GCSEN Social Venture Boot Camp is the first of its kind providing higher education, undergraduate students with world-class curricula on Social Entrepreneurship.
On Monday, January 4th, the 6th Annual Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship Network (GCSEN) Foundation Social Venture Boot Camp hosted by SE Launch at Wheaton College (MA) commenced! Thanks to program sponsor Diana Davis Spencer Foundation (DDSF), an incredible Wheaton College team led by President Dennis Hanno and DDSF Endowed Professor for Social Entrepreneurship Imran Chowdhury and to our gifted students, our 2021 boot camp had a record number of applicants! Ultimately we’ve narrowed it down to 25 talented students across 4 years, 12+ majors from 12 states and 5 countries as well as the GCSEN ‘21 Start Up Social Venture for the boot camp, FUTUR. An excited Chowdhury is looking forward to the “wonderful opportunity to work with the GCSEN on this 6th edition of Wheaton's Social Entrepreneurship Launch Program. Having a record number of students in 2021 is particularly satisfying, and I am looking forward to working with everyone!”
In accordance with COVID-19 protocol, we are all virtual! This 3-week boot camp, is the first of its kind providing higher education undergraduate students with world-class, highly rigorous and practical curricula teaching the foundational language, tools and practices of GCSEN’s 4P Social Entrepreneurship to help jumpstart Social Ventures based on unique passions and purpose of each student/team to make meaning, make money, and move the world to a better place for people, profit, planet, and place.
On January 22nd, the boot camp will culminate in a pitch observed by social entrepreneurs, collegiate leaders, and supporters from all over the world. The GCSEN team has been working overtime to ensure that this boot camp will be the best one yet in spite of the pandemic.
Founder and President of GCSEN, Michael J. Caslin shared encouraging words for aspiring social entrepreneurs during the boot camp’s virtual launch, “at GCSEN Foundation, our ‘why’ is to help you find and maintain your ‘why’- your own 4P Social Venture for People, Profit, Planet, Place. As a social entrepreneur, you all are heroes on your own path turning impossible ideas to it’s possible impact. During this experience I want you to be yourself, the authenticity is within you! The majority of you cut your vacations early to attend this program, one key sign that you already have the passion you need to start a business. GCSEN will inspire you, teach you, and support you for life so you can turn your idea into a viable social enterprise."
GCSEN Foundation began hosting their Social Venture Bootcamp at Wheaton College in 2016. At the kickoff, the 2-week summer semester boot camp boasted 15 participants. 6-years later, the annual participation in the Social Venture Bootcamps has doubled. There also is now a Social Entrepreneur Club founded by 2016 GCSEN Social Venture Boot Camp Graduate, Michael Sadowsky (Wheaton ‘17) and over 100 Wheaton students will have graduated by the end of this program resulting in over a dozen on-going social ventures launched as well as students more gainfully employed and graduate school enrolled!
Though the 2021 Boot Camp will be a tad different as the program is virtual, the quality of the GCSEN Social Venture Boot Camp remains world class. This year, the program will have a record number of guest speakers (12), coaches (12) and include a world-premier of “Pitch Perfect” -Personal and Business Communication evening virtual workshop.
2021 participant, Ervin Williams, a USA Jack Kent Cooke Scholar, graduate of Phillips Exeter and member of Wheaton College ‘24, expects to gain “mentorship, knowledge, and grit to change the lives of individuals that usually never get access to the resources and opportunities that privileged people receive. Social Entrepreneurship is the elevation of healing and coming together of people of different backgrounds making meaningful change and making the world a better place. This boot camp has been an absolute joy to attend. Every day, I end off with a renewed passion and vigor to work hard on my social venture, and I appreciate how much work and effort GCSEN has done to make this happen, especially during COVID times.”
Be sure to support our Meaning Makers who are moving the world to a better place by attending the Final Pitch for the social entrepreneurs on Friday, January 22nd, 10:00am-12:00pm through our GCSEN Zoom Conference! (Meeting ID: 840 6566 0487 / Passcode: 834724 )
For more information on GCSEN go to www.GCSEN.com and enjoy our featured GCSEN video short stories and life-changing learning lectures! Press Contact- Mike Caslin, Founder/CEO, Mike@GCSEN.com, cell- 001-212-444-2071 or GCSEN Media Relations Coordinator Junior Consultant Zara Ayanna Salmon (W’18), Zara@GCSEN.com.