Welcome to the Ashoka Fellowship! 11 American social entrepreneurs will today join the ranks of Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia, and Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank, and become a part of Ashoka’s Fellowship. They come from across U.S - Georgia, Maine, Ohio, California, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and New York – and between them; these 11 game changers are transforming the way we think about health, education, financial wellbeing, housing, the environment, transportation, government services, and Internet freedom. We’ll be writing more about their unique ideas and systems changing approach to problem-solving in the weeks to come. I encourage you, to take a look at their ideas and share their work with your community. One of our main goals is to ensure these solutions can reach many more people facing the same set of problems. More here: Enjoy!
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Welcome to the Ashoka Fellowship!

11 American social entrepreneurs will today join the ranks of Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia, and Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank, and become a part of Ashoka’s Fellowship.

They come from across U.S - Georgia, Maine, Ohio, California, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and New York – and between them; these 11 game changers are transforming the way we think about health, education, financial wellbeing, housing, the environment, transportation, government services, and Internet freedom.

We’ll be writing more about their unique ideas and systems changing approach to problem-solving in the weeks to come.

I encourage you, to take a look at their ideas and share their work with your community. One of our main goals is to ensure these solutions can reach many more people facing the same set of problems. More here:

Enjoy!

An Hommage

The quote Laura’s elegantly referring to here is the one on the cover of the booklet which is a bit of a mantra within Ashoka.

Hence, the real fish. The booklet that’s on the photo is within Ashoka simply referred to as the “fish booklet - you know, the one that describes Ashoka’s impact”. We’ll have a new edition out later this year and people are still debating wether or not the fishes  should stay on for another year. 

From Hilary Clinton to you: “Share your ideas. Mobilize your friends. Take action online and off.” <- Be a changemaker.

Pioneer synonyms: leader, trailblazer, forerunner, pathfinder.

In Annie Dillard’s Novel, The Living, a few generations of pioneers and settlers of the Olympic Peninsula hike up their skirts and tread step by step into the unknown.

It’s really difficult to imagine what it would be like to see the Rocky Mountains after walking across a flat country in stiff boots, but it sparks my imagination in the best way when I try.

Letters from settlers of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington Territory in the North West corner of America tell us stories of a rare, deep will to drive change, and I have taken time with this book – sure that there is something to learn here.

There are some elements of their lives and visions that I simply cannot grasp. For example, the unbelievable physical tenacity of the men, women and children that crossed the country on foot only to arrive in uncharted, practically uninhabitable lands is… hard to believe.

Other qualities seem more applicable, like their ability to envision a future not bound by the traditional confines of the practically contractual rules of Maryland society.  Actually, this is a quality we see in pioneers of every field today, and in that sense I’m pleased to realize that the word pioneer is often really aptly applied!

These folks were obviously not the first humans to envision an unwritten world and build a future with their bare hands, but I’m beginning to see these families as models of transformative change leaders.

Here’s an example of the creativity that their lifestyles required:

The settlers from the Mid Atlantic Coast had never seen trees grow so closely together as they do in the Pacific Northwest. Further, they couldn’t have imagined trees being so, so, so, so big. Without generations of hunting, or native plant expertise, the settlers had no choice but to farm, and hence, no choice but to clear parts of the crazy thick forest. They tried to saw the trees down, but the intensely gummy sap would ruin their saws. They tried to chop them with axes, but their width and weight were deadly. Eventually they learned to drill small holes in the trunks of the trees, burn the trees from the inside for days until they were weak, and then approach the trees with axes and saws.

Many pioneer families maintained a deep spirituality and religion in the face of a completely strange, harsh and often devastating world.  Many questioned the progress as they started to build, extract and develop the land. On top of the very tangible challenges of settling new land, the pioneers grappled with significant existential and theoretical questions.  

To be clear, my reverence for the settlers isn’t blind and encompassing. The relationship between settlers and Indians was torrid and complex and the precedent set by some settlers to “conquer nature” could arguably have led us to a devastating environmental future. The racism and discrimination targeted at the Chinese laborers that largely built the infrastructure for the entire West Coast was dark and real. However, for those qualities of visionary leadership, I give a shout out this Friday to pioneers/trailblazers/forerunners/pathfinders! 

- Abby

How the DIY movement could be a core part of becoming a ChangeMAKER!

(Picture taken from www.werepair.org)

About a year ago when I started working with this team, I became fascinated with the burgeoning Do It Yourself movement we started to notice. I am excited to see what the proliferation of 3-D printers will potentially mean for democratizing the means of production. It’s also fascinating to see how citizen scientists are using and spreading DIY technologies to monitor environmental degradation and increase civic engagement. Equally energizing is the work of the Open Source Ecology building a maker starter kit for a civilization. Businesses are seeing the potential too: check out this carMaking company, or Adafruit, a company that is a pioneer in the open source hardware field.

I think I find this movement particularly exciting because being and becoming a ‘maker’ requires iterative problem-solving. And nothing says iterative problem-solving like Changemaker!

I can definitely say I have been inspired to test out my own DIY skills since learning about the movement + I must admit that my artisan/artist brother is a big inspiration. So when my dresser started falling apart and I couldn’t find a decent, affordable replacement I decided to build it, mainly from recycle building materials. I am loving the process and encourage more people to try it out. Let’s see if I actually get a decent looking dresser in the end, but I have no doubt that I’ll be a sharper thinker by the time I am done. 

- Hanae

Thinking outside the box - literally.

Heard of Caine Monroy? He’s a 9 year-old entrepreneur who built an arcade out of cardboard boxes in his dad’s garage, and is now making the rounds on the media circuit, because he, as Steve Case puts it “is inspiring countless others to think outside box”.

The documentarist Nivan Mullick had heard of the kids efforts and decided to do a fun flash-mob at the kid’s homemade arcade, to see the look on his face when he got real customers. 

The video went viral and with virality came TV and a mass audience. But the immense attention is not just buzz; it’s now giving Caine Monroy an education.  

“Now that the video has gone viral, the Caine’s Arcade Facebook page boasts over 45,000 Likes, with fans and supporters having raised over $100,000 for his scholarship fund in just three days”, notes Shira Lazar of What’s Trending. Watch her interview with the young Changemaker and get inspired:

- Anna

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