New Guest Column: Youth Taking Action

Published February 18, 2009 @ 09:30AM PT

Gretchen Zucker, Executive Director of Youth Venture Rings the NASDAQ Opening Bell

Around the world, something as stirring as young people are casting off the label of apathy and finding creative ways to serve their communities and the world around them. While universities and high schools are changing slowly to better support these young changemakers, external organizations have been catalysts for action.

One of the most important of these catalysts is Ashoka's Youth Venture, which provides support that ranges from mentorship to seed funding. Recently, their GenV project has been finding nonprofit and foundation partners to launch campaigns that empower young people to make a difference. For example, they're currently partnered with the Lemelson Foundation for the Invent Your World challenge through which they will "support 50 young inventors in using their inventions to create positive change – by providing mentorship, seed funding, networking opportunities, and even a $20,000 scholarship."

For the next few months, Youth Venture's Jim Bach will be sharing the stories of some of the most interesting and innovative young social entrepreneurs. Every two weeks, we'll post a new interview that highlights their work and explores what other social entrepreneurs can glean from their example. The debut column launching today will feature Sejal Hathi, the 17 year old founder of Girls Helping Girls.

At Youth Venture, Jim works specifically to support their environment and invention campaigns, as well as supporting new Youth Venture teams across the world. Previous to working with Ashoka Jim worked in disaster response projects in Mississippi and Guatemala. In Guatemala, he created an information sharing website to help coordinate efforts in a resettlement area of the Guatemalan highlands. He also worked as the Crisis Corps Coordinator for Peace Corps Guatemala.

Welcome to the site Jim and Youth Venture!

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Author

Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation.