders in the Changemaker Campus Consortium.

One of Ashoka’s social entrepreneurs, Jane Leu, after spending time on the Changemaker Campuses commented, “Universities are uniquely positioned to be huge players – maybe even the biggest players – in determining where social entrepreneurship goes, as a field of education, as a practice, as a way we live our lives”

Arizona State University joins the consortium as a recognized leader in entrepreneurship and that seeks to integrate social entrepreneurship into its New American University of 70,000 students. Duke University joins the Consortium as a pioneer in the field of social entrepreneurship and the seminal force that brought early academic legitimacy to social entrepreneurship education through its Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE), founded in 2002.  Marquette University, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, builds on the strong tradition of the Jesuits as revolutionaries and changemakers, and plans to spark a movement throughout the Jesuit university network and across the Midwest, a region desperately in need of innovation and revitalization. All three universities exemplify the growing trend to teach social entrepreneurship at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, and to integrate the concepts of changemaking into the fiber of the entire university.

As a collective, the ten Changemaker Campuses represent 210,000 students, more than 14,000 faculty members, and nearly 1,000 years of educational tradition.  Each Changemaker Campus has made potentially game changing commitments to reach a significant number of students with the message that they can be changemakers and social entrepreneurs, at events such as freshman orientation or through new undergraduate coursework and graduate seminars.

“Given the scale of the effort and the focus on social impact as the primary outcome, the potential pay-offs are enormous,” stated Marina Kim, Director of Ashoka U, the University Division of Ashoka.

The Changemaker Campus Consortium gathers in DC this weekend, to welcome new members Arizona State University, Duke University and Marquette University and to plan the upcoming year and innovations the group will pursue collaboratively to advance the field.

About Ashoka U & the Changemaker Campus Initiative
Ashoka U is the university division of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public. Ashoka U envisions a day when colleges and universities everywhere serve as an enabling environment in which each individual has access to the resources, learning opportunities, role models, and peer community needed to actualize their full potential as social entrepreneurs and changemakers. Through the Changemaker Campus partnership, Ashoka U draws on Ashoka's 30 years of experience in social entrepreneurship and the experience of 2,500 leading social entrepreneurs to support campuses as they build programs that combine theory with practice. The Changemaker Campus Consortium includes Arizona State University, Babson College, College of the Atlantic, Duke, George Mason University, Marquette University, The New School, Tulane University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the University of Maryland.

For additional information, please visit www.ashokau.org or contact

Marina Kim, Director
Ashoka U
mkim@ashoka.org
+1 (703) 600-8318

photo: WENN.com Singer-songwriter Imogen Heap wants to make a nature documentary using footage filmed by her fans. She says, “It could be a sunrise from your bedroom window, underwater deep sea diving, a flower in a pavement crack…” You get the point. She wants the film to tour, inspiring the audience to save the planet. So, this is going to basically be an hour-long clip show set to Imogen Heap’s music. That’s going to inspire people to recycle? The musician is capable of much-less-empty gestures, though. While on tour earlier this summer, she improvised a song every night about a local cause, and then sold the songs on her website and donated the proceeds to each particular charity. We like that better. Not that we don’t love college filmmakers shootin...

I’ll be honest — I’d never heard of Dr. Frank Ryan, a Hollywood plastic surgeon, until his tragic motor vehicle accident recently. Clients included actress Heidi Montag and boxer Oscar De La Hoya. Although the California Highway Patrol investigation isn’t complete, rumors have suggested that Dr. Ryan may have been text messaging when driving. If this is true and an intelligent, well-trained doctor can fall prey to the allure of technology, then what does it mean for the rest of us? First, realize that we can’t multitask. You have one brain. You can focus at one task at a time. Though laws allow hands-free cellphone calls, the issue isn’t trying to dial the phone but rather that the mind is engaged in the conversation and not on the road. Yes, we ar...

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Prior to last week’s passage of another $26 billion in bailout money for state and local governments, I noted that the legislation wasn’t really offset: Congressional Democrats say the measure is paid for with a combination of spending cuts elsewhere and tax increases. However, the new spending is front loaded and much of the spending cuts wouldn’t be realized until after 2013. For example, the Congressional Budget Office’s score of the legislation shows savings from the food stamps program of $12 billion from 2014-2018. Congress can come back any time before that and rescind the cuts. It’s typical Beltway budgetary sleight-of-hand: increase spending up front and “cut” spending on the back-end to get a more deficit-friendly score from the CBO. Democrats don’t really intend ...

By Tad DeHavenPrior to last week’s passage of another $26 billion in bailout money for state and local governments, I noted that the legislation wasn’t really offset: Congressional Democrats say the measure is paid for with a combination of spending cuts elsewhere and tax increases. However, the new spending is front loaded and much of the spending cuts wouldn’t be realized until after 2013. For example, the Congressional Budget Office’s score of the legislation shows savings from the food stamps program of $12 billion from 2014-2018. Congress can come back any time before that and rescind the cuts. It’s typical Beltway budgetary sleight-of-hand: increase spending up front and “cut” spending on the back-end to get a more deficit-friendly score from the CBO. Democrats don’t ...

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