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Priorities:Swarthmore College Student Priorities

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<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Strategic Priority #1 (Omri): Incentivise Swarthmore students to engage in social entrepreneurship and innovation

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Given Swarthmore student’s passion for social change, there is immense potential to harness this energy and channel it towards social innovation.<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Currently~~~~however, the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Swarthmore does not provide enough opportunity (or incentive) for students to engage in social entrepreneurship/innovation.

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<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Project: Social Innovation Fellowship. The Social Innovation Fellowship is broken down as follows:

*External stakeholders - entrepreneurially minded non-profits/other organizations in surrounding Swarthmore area (mainly Philadelphia and Chester). I have already established numerous relationships with these external partners (most of which work with youth), all of whom are excited at the prospect of engaging with Swarthmore’s Innovation Lab. I will be working with these organizations to host either workshops or events focused on design-thinking, presentation/pitching techniques, etc.

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'''''Short term student engagement'''''

*A potential future spinoff would be that these students would then receive funding to travel to their respectivepartners,and engage in a summer internship in which they would be able to continue their project

<br/>Ultimately, I believe that attracting more students to participate in the growing social innovation initiative on campus revolves heavily around credit. Being able to receive credit, while engaging in an applied learning project, is something that entices many students.

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Strategic Priority #2 (Natasha): Make Entrepreneurship Tangible It is really important to us that “social entrepreneurship” is more than just a nebulous idea at Swarthmore. We want to go beyond the buzzwords, and give students an opportunity to actually apply all that they learn about design thinking. During the Stanford course, we have really appreciated the focus on prototyping - we<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">plangive Swarthmore a workable “prototype” of a successful social enterprise on campus.

We already are in communication with Therese Ton, a student baker selling her products at local stores, and Ben Stern, a coffee aficionado on campus.

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Strategic Priority #2.1 (Hanan): Supporting<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Student LedInitiatives

With the expansion of the cafe and the early closing of other late night food options, the Crumb Cafe has been experiencing an influx of student customers causing long lines, extended wait times for food, running out of menu items within an hour of opening, and an unorganized ordering/delivering food system. There is a lot of excitement around the expansion of the cafe and the cafe has hired many new students but has been struggling to serve a large student body.

<span style="font-size: 11pt~~transparent; color: rgb(0, 0, 0)~~; background-color: transparent~~; font-~~style~~size: ~~italic; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline11pt; white-space: pre-wrap; font-style: italic;">Project:

<li><span style="~~font-size: 11pt;~~ background-color: transparent; ~~font-variant-numeric~~color: ~~normal~~rgb(0, 0, 0); font-~~variant-east-asian~~size: ~~normal; vertical-align: baseline~~11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Design and Implement a “Crumb Cafe” App<ul style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><li><span style="~~font-size: 11pt;~~ background-color: transparent; ~~font-variant-numeric~~color: ~~normal~~rgb(0, 0, 0); font-~~variant-east-asian~~size: ~~normal; vertical-align: baseline~~11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Streamline ordering process. Students can pre-order off the online menu and the app will give an estimated time that the food will be ready effectively decreasing the long wait times.</li><li><span style="~~font-size: 11pt;~~ background-color: transparent; ~~font-variant-numeric~~color: ~~normal~~rgb(0, 0, 0); font-~~variant-east-asian~~size: ~~normal; vertical-align: baseline~~11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Streamline the delivery process. The app can notify students when their food is ready (ie. at the burger shop, Shakeshack, customers are notified via a vibrating remote when their orders are ready).</li><li><span span style="~~font-size: 11pt;~~ background-color: transparent; ~~font-variant-numeric~~color: ~~normal~~rgb(0, 0, 0); font-~~variant-east-asian~~size: ~~normal; vertical-align: baseline~~11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Streamline cafe-customer communications. The cafe quickly runs out of menu items that student most often order. Many students have expressed how disappointed they have been to enter the cafe, wait in line, and only find out about certain items running out when they are about to order. The app can notify students of what is currently available to order and what has run out.</li>

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<li><span style="~~font-size: 11pt;~~ background-color: transparent; ~~font-variant-numeric~~color: ~~normal~~rgb(0, 0, 0); font-~~variant-east-asian~~size: ~~normal; vertical-align: baseline~~11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Secure funding for an increase in student staff<ul style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><li><span style="~~font-size: 11pt;~~ background-color: transparent; ~~font-variant-numeric~~color: ~~normal~~rgb(0, 0, 0); font-~~variant-east-asian~~size: ~~normal; vertical-align: baseline~~11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">With the option to order via the app and avoid the long wait lines, many more students may interact with The Crumb Cafe. This means that there will be a need for increased staffing - perhaps staff solely dedicated to online orders, and staff dedicated to in-person cafe orders.</li><li><span style="~~font-size: 11pt;~~ background-color: transparent; ~~font-variant-numeric~~color: ~~normal~~rgb(0, 0, 0); font-~~variant-east-asian~~size: ~~normal; vertical-align: baseline~~11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">This will support many low-income students on campus looking for employment as well as to increase their skills. Working in a group setting develops one’s communication, ability to work in a team, and encourages initiative and motivation - skills that are transferable to any other job on or off campus.</li><li><span style="~~font-size: 11pt;~~ background-color: transparent; ~~font-variant-numeric~~color: ~~normal~~rgb(0, 0, 0); font-~~variant-east-asian~~size: ~~normal; vertical-align: baseline~~11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">As more staff requires more funding so students can be paid, a grant can be proposed to the student government organization (SGO) and student budget committee (SBC) detailing the needs of the community and how additional staffing will address the needs.</li>

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Strategic Priority #3 (Mariam): Develop spin-off opportunities to support more mature entrepreneurs at Swarthmore College by nurturing student enterprises/groups/projects/student groups using Impact Investing <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Need: As a result of the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship project mapping at Swarthmore College, we identified a dire lack of spin-off opportunities (3-5 years support plans) that would spur and scale projects that have survived the test of time. The immediate need that we investigated is the scarcity of funding needed to scale the strategic and operational activities of a business/enterprise/organization/student groups that are past the initial forming stages of their venture.

*Swarthmore Investment Club: will be exposed to best practices in Impact Investing. They will support and assist pro bono investors of the Impact Investing project. This educational experience will ensure the sustainability of the pro bono investor pipeline.

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<br/><span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Strategic Priority #4 (Michelle): Make Entrepreneurship Collaborative rather than Competitive As college students, we are often told that we have to do a million things, from balancing classes to athletics to clubs. On top of our immense workload, we are often fed the notion that we have to "find our calling" in the next 4 years. In the midst of all of these insane expectations leveraged against us, we often forget is that what we truly need is a <span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mentor-- someone who is there to support us and cheer us on, no matter what we do.

<span style="font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Project: TriConnect - Peer-to-peer mentoring website TriConnect is a mentoring website that helps students in the Tri-College Consortium (Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr) tap into the untapped network of mentors, aka the amazing students that attend these three esteemed colleges. Students start by creating a profile, listing all of their affiliations (majors, clubs, interests etc.) and what they can offer mentorship in and what they are seeking to be mentored in (i.e. a CS student looking for someone more involved in the Tri-Co entrepreneurship environment). Once a profile is created, they can reach out to other students on the network to set up meals, attend events together etc.

The Impact of “TriConnect”: By creating a platform that directly fosters peer-to-peer mentorship, TriConnect hopes to not only empower<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">individuals,but also shift school culture from one that is hyper-competitive and often cutthroat to one that is more collaborative and supportive. We hope that this will lead to benefits in student mental health and physical well-being, all the while cultivating student entrepreneurship and innovation.

<div~~><br/~~></span~~></div></div><div>Strategic Priority #4.1 (Cassandra): Landscape Update and Further Collaboration Opportunities</div~~><br/~~></span~~><div>There are many different opportunities to get involved with various facets of entrepreneurship on campus. These include organizations such as SWIFT, LaunchDeck, 180 Consulting, and WiCS+. While it is great to have all these existing programs, itis also meansthat entrepreneurship efforts are divided among all these clubs. This, in a sense, heightens the sense of "competition" Michelle addressed last year. As entrepreneurial resources grow on campus, it is critical that we create initiatives to get these groups to work together.<br/span><br/~~span~~></div><div> <br/~~>Student Government Organization Committees Swarthmore's SGO has many committees that handle bringing various student groups together in other to help move the campus community forward as a whole. As entrepreneurship opportunities become a high priority for students on campus, it would be beneficial for SGO to create a Standing Committee on Entrepreneurship, which would involve weekly meetings with the leaders of the entrepreneurial groups of campus.<br/span><br/~~span~~></div><div> <br/~~>Cross-Group Peer to Peer Mentorship While Michelle's Peer-to-Peer program focused on resources available to the greater TriCo community, I am interested in fostering collaboration within the institution by establishing a similar mentoring program to connect members across the aforementioned entrepreneurial groups. By doing so, we would be able to encourage the sharing of ideas and resources across these organizations and reduce the existingbeauricraticlandscape of entrepreneurship and innovation that exists at Swarthmore College.</div></div>~~ ~~

= Related Links =

[[Mariam Bahmane|Mariam_Bahmane]]

~~~~ [[Category:Student Priorities|s]]~~~~

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