Venkatesh Raghavendra, director of global partnerships for Asia at The Ashoka Institute, will discuss social entrepreneurship at 7 p.m. Wednesday, October 18 at Mary Baldwin University.
“The job of a social entrepreneur is to recognize when a part of society is stuck and to provide new ways to get it unstuck. He or she solves the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps,” as stated by The Ashoka Institute.
Raghavendra began his professional career as a mechanical engineer, but traded the mainstream route for a position with Canadian Outward Bound, where he specialized in experiential education. He went on to work with indigenous people in the Western Ghats, a mountainous region that extend along the western edge of the Indian peninsula, for 13 years before joining Ashoka. While concentrating on the Western Ghats, Raghavendra co-founded The Adventurers, an outdoor and environmental organization committed to preservation of the delicate, biologically diverse rainforests in the area. The Adventurers creates and promotes outdoor and adventure activities to draw people into the area and engage them in social change projects to protect the natural and human heritage in the area.
The event, sponsored by the Office of the President and the Cynthia H. Tyson Leadership Series, will be at 7 p.m. on October 18 in Mary Baldwin University’s Francis Auditorium, at the corner of Coalter and Frederick streets, Staunton. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call (540) 887-7009.
More about The Ashoka Institute
Named for an Indian leader of 3 B.C. who is recognized as one of the earliest examples of a social innovator, The Ashoka Institute is a non-profit organization that invests in an supports social entrepreneurs who propose innovative solutions to global issues.