Social Entrepreneurship in the Bay Area

Alternative Spring Break 2008

• Winter Course
• Spring Break Trip
• Itinerary
• Speakers & Organizations
• responsibilities
  
• 
  
• packing list
• blog
• Terms & Definitions
• Resources
• Quotes
• Goals
  

"A social entrepreneur identifies and solves social problems on a large scale... just as business entrepreneurs create and transform whole industries"

-- PBS documentary "The New Heroes"

Social entrepreneurship is a new way of thinking about society’s tough issues. In diverse fields like poverty relief, health, technology, and education, social entrepreneurs look beyond traditional approaches to design and implement creative, sustainable solutions to real-world problems.

As one of the most innovative places in the world, the Bay Area has served as an incubator for many of social entrepreneurship’s great ideas. It is home to organizations like Benetech, a nonprofit technology company developing software to document human rights abuses, OneWorld Health, a nonprofit pharmaceutical company producing affordable medicines for diseases affecting developing countries, and Delancey Street, a network of businesses run by ex-felons and substance abusers to learn skills to rebuild their lives.

Over the course of winter quarter we will examine innovative Bay Area organizations and learn about the infrastructure that makes social entrepreneurship possible. During spring break, we will visit these organizations and engage with experts in the field of social entrepreneurship. Through conversations with successful social entrepreneurs, service activities, and active creativity, we will get involved with every step of social entrepreneurship—from observation to idea generation to potential implementation.

There’s never been a more exciting time to begin learning about social entrepreneurship, and there’s no better place to get started than here at Stanford and around the Bay Area.


Trip Leaders: Kalvin Wang & Sophia Tu




what is Alternative Spring Break (ASB)?

what is social entrepreneurship?

How can I help?

• give us a tour of your organization (March 22-29)
• speak to our group (March 22-29)
• speak at our winter quarter class (dates and times TBD)
• refer us to someone who would be interested in doing one of the above
• check our wishlist

ASB 2007