Chidiebele Iwuchukwu, LON '07
The youngest program manager in the history of Celtel, the largest telecom company in Africa, Chiedebele's StartingBloc experience inspired him to start GacheOne, an energy consulting firm that offers free consulting services to developing institutions in the economic, agricultural and energy sectors throughout Africa. In addition, by leveraging the network and skills gained through attending StartingBloc’s 2007 London Institute, he created LearningFirst, an education lottery designed to provide education opportunities to emerging leaders in the poorest regions of Nigeria.
Chidiebele, currently on leave from GacheOne and LearningFirst, is pursuing an MBA at Columbia. In Fall 2008, he was elected as a University Senator and appointed to the Sanford Bernstein Leadership and Ethics Board. He also spent December, 2008 working with a micro-finance institution in Ghana to build a lending model for women in the most economically disadvantaged areas of the country capital, Accra.
“Since joining StartingBloc, I have resolved to create change especially in the energy and financial sector, drawing on my knowledge, contacts and experience to enhancing international development. I'm indeed happy to be part of the biggest revolution in building the most powerful network in the social industry; StartingBloc.”
Alia Whitney-Johnson, NY '08
During a 2005 tsunami relief trip in Sri Lanka, 19-year-old Alia Whitney-Johnson encountered a reality that she was not equipped to handle: due to pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, young women ranging from the ages of 10 to 18 were cast out of their own families, denied the right to formal education, and locked away for their own protection. Alia, having a background in jewelry making, decided to host a jewelry workshop to better acquaint herself with the girls. Beading soon became a tool for transformation, uplifting the girls' spirits and ultimately, helping the young women overcome the emotional, social, and economic obstacles they faced. The Emerge Bead Program was born as a way to sustain the girls' work; it connects the young women to supplies and training, a global market, and a global community of support.
Out of the initial bead program came the nonprofit organization Emerge Global www.emergeglobal.org, with the goal of empowering women all over the world who have survived abuse to rediscover and celebrate their personal beauty, develop self-sufficiency, and become leaders within their own communities.
“I was attracted to StartingBloc in 2008 because of its incredible community. I wanted to tap into a network of like-minded individuals, who would challenge me to reach across sectors to create solutions with maximum impact.” Through StartingBloc, Alia also drew inspiration from the many different types of organizational structures that social entrepreneurial ventures use today. “This challenged me to consider a nonprofit/business hybrid structure to enable Emerge Global to be as scalable, sustainable, and transformational as possible.” As Alia wraps up her final semester at MIT, she is excited to focus her energy on developing Emerge Global into an organization with global impact and enlisting support for this from the StartingBloc network.
Liqian Ma, BOS '05
After graduating from Harvard College in 2005, Liqian joined the Goldman Sachs team in Private Wealth Management. In the summer of 2007, Liqian leveraged his network at Goldman to organize a Finance Basics Clinic for StartingBloc Fellows. Liqian has also been a mentor for the last two years to StartingBloc Fellows, and he has been instrumental to StartingBloc Fellows who seek careers in the finance sector. Additionally, Liqian works collaboratively with his supervisor at Goldman, who oversees the 10,000 Women initiative. This initiative will increase the number of underserved women receiving a business and management education, and improve the quality and capacity of business and management education around the world. Liqian sees a future where he will utilize the StartingBloc network to launch a social venture with other passionate and innovative StartingBloc alumni.
Michael Del Ponte, NY '08
Michael Del Ponte applied to be a StartingBloc fellow while he was finishing his graduate degree at Yale and starting a nonprofit organization, SparkSeed, which he now runs fulltime. “After hearing about the Institute for Social Innovation from friends, I knew immediately that I could not pass up the opportunity to connect with 120 other young people who are all passionate about social change.”
The expansive StartingBloc network was most valuable takeaway for Michael. His current venture, SparkSeed, develops social entrepreneurs by giving money, guidance, and tools to college students who run social ventures. For Michael, this meant that StartingBloc’s undergraduate Fellows were potential SparkSeed venture leaders, and the young professional Fellows could help him provide money, guidance, and tools to them.
“I left StartingBloc with very close friends and pro-bono support for SparkSeed. Each year, StartingBloc is becoming more prominent in the social entrepreneurship landscape, so for me, attending was a must do. It has led to formal and informal partnerships, and will undoubtedly be a network I tap for the rest of my life. In addition to the networking, the speakers are the best I have seen – and I go to a lot of conference. Tom Szaky, Andrew Zolli, and Jonathan Koppell were highlights of my Institute.”
Michael attended the New York Institute in 2008. As a loyal alumnus, he continues to spread the word about StartingBloc because he wants others to have the opportunity to experience what he went through. “I am now pursuing a partnership between StartingBloc and SparkSeed because I believe we are the most innovative social entrepreneurship programs in America for our demographic. I am proud to be an active StartingBloc West Coast alumnus, and continue to promote StartingBloc however I can.”
Emily Tsiang, NY '06
From Boston to New York to London, Emily has witnessed StartingBloc evolve from a visionary business plan to a global powerhouse. She first became involved with the organization when she was a strategy consultant at ICIC, Michael Porter's social enterprise that catalyzes economic development in America's inner cities through cross-sector partnerships. Emily remembers attending StartingBloc's first Institute and being amazed by the impressive gathering of leading social innovators. Inspired by the provocative business models inherent to social enterprises, Emily has had the incredible opportunity to work with StartingBloc partners, TerraCycle and ABC Home, on their corporate responsibility initiatives.
Capitalizing on the skills she gained through StartingBloc's interdisciplinary training modules, Emily was positioned her to make an even greater impact in the social sector. In her role with the Bloomberg Administration, she designed an innovative performance management system for New York City's workforce development program, which became a national model for increasing transparency and accountability in the public sector. In 2007, she was selected as a NYU Wagner Fellow for Emerging Leaders in Public Service with a fellow StartingBloc alum.
“I feel extremely lucky to be part of the StartingBloc community. Whether launching the West Coast Alumni Board or presenting a workshop at the London Institute, I approach my involvement as a natural extension of my lifelong dedication to activating and cultivating the StartingBloc network; one I consider a potent force for creating systemic social change.”
Jeraul Mackey, NY '06
Prior to attending the StartingBloc Institute in Spring 2006, Jeraul Mackey worked for the State of Louisiana developing strategies to help education institutions rebuild following Hurricane Katrina. At the time, he saw social change as two levers—direct impact through the classroom and leveraged impact through policy development. StartingBloc shattered this dichotomy.
Jeraul remembers after discovering StartingBloc’s website, being astonished by the organization’s bold mission and vision. His StartingBloc experience inspired Jeraul’s own vision for change and crystallized his passion for re-defining the concept of advocacy and using this paradigm to develop innovative ways for people to address issues affecting their community. After completing the StartingBloc Institute, Jeraul launched RedShoe New Orleans, a postcard campaign that helped volunteers and locals advocate for rebuilding the region. Through StartingBloc, he was also introduced to College Summit, his current employer.
Most recently, Jeraul helped launch StartingBloc’s D.C. Alumni Board. “My initial goals are simple: Make certain that after the Institute concludes, the passion to transform our communities, faith in fellows to help us achieve our vision, and availability of resources to deliver our work continues. Powerful things happen when you attempt to tackle complex issues with bright minds in an environment that pushes your thinking. The StartingBloc Institute and work of the DC Alumni Board is clear proof of that.”
Syreeta Gates, NY '08
Inspired by her StartingBloc experience, 20-year-old StartingBloc alumna Syreeta Gates started a company that creates innovative community service projects and is focused on developing cause-inspired products. Drawn to StartingBloc by her dedication to making it cool for young people to serve their communities, she finds inspiration in being a part of a community of like-minded young social activists and entrepreneurs. The StartingBloc Institute for Social Innovation empowered her to create through service and develop new resources for people of all ages to give more.
“My experience with StartingBloc has been from ‘The inner city to the Ivy League’ - literally. Prior to the Institute I was working on murals in NYC, spearheading a ‘I Love My LIFE’ campaign in the Bronx and starting my quest of teaching others that it is ‘cool’ to serve your community. StartingBloc gave me the opportunity to see a future world that I hope might exist, but now I know will exist. This world is filled with cross-sector collaborations, and people that see the benefit of connecting global communities. A world where non-profit and corporate executives share their knowledge and understanding. This was so powerful to me.” “StartingBloc has made me realize that my dreams are limited only by my imagination. Knowing that I am empowered to create through service inspired me to apply it to my passion for giving. My company SWT creates innovative community service projects and events, and creates cause inspired products. I feel fortunate to be ‘Living the SWT Life’ because of StartingBloc. StartingBloc will always be in my future!”
Nitin Rao, LON '07
Nitin Rao's StartingBloc experience gave him the tools and platform to launch Let Me Know, an innovative and highly successful blog for youth opportunities in India, and Engineers for Social Impact, a fellowship program to connect Indian students to market-based social enterprises. He credits StartingBloc not only with his success in launching these initiatives, but also being accepted at his graduate school of choice, the MIT Sloan School of Management.
“Attending the first Global Institute for Social Innovation at London Business School was an incredible learning experience for me. I had the opportunity to share my talents with a diverse international group while broadening my own perspective. StartingBloc encouraged me and gave me a platform to make a presentation for my idea for a social enterprise: Let Me Know, a unique student-driven portal to share opportunities with the youth. The Fellows gave me a warm response, valuable feedback and support after the Institute - I am happy to say that we have launched the portal, received over 200,000 hits and helped thousands of youth in India and abroad. StartingBloc also supported me in launching Engineers For Social Impact, a fellowship program to connect Indian students to market-based social enterprises. Finally, the alumni supported me at every step towards being accepted at the school of my choice and StartingBloc founding partner, the MIT Sloan School of Management. I consider myself fortunate to be part of this incredible group.”
Joshua Stroman, LON '08
Joshua Stroman’s interests in community economics and social innovation led him to apply to the 2008 StartingBloc Global Institute for Social Innovation in London and discover a vocation of utilizing multi-faceted approaches for economic and entrepreneurial development among students and young professionals. A native of Washington D.C., Joshua is a 2008 graduate of Benedict College and is committed to fostering transnational inter-faith dialogue and cultural exchange opportunities between Christian and Muslim populations and sees his own faith as a medium of peace building and religious reconciliation.
Joshua has been featured in local, state and national media as an outstanding example of achievement and success and was even praised by Barack Obama, as a young man whose life story embodies the best of the “American Dream.” He is currently studying religion, ethics and politics at Harvard Divinity School as an Addison H. Flournoy Grantee and is deeply committed to the relationships and the opportunities afforded to him through the StartingBloc network. “Journeying to London and participating in the StartingBloc Institute communicated one of life’s most important lessons to me—any dream is possible to accomplish and any dream worth accomplishing, is worth accomplishing with friends by your side.”
Melissa Richer, NY '08
Melissa attended the New York Institute shortly after founding The Ayllu Initiative, which is working in Brazil to spread small businesses proven to solve root causes of poverty in areas such as energy, water, and healthcare. The organization aims to aggregate market-based solutions from around the world and enable local microfinance institutions and nonprofits to nurture these businesses in their communities.
Melissa states that, “StartingBloc has been absolutely crucial to launching Ayllu. The Fellows have been involved in all aspects of the organization, and we have contacted prominent individuals and institutions that we would have never had access to without the network.” Startingbloc events like the pro bono legal seminar at White & Case have provided Melissa with essential information for any early stage venture.
Melissa is currently performing market research in Brazil with Ashoka Fellows. She previously worked as the Latin America Liaison to Ashoka before committing to Ayllu full-time. In the future she plans to pursue an MBA in social entrepreneurship. StartingBloc will continue to be a crucial factor for Melissa and Ayllu. Melissa says, “Every Fellow I meet is an inspiration. What makes StartingBloc great is that the alumni are active, engaged, and collaborative. They are living proof that real change is not just about bold ideas, but bold social networks.”