'Igniting Innovation' Promotes Student Entrepreneurship

Students, scientists, and businessmen gathered in Boylston Hall this past Saturday for an inspiring display of what good one can do with the right tools at “Igniting Innovation: A Summit on Social Entrepreneurship.”

The conference was an effort to inspire students “to solve problems—applying creativity not just for profit but for public service,” said one of the organizers, Elliot Ikheloa ’11.

The summit, an all-day event organized by Willa P. Zhou ’12 and other Harvard students involved in public service, featured focus groups centered around education, design, social reform, water sanitation, and art and activism, in particular geographic regions.

Along with these panels, various organizations, including Nika Water and Ashoka Youth Venture, gave presentations to participants.

“There is a water crisis. Over 1.2 billion people don’t have access to clean water, and even more lack access to water infrastructure like sewage systems,” said Kara M. Kubarych ’13, who co-founded Nika—which means “to give” in Zulu—Water.

Kubarych helped start the organization as a senior in high school with Jeffrey D. Church, who graduated from Harvard Business School in 1988. Church explained the financial workings of the company, which sells bottled water and donates the profits to countries in need of clean water.

“It costs $20 to bring clean water to someone for life, so $1 million a year provides water for 50,000 people,” Church said.

Another student venture represented at the summit was Sweetbag, created by Marjorie Lacombe ’13.

Lacombe sells handmade commodities such as purses and jewelry online, using the profits to donate toys, school supplies and medical instruments to children in Ghana, Kenya and Bolivia.

“There was a lot I could do, even as a young person,” said Lacombe, echoing the common theme of the summit: using innovation to solve social problems. Bret D. Carr, who manages the Boston office of Ashoka’s Youth Venture, spoke about the organization, which provides seed funding for youth projects.

The goal of Ashoka Youth Venture, and social entrepreneurship as a whole, said Carr “is to cultivate social entrepreneurs by encouraging youth to mesh a social problem with their talent.”

Carr started working for the funding program after his inspiring experience working with local children in Madagascar, who made soccer balls out of trash bags and tape.

About 150 students attended the event, which is in its inaugural year.

“I think it’s really fantastic and necessary that there be a sustained dialogue about social entrepreneurship on campus,” said participant Tara Suri ’13, who also helped organize the conference.