Hunt Institute – Page 6 – Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity

January 7, 2021February 28, 2022

Pharr Andrews, Social Enterprise 2021 Cohort Intrapreneur

Pharr Andrews joined the Hunt Institute's Social Enterprise 2021 Cohort as an Intrapreneur to find solutions to address the energy poverty gap exasperated by the effects of climate change.

As an experienced scholar and fervent advocate for the mend of environmental and sustainability issues, Pharr Andrews joined the Hunt Institute’s Social Enterprise 2021 Cohort as an Intrapreneur.

Andrews aims to continue to push for solutions that address the energy poverty gap exasperated by the effects of climate change.

Currently serving as the Senior Climate Coordinator for the City of Dallas, her primary role is to coordinate the City’s first Comprehensive and Climate Action Plan (CECAP). Through her extensive experience, traversing 20 years of acquired knowledge in the field, she displays a strong commitment to preserving the environment and has earned a reputation among peers as a leader in the field.

Andrews’ social enterprise project “Energy Equip” attempts to provide basic energy services to low-income areas and proposes to address energy poverty symptoms through six main pathways: education, leveraging of resources, commitment to amplifying ongoing actions, expanding partnerships, outreach, and awareness-building.

Her employment background stretches across various environmental initiatives; these include Environmental Outreach Manager for the City of Richardson and Air Quality Manager for the City of Austin.

While in Austin, she chaired the region’s Clean Air Coalition Advisory Committee and helped implement three regional air quality improvement plans. She was also a founding member of the City’s Climate Protection Team and played a vital role in the climate planning effort. Prior to serving at the City of Austin, she worked for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on environmental policy issues.

This December, Pharr Andrews will be presenting her social enterprise project at the Hunt Institute’s Impact Forum where she will continue to spark discussion around reducing the energy burden and raise awareness for the issue’s urgent need for action.

When asked what has motivated her impact work, Andrews said, “Climate Change impacts everyone on the planet, but does not affect everyone equally. I am very motivated to help ensure vulnerable front line communities have access to the tools that reduce negative impacts, build resiliency and improve quality of life.”

Look forward to more from the Hunt Institute Digest, to stay up to date on Pharr’s work and progress as she pursues solutions to energy poverty in the DFW area.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

January 6, 2021February 28, 2022

Matthew Sheldon, Social Enterprise 2021 Cohort Intrapreneur

Matthew Sheldon, Social Intrapreneur and Communications Lead for Toyota Motor North America Social Innovation

Matthew Sheldon is a highly dynamic individual with experience across corporate communication programs, public relations, investor relations firms, and a passion for combating societal and environmental challenges.

Sheldon joined the Hunt Institute’s Social Enterprise 2021 Cohort as a Social Intrapreneur with his project, which focuses on combatting bioplastic waste and decreasing the environmental impact of waste.

As the Communications Lead for Toyota Motor North America Social Innovation, Sheldon is tasked with developing and implementing communications programs for the division’s community sustainability, inclusive mobility, and workforce development initiatives.

Sheldon’s Social Enterprise Project is working to find ways to divert waste from landfills, putting forth initiatives that aim to create a circular system to recover food waste and bioplastics and convert them into energy. This system has many benefits: diverting waste from landfills, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, creating new revenue streams, and the potential for new fueling sources for hydrogen-powered vehicles.

This project is set to spur a coalition of local companies, government organizations, and academia to bring forward a solution in DFW while also creating a template to replicate in other regions.

Sheldon says he is motivated by “a sense of urgency to address societal and environmental challenges. Through social innovation, we can tackle systemic issues while strengthening business.”

Stay tuned to the Hunt Institute Digest to follow Matthew as he pursues waste-to-energy solutions in the DFW area.

January 6, 2021February 28, 2022

2021 Social Enterprise Cohort

2021 Hunt Institute Social Enterprise Cohort of Intrapreneurs

Since the launch of the Social Enterprise Program in 2019, we had the opportunity to work with some amazing social entrepreneurs whose work is improving lives and livelihoods locally and around the world. This year’s cohort is no different. What is new, however, is that this cohort is dedicated to “social intrapreneurship”. This is a reflection of the challenging times we are experiencing and to highlight the unique role that social intrapreneurs can play in achieving scaled impact towards a climate-smart and inclusive economy.

From governments to leading think tanks and corporations, we have observed expressions of support and anticipation that social enterprises will play a critical role in rebuilding after the pandemic and steering our society towards a more sustainable and inclusive economy. However, the challenges faced by social entrepreneurs remain significant. The purpose of our program is to help understand these challenges, identify proven best practices to tackle them, and to empower the most promising social entrepreneurs in our community to put their ideas into action and maximize their impact.

There has been considerable attention on “intrapreneurship” in recent years. Intrapreneurship involves acting as an innovative entrepreneur but within the ecosystem of a larger, more traditional organization. These organizations can be private, public, or nonprofit; the concept of intrapreneurship is an important one across sectors. Intrapreneurship can bring together the best of both worlds: the innovation and dynamism of entrepreneurship and the resources and value chain of existing organizations. Social intrapreneurship is a more recent and somewhat lesser-known concept. Social intrapreneurship combines social entrepreneurship, the mindset of pursuing bold ideas and innovative solutions to address social and environmental problems, with intrapreneurship. As an example, M-Pesa is a successful social enterprise offering mobile-phone based money transfer and micro-financing services to over 40 million users in Africa, Asia, and Europe. A little-known fact is that M-Pesa is the product of social intrapreneurship; developed by two employees of Vodaphone and Safaricom from within their established companies. M-Pesa has been a driving force of economic empowerment and has had a significant impact on reducing poverty, especially among women.

I am pleased to announce the 2021 Cohort of the Social Enterprise Program: Pharr Andrews (City of Dallas), Dr. Candice Bledsoe (Action Research Center, Women of Color Collective, SMU), Julianna Bond (Slalom Consulting) and Matt Sheldon, (Toyota North America).

They are social intrapreneurs from across the private, public, and nonprofit sectors who are pursuing transformational ideas for a climate-smart & inclusive economy—the kind of innovators and leaders we desperately need to rebuild better.

Stay tuned to learn more about our social intrapreneurs’ initiatives and follow us on social media to get regular updates!

Eva Csaky, PhD MSF is the Executive Director of the Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity, the founder of the Social Enterprise Program, and the co-founder of the Inclusive Economy Consortium.

December 15, 2020January 7, 2021

2020 Social Enterprise Cohort

Our 2020 Cohort took a journey none of us could have planned or expected. We celebrated as both Dr. Lynch and Jin-Ya advanced in their work, we moved forward as Mohammed Nijie’s work branched out into a new phase, and we expanded to add a new Social Entrepreneur, Clara Rulegura Ford. This cohort focused on clean energy and community development.

Below is a brief description of each social entrepreneur’s venture along with links to their work in order to read more and/or follow their progress in the future.

Janta Energy

Founder: Mohammed Njie

Njie completed his business plan, launched his website, and remotely worked on a pilot project in Tintinto, The Gambia. In January of 2020, a team installed five 330-watt 24-volt solar panels, two 250 amp 12-volt solar batteries, and a 50 amp solar charge controller to power four classrooms and a staff room. The pilot is designed to test the panel’s effectiveness as a solution to bring electrical connections for lights, fans, and eventually computers. All supplies and labor were sourced locally, supporting the local economy.

Njie continues to communicate with Principal Amadou Kinteh following the progress of the project. Innovation in Tintinto tells the story of teachers leveraging cell phones to design and implement distance learning for their students during the pandemic shutdowns. His goals for 2021 include raising the necessary funding to finish the project so the entire school is powered by solar panels. Njie explains, “As a pilot project, we were limited to installing a limited amount of panels. We used those panels to provide 100% energy for half of the school. The idea was that after we did a successful pilot project, then we will install more panels to extend the power to the other side of the school.”

Principal Kinteh talked about how the students were able to attend night classes due to the solar power stored in fuel cells helping students to catch up in their studies, “…we benefited from night classes, as children living near or in the village were assisted by the teachers during the night because electricity is now available and the place is quiet, so children would come and read and they would be assisted by the teachers. This has helped our students a lot. They performed extremely well in the grade 9 examinations.”

Kijiji Innovation Solutions

Founder: Clara Rulegura Ford

Clara Rulegura Ford. Ford is the Founder and CEO of Kijiji Innovative Sustainable Solutions (K.I.S.S.) and a Class of 2020 commitment maker with the Clinton Global Initiatives University (CGIU). Ford holds an MA in Sustainability and Development from the Lyle School of Engineering where she began fleshing out the design and plans for KISS as her capstone project. Phase I of the project was completed in the Summer semester of 2020. Partnering with the Hunt Institute Global Development Lab, the project produced a broader impact report titled Building Bridges to Build Connections. Ford soon became an obvious choice to include in the Social Enterprise program. She is finishing final touches on her overall strategy, has assembled an advisory board over the years, and launched a competition for the design of The Rulegura Centre, Kijiji ISS, Kasisa Tanzania.

Ford says, “Our vision is of a Tanzania that is aware of its role on environmental stewardship and takes development initiatives that are conscious of environmental impact on future generations. A Tanzania that remains as a paradise island with its wildlife protected and natural resources replenished in the course of its economic development.”

As we approach 2021, we look back on the great accomplishments of this cohort and prepare to continue accelerating their important work.

December 8, 2020February 28, 2022

End of Semester Reflection Fall 2020

Whether delving into sustainable food systems, researching methods of converting waste to energy, or examining the crossroads of 3-D printing and biodegradable plastics, the Hunt Institute is constantly buzzing with solutions to bolster the resilience of the world around us. Even in this challenge-filled semester, several projects in the Institute made great strides toward this goal.

Just to highlight a few: thanks to Janta and its installation of solar panels at the Tintinto Primary and Secondary school in The Gambia, remote learning was made possible amidst the pandemic; the Resilient Shelter team completed a market analysis of low-cost seismic protection methods for urban buildings in developing countries; and the Kijiji Project team developed a proposal for sustainable fencing for a community center in Kasisa, Tanzania. In addition, the communications team continued to showcase these projects and team members with consistency and excellence.

Despite all of these resilient solutions, though, I believe what primarily shaped this semester was the resilience of the Hunt Institute team and affiliates. We did not ignore all that was happening in the world around us, but rather we pushed through together.

Many students used their wide range of skills to contribute in a variety of ways. One such student, Undergraduate Research Analyst Scott Zuo, noted that in addition to his contributions to his primary project, “helping with other tasks and projects was a great opportunity for me to grow.” Whether in the office or remotely, the team was able to gather for our town-hall style Monday Meetings, which always began with the opportunity to connect with one another via breakout rooms. We even culminated the semester with an adapted version of our annual Thanksgiving celebration, beginning with a discussion of what team members were thankful for and ending with an entertaining trivia game that lifted everyone’s spirits.

As we hit our final deadlines and approach a much-needed winter break, it is time to reflect on this past semester and look forward to the next. I feel incredibly grateful for the hard-working, connected team we have at the Institute and all the work that was accomplished, and after witnessing the way we adapted to a hybrid system of virtual and in-person, I feel confident that this team can tackle whatever challenges come our way in the future.

Sam Borton is an economics major, the Research Team Lead with Varsha, and a contributor to the Hunt Institute Digest.

December 8, 2020February 28, 2022

Failing Fearlessly

How do you define failure? Do you let the fear of failure prevent you from taking risks, or do you view failure as an essential part of learning and growth? If you see failure as part of a feedback loop leading you toward success, then failure is not final. Maybe that feedback is to make changes to the innovation so it will work better. Maybe it will end up saving you time and money in the future while your innovative idea is helping people. Then, maybe that rejection or failure is success – hidden.

Jean Case, CEO of The Case Foundation, said, “To find solutions — and we desperately need new solutions to old problems — we’re going to have to take risks. If you’re going to innovate and you’re going to take risks, there’s a chance you’ll fail. Every great company and every great entrepreneur you’ve heard of … guess what? Their path is riddled with failures. It’s just not reality to think you can innovate without risking failure.”

The Case Foundation persists that in order for entrepreneurs to create meaningful societal change, they must approach failure fearlessly. Based on research conducted around the world, the foundation uncovered 5 common principles among change-makers. Below is an explanation of each of the principles, along with an example of a social entrepreneur who has embodied that principle.

1. Make big bets and make history – instead of making incremental changes, organizations should set audacious goals.

Between 1984 and 2009, Share Our Strength worked to bring attention to the issues of hunger and poverty in the U.S. and raised more than $300 million dollars in support of that effort. However, the leadership of the organization did not feel that they were doing enough to address the problem. They set an audacious goal to not just reduce childhood hunger in America but end it completely. This led to the creation of the No Kid Hungry campaign, which focuses on achieving this bold, new goal.

2. Be bold, take risks – experiment early and often in the constant pursuit of a better solution.

The founders of Sanergy developed a solution to address the sanitation crisis in the developing world using a “decentralized capture, centralized treatment” model. Yet, they challenged themselves to think even more boldly about how they could make waste valuable and thus, scale their solution faster. This involved re-imaging the entire sanitation value chain. Since implementing their unique approach, Sanergy has safely removed more than 7,878 metric tons of waste from the community in Kenya and created more than 750 jobs.

3. Make failure matter – organizations should admit their mistakes and learn from them.

Community Voices Heard is a member-led organization that works to secure racial, economic, and social justice for all New Yorkers. In 2010, the organization approached the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to propose implementing a process called participatory budgeting which would allow public housing residents to participate in budget decisions. Despite being rejected, the organization did not give up the fight. Through a partnership with the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP), they organized a panel about the topic where they convinced some city council members to get on board with the initiative.

4. Reach beyond your bubble – collaborate and forge partnerships with those outside of your network and across sectors.

Global Health Corps was started by six individuals from different backgrounds who share a passion for improving global health. By leveraging the unique skills they gained from working across various fields (tech, education, politics, etc.), this group created a paid fellowship program for young professionals to serve on the frontlines in the fight for global health equity.

5. Let urgency conquer fear – instead of overthinking and overanalyzing each decision, act with a sense of urgency.

Propeller is an accelerator that supports social entrepreneurs in New Orleans. While the organization had experienced success, the leaders wanted to make a bigger impact, so they set out to revamp their incubator model. In the process of determining how this could look, the team at Propeller “risked falling into an analysis paralysis trap.” The founder, Andrea Chen, developed a systematic decision-making process to help guide her team through this. After running a successful pilot, Propellor rolled out the fully restructured program, increasing their social impact across the community.

How can you embrace failure to make a positive difference in the world? Robert Schuller is quoted asking, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” Think what this world would be like if all the innovative positive change-makers just did it.

For more case studies and examples, stay tuned to the Hunt Institute Digest.

December 1, 2020February 28, 2022

Controlled Environment Agriculture Technologies

After working at the Hunt Institute over the summer of 2017, Adrienn Santa decided to continue her research in controlled environment agriculture in an attempt to help address the issue of food deserts in urban areas like South Dallas. Adrienn grew up on a family farm in Hungary. She expressed her surprise when she discovered how difficult it was to find fresh food in urban areas and deep sadness at the reality of food deserts in one of the most prosperous countries in the world.

The video in this post explains her passion and vision for high-tech, small, urban greenhouses to help mitigate extreme climates in order to bring fresh fruits and vegetables closer to the consumer.

In the Fall of 2017, Adrienn recruited a team and together they began their senior design project monitoring Evie, the mobile greenhouse. As shown in the images, Evie was invited to the Science Place at the State Fair of Texas. Adrienn led her team as they installed sensors to read temperature and humidity in the small mobile greenhouse during the length of the State Fair.

Santa said, “My main goal is to be able to apply my educational and life experiences to this research and to contribute to finding a solution to this pressing global problem of food deserts found in low-income communities.”

Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is a technology-based food system used in large high-tech greenhouses for the purpose of controlling the temperature, humidity, airflow, and light in the building. With a greenhouse, the growing season can be expanded to be year-round if the inside conditions are controlled properly according to the requirements of the plants. With CEA, technology can assist the growers and reduce both the number of people and the amount of time needed to monitor and care for the plants. In the case of Evie, where the space available to grow is small, there are no low-cost solutions to grow food efficiently in small urban spaces as of the writing of this post. Combined with vertical gardening, technologies like hydroponics and grow lighting CEA can help to address food production issues anywhere from the most remote rural areas to urban areas.

The best possible orientation and structures of a greenhouse, heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, and glazing as well as insulation materials are discussed in Adrienn’s report. Adrienn says, “Results show that the most efficient and sustainable technologies are currently more expensive initially than the other ones. Due to this fact, most of the time small urban farmers are not able to afford sustainable and energy-efficient technologies.”

The findings of her report Controlled Environment Agriculture Technologies, the team’s research, and their observations of Evie’s sensor readings were that Evie was too small for CEA technology. This led her to conclude that CEA technology needed to evolve in order for it to be useful and affordable for small-scale farming operations.

Adrienn Santa graduated SMU in 2018, and she married one of her teammates Osama and is now Adrienn Alolabi-Santa. She and her husband live in Austria where she is pursuing a Masters in Sustainable Energy Systems at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria.

To read more about Hunter & Stephanie Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate to the work, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

November 23, 2020November 24, 2020

A New Thanksgiving Tradition in 2020

Each year, we celebrate the season of gratitude in the Hunt Institute with a Thanksgiving spread. Typically, I would make a huge pot of stew with homemade rolls and all the side items that help students connect with a home-cooked meal. This year, we are celebrating Thanksgiving with gratitude in our hearts and kindness toward our fellow man. We are finding new and creative ways to break bread together in a hybrid work environment. Some of our team members are fully remote, while others are in the office with a flex schedule. Instead of a turkey with dressing, we are doing chicken a-la Chick-fil-A! JuliaGrace even found a bakery that made mini pies individually wrapped. With that and a cup of joe from around the corner, we are set!

Our in-person workers are making a craft for our remote workers to add to the farm table centerpiece. We are calling them “trees of gratitude.” In the past, the highlight of the party would be when we would sit around the big farm table, scrunching our chairs to make sure everyone could fit, and share our different family traditions and what we were grateful for. Today, we are not just sharing our traditions, we are sharing our recipes with promises of pictures of our holiday spread later in the week to post on our Slack channel. Manuela might even make a recipe book! Mariana from the communications team created a Thanksgiving-themed Zoom background for our group picture. I even compromised my hard-line rule and we played Christmas music, which typically must wait until Black Friday. The room was full of laughter, music, and for a brief moment – no deadlines or stress.

Heartfelt expressions of gratitude were spoken as we gave each team member an opportunity to share what they are grateful for. Scott said, “I am grateful for all the medical workers and the companies that help develop the vaccine for COVID-19; hopefully that will be the solution and ending for this pandemic.” Well said, Scott.

After the party, we displayed our crafts in the middle of the table as a constant reminder of our gratefulness for one another as we push hard to wrap up work and ease into Thanksgiving break. We embrace our nostalgic memories and then create new ones – together. One thing this pandemic has taught us is to not take each other, our family, our friends, our liberties, or our country for granted. If you get the opportunity, find a neighbor and show a random act of kindness. Many are unable to be with family this year. Small acts of friendship could be what warms their hearts this Thanksgiving holiday. Then ponder and share what you are grateful for. We would love to hear from you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Corrie Harris

November 23, 2020February 28, 2022

Tackling Food Insecurity

Many Americans celebrate Thanksgiving every year by gathering with their family and sharing a hearty feast. As such, it seemed an appropriate time to discuss the issue of food insecurity, which Feeding America defines as, “a household’s inability to provide enough food for every person to live an active, healthy life.”

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2019, 10.5% of all U.S. households (more than 35 million Americans) “were either unable to acquire enough food to meet their needs, or uncertain of where their next meal might come from.” The pandemic has only exacerbated this issue of food insecurity, with the number of U.S. households affected more than doubling this year.

Here in Dallas, the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) is one organization working to help alleviate the hunger that many families are currently facing. Ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, on November 14, 2020, NTFB held its “fifth and largest mega-distribution of food during the coronavirus pandemic” at Fair Park. The Storehouse of Collin County is another local organization providing Thanksgiving Food Boxes for families in need.

So how can we as a society address the many root causes of food insecurity?

About a month ago on October 21, 2020, Incubator@SMU and United Way of Dallas’ Social Innovation Accelerator hosted a roundtable discussion about tackling food insecurity through social innovation, moderated by SMU Meadows Professor Dr. Doric Earle. The Stanford Social Innovation Review defines social innovation as, “a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.” Each of the individuals who participated in this panel has developed creative, sustainable solutions to address the problem of food insecurity, specifically in Dallas, Texas. Below is a short description of each of their efforts with links provided to read more.

Chad Houser of Café Momentum

Café Momentum, a nonprofit restaurant opened by chef Chad Houser in 2015, provides a 12-month paid, post-release internship program for kids coming out of juvenile detention. Together with case managers and licensed clinical social workers (LCSW), Café Momentum works to provide these young men and women with a comprehensive ecosystem of support. They address basic needs such as proper housing, healthcare, and access to ample food to ensure stability. The LCSWs also offer services addressing anger management, trauma recovery, and abandonment. The program has a recidivism rate of 15.2% compared to 48.3% for the state of Texas as a whole.

Daron Babcock of Bonton Farms

Bonton Farms is an urban farm founded by Daron Babcock and located in South Dallas’ Bonton neighborhood. Bonton is a food dessert, “where 63% of residents lack personal transportation and the nearest grocery store is a 3-hour round-trip bus ride away.” Instead, community members are forced to resort to processed foods. This has serious health implications. “Bonton’s cardio-vascular disease rate is 54% higher than that of the city of Dallas. Diabetes is 45% higher. Stroke 61% higher. Cancer 58%.” Bonton Farms ignites hope in the community by growing organic food, employing community members, and providing career mentorship, stable housing, and financial education.

Brad Boa of Restorative Farms

Restorative Farms is a self-sustaining, nonprofit farm system started in 2017 by Brad Boa and Dr. Owen Lynch. Through the seedling farm at MLK Community Center and the Hatcher Station Training Farm and Community Garden, Restorative Farms “provides certified vocational training, local jobs, and affordable financing, while producing healthy food in a sustainable manner.” The organization also sells GroBoxes, with seedlings sourced from its farms, to help fund their operations. Restorative Farms is a proud recipient of the American Heart Association’s 2020 Foodscape Innovation Awards.

This Thanksgiving, as we express our gratitude for the food on our table, let us consider how we can support one of the many organizations right here in the DFW area that are working to tackle the issue of food insecurity.

November 16, 2020February 28, 2022

Youth Up Next: Gearing Up the Next Generation of Innovators and Entrepreneurs

The Action Research Center launches YouthUp Next 2.0. to prepare the next generation of global leaders.

On November 14^th, students started a cutting edge program designed to support young innovators and entrepreneurs. The Young Social Innovators & Social Entrepreneurs program is designed to foster creativity, innovation, and social entrepreneurship in the Dallas/Ft Worth Area. Furthermore, it aims to enhance student’s leadership abilities through exposure to and practice of leadership skills and concepts that emphasize self-awareness, interpersonal communication and insightful analysis of resources and systems.

Dr. Candice L. Bledsoe, executive director of the Action Research Center, says, “It is refreshing to work with such a diverse group of young change makers who are developing the knowledge, skills, and practices to become global leaders.

Recently, the Action Research Center was awarded the UN Global Leadership Award in Sustainable Goal 4: Quality Education. Dr. Bledsoe envisions a world where young students and change makers develop solutions to address problems in their communities.

One example of a future change maker is Kortni Foreman of Townview Magnet High School, Class of 2022. Kortni says, “Social innovation and, more specifically, social entrepreneurship is crucial to me simply because I hope to be the person I wish I had seen when I was younger. In STEM fields, women of color are underrepresented and overlooked, so I have dedicated my time to creating a project to narrow the gap. Joining the Young Social Innovators and Social Entrepreneurs program will help me reach that goal by giving me the support and feedback I need to provide to my community and, ultimately, to younger versions of myself.”

To join the Young Social Innovators and Young Social Entrepreneurs, visit youthupnext.eventbrite.com.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.