The final full day of the Pearson Student Leadership Summit consisted of a workshop with breakout sessions for both the Pearson Prize National Fellows and the Pearson Student Advisory Board. The tone of the day was set through the innovative leaders on the Social Entrepreneurship Panel, who discussed listening, serendipity, and problem solving, as well as making and sustaining connections.
We asked the Pearson Prize Fellows about the Social Entrepreneurship Panel, their breakout sessions, and what they thought they could bring back to their community from their experience. Here are some of their responses.
Karim Abouelnaga
Cornell University
“We all know that problems exist [in our communities], but we do need to listen to the constituents, the people we’re trying to serve and help going forward. I think that’s one of the biggest takeaways from today’s session. I hope to go back to my organizations now and make sure, before we step into any problems where we come up with a fixed solution, that there’s a need that exists and that we’re not just trying to force something that probably doesn’t need to be fixed, so we don’t waste our resources.”
Jon Adams
Helena College of Technology of University of Montana
Montana State University
“The men and women of the Pearson Prize Fellows are an inspiration to me. They’ve reawakened my commitment to community service and wanting to go out and start more nonprofits, and get more collaborative efforts between all the community services to create more community service. If we can get everybody in my college to do one hour of service … that comes out to 12,000 hours a week! How important would that be?”
Muthuraman Alagappan
Stanford University
“One thing that really struck me today was the importance of serendipity, the importance of connections and knowing other people in the industry who are doing similar things. I really got a sense that, by working together, by combining the ideals that all of us have, we can do something that’s greater than what we could have done individually. So, that’s why it’s fascinating being at this conference, because we get to meet 19 other fellows who are doing excellent things, who have the same underlying passions and the same motivations. We’re all doing things that are different, yet they are so connected in the sense that we can help each other make each of our individual efforts that much stronger. So I really look forward to connecting with all these fellows, keeping in touch; hopefully down the line we can put all of our strengths and skills together and come up with something that’s extraordinary that does a lot of good.”
Danny Brannon
Anne Arundel Community College
“One of the things that stood out the most to me [on the first full day of the summit] that I felt most interested in was how Pearson values everybody in the organization equally: from the person who is an intern maybe making copies on a copy machine, to the director of marketing, everyone has the same value to the organization, everyone is equally important – and everyone is celebrated … Another thing that stood out to me today was when Bill Hughes [of Pearson Education] talked about inspiring people and sparking people … the passion that everybody here displays is just amazing.”
Timi Chu
Northwestern University
“Honestly, I never really thought of myself as a social entrepreneur. And, when I heard the term today, and when I heard the name of the panel, I thought, ‘Wow, that’s actually what I’m doing.’ I’m making a change in society by implementing an idea or satisfying a need that I saw in society … By listening to what [community members] needed, I was able to help them out – and partner with the Evanston Public Library, as well as Jumpstart, which I work with through Northwestern University. And, by forming that partnership with them … I was able to bring some change to the Evanston community. So, I’m not sure if I would implement anything differently, but I would definitely plan on continuing my partnership with Evanston, Jumpstart, and all the families that I work with.”
Melinda Civic
Schenectady County Community College
“Having the opportunity to meet the fellows has been an incredible experience. We all come from diverse backgrounds, yet we are all united through Pearson because of our passion for education and community service. Everyone is extremely driven, and I have enjoyed being able to hear everyone’s plans for future academics and community projects. These are truly exceptional individuals who have had (and will continue to have) a positive impact on their communities.”
Cristina Garcia
University of Texas at Dallas
“What I’d like to take home from this Pearson Student Leadership Summit and bring back to the community and to my organizations is a better understanding of leadership at all entrepreneurship levels, as well as corporate levels, and really to bring back, especially to the student government association, a realization of why textbooks cost so much. [I’d like] to bring back to both my former community college and my new university the [mobile learning] initiatives that we’ve been talking about and so many ideas that we’ve discussed, so that they can continue the mission of helping students be able to afford the new technologies that are coming out and the new ways of mobile learning.”
Jarell Green
University of Nevada, Reno
“[On the first full day of the Summit], Sandi Kirshner mentioned how Pearson notices that one of the biggest challenges in higher education today is the level of achievement – that stood out to me in a great way, because it is important that we get students to college, but it’s even more important that we get those students to graduate. And, seeing that that’s one of Pearson’s goals, it truly inspired me to go back to my community and make sure that I keep doing the work that I’m doing with first-generation college students, and making sure that they do graduate.”
Jacob Kerr
Lake City Community College
“I’m very excited to be here, and I’m very grateful to Pearson. This has been a very interesting summit. I’ve had a lot of good experiences, and I’ve learned quite a bit from it; I’ll take back some real-life experiences and applications that I can use at the college and Phi Theta Kappa organization, and also later in life, when seeking employment as a chemical engineer. The advice that many of these ladies and gentlemen have offered us has been very insightful, very helpful. I really appreciate their time. Some of the most important things I think that they highlighted were the importance of diversity and also in getting reliable partners when starting an organization. Marketing trends, the different research that was conducted – it was all very interesting … I just hope to take away the same skills and advice and be able to apply it to our own PTK club, and also anything outside.”
Onaje LaMont
Broward Community College
“My expectation as a Pearson Prize National Fellow is to continue to serve the community and also to continue performing well academically – using what I’ve learned to really help shape the future, where education is concerned. We need to implement new tools, new resources, new innovations to help change this world, because we really need new, innovative minds – and that’s my expectation.”
Kevin Magana
CUNY La Guardia Community College
“From these last three days, my hunch is that a lot of social entrepreneur work and nonprofit work… has been greatly encouraged, reinforced, and inspired by everybody who’s around me, who are doing things to shape society, to help make it a better place. [Regarding] my specific initiative dealing specifically with immigrants, immigration reform, and also education, I want to combine those very big, broad issues and find a middle ground intersection where I’ll have creative measures to both help change social policy, immigration reform, and also to better educate those new Americans, new people who come to our country, so they can have a better chance and equal opportunities in the United States. I am looking forward to coming back to LaGuardia Community College … brainstorming with a lot of student leaders, building social capital and really finding a need, something that I can tackle myself within immigration and education.”
Garrett Wright
University of Southern Mississippi
“Hopefully, this summit gives me the courage to make moves in the community that otherwise I would not have the courage to do.”
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