As you may or may not know, the whole reason behind this absurd adventure I have embarked upon is due to my career change. I decided about half a year ago that I was unsatisfied with my day to day at Merrill Lynch and wasn’t truly accomplishing much in the line of worldwide social change. As I heard the pretty blond girl on TV say, “What I want to see in my lifetime is World Peace!”
My company is a social entrepreneurship venture begun by a couple of guys who took a random trip to Asia, ended up in Phnom Penh, and noticed a need. Fast forward 5 years and you have four offices in three countries, 300+ employees at some disadvantaged capacity, a Skoll Award on the wall, and a bright future to paving the way for self sustaining non profit social ventures around the world.
In the same respect, over the past year of trying to ‘find myself’ and where I belong, I stumbled upon an amazing fellowship program called StartingBloc. The tag line goes: “StartingBloc educates, empowers, and connects emerging leaders to drive positive social change across sectors.” I met a number of StartingBloc fellows over my last few months in New York City and to my surprise, not one of them disappointed. Each was creating social change in their own unique way. Each was pursuing their own passions while making an impact and continuing to drive their career in the direction they had chosen. It is enlightening to see that it’s actually possible to have the best of both worlds: making an income and making an impact.
I would be honored to become part of this selective group of people who make up the young trail blazers of the world’s future. The application is due on December 7th, and if you are reading this blog, you are clearly interested in my life and what brought me here. In which case, you may also be interested in how you can get involved. I urge you to check out the website and determine if you are up to the challenge!
Fingers crossed, I will see you in New York City on March 7th.
Related blog info: http://greenupgrader.com/4444/you-were-chosen-to-change-the-world-startingbloc/
http://www.startingbloc.org/web/page?title=Apply+Now
Am I glad I stumbled upon this place! You seem to be doing a fantastic job in Cambodia. I on the board of another such venture: http://www.ngopost.org. We are currently working hard to get all the social-workers/organizations in India to join us under one roof to facilitate better information sharing. I also work for The Cambodia Project where we build sustainable schools for the kids in Cambodia. I plan to be in Phnom Penh from 24th-28th Dec and would love to hear more about your (and your team’s) work in Cambodia. If you wish, we could set up a time and a place and I could record a small interview of sorts that I’ll report back on NGOPost when I return. We have a strong market-segment focused readership in over 150 countries world-wide and it could be good exposure to your group as well. NGOPost is looking to expand its network world-wide and we could use new collaborations/contacts during this phase ourselves.
-Hemant