NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Last year, we launched our 30 Under 30 project, where we named 30 up-and-comers in 12 industries, including technology, food and wine, music, and finance. This year, we’re including a new category I’m very excited about: social entrepreneurs.

And that’s why we need your help. I’m looking for 30 people under age 30 who are changing the world as social entrepreneurs. Simply put, these are folks who apply their entrepreneurial chutzpah to a social problem to make the world a better place. They’re creative, do-gooding business people, and they’re getting a lot done.

As an example of a potential candidate, take Maggie Doyne. As a teenager from New Jersey, Doyne took a gap year after high school to travel the world. Four months into her trip, she found herself so moved by the needs of orphans in Nepal that her life changed dramatically: she saved up baby-sitting money, bought land in Nepal, created a nonprofit, and built a children’s home and school. All by the time she was twenty-three.

Social entrepreneurs don’t have to tackle problems abroad–there is also plenty of work to be done domestically. Someone like recent Brown graduate Scott Warren founded Generation Citizen, which places college students in high school classrooms to teach civics courses focused on solving problems in the teens’ own communities. The idea is that Generation Citizen is building the community-minded leaders of tomorrow.