This Week in Social Entrepreneurship

A Better World by Design is a three-day internationally acclaimed conference held annually at Brown & RISD campuses in Providence, RI that connects students, professionals, and individuals from a variety of disciplines in order to build a global community of socially conscious and passionate innovators.  A Better World by Design was founded, and is run, by students from the Brown and RISD campuses and is celebrating 5 years of inter-collegiate collaboration and communication. The conference has brought over 3,000 participants over the last 5 years in order to discuss how design and design thinking can work to make the world a better place. 

Come celebrate A Better World by Design’s 5th Anniversary Conference this year. The student-run team has a bunch of brand new and exciting content planned that will increase attendee participation and work to create viable solutions to some of the world’s toughest environmental and social problems. They also have 7 amazing speakers confirmed, including Rocco Landesman, the Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts and Lorna Ross, Creative Lead and Director of the Mayo Clinic, as well as almost 20 workshops planned to allow participants unique hands-on experiences. This year will also feature the first Failure in Five session, where students and professionals alike will share their experiences with failure and what they learned. Finally, they will be unveiling the finalists of the Better World Challenge: Connecting the Disconnected at the Conference and announcing A Better World by Design’s first-ever Hall of Fame Inductees. Come join A Better World by Design on September 28th-30th!

Sometimes all we need is a little motivation. A great source of that motivation can simply be hearing how someone else did it right. Join the Be Social Change NY Meetup group for Social Good Startup Stories: From Idea to Actualization on October 1st to learn how Zach Rosenberg, founder of DoGoodBuy.Us and other entrepreneurs built their ideas from the ground up and overcame the obstacles that blocked their paths to social change. Still need a little motivation to buy your ticket? Wine, refreshments and pizza will be provided at the event!

And, finally, if are you a coder, designer, data scientist, or even just a tech enthusiast interested in social change and plan on being in the New York area on Friday September 28th, then this is the perfect event for you! The Code for Change Launch will feature non-profit and government agencies presenting challenges to software developers and build teams, matching challenges with social innovation solutions. Here’s your excuse to leave work a little early next Friday, get your thinking cap on, and code your way into making a difference!

Rachael Casagrande

I am currently working towards a BS in Information Design and Corporate Communication at Bentley University. Before college, I hadn’t any idea where I wanted life to take me so I decided to just let the wind blow me around a bit. The following summer, I shipped myself off to Romania through Learning Enterprises where I volunteered running English camps. The children I met there made me realize how much just one hello, one meal, or one hug can really grow change in someone’s life. After coming back to the US I’ve been keeping myself busy working odd jobs, studying and taking every opportunity I can to mesh my business degree with my love for positive change.