The Change Makers

Silicon Valley is the birthplace and playground of young entrepreneurs and there is a growing community of entrepreneurs that look beyond the profit and seek to be the changemakers of tomorrow. The Global Social Benefit Fellowship Program at Santa Clara University combines a fully funded summer field experience in the developing world with two quarters of academically rigorous research. The program applies compassion and social justice to real world problems, in the Jesuit educational tradition. In this episode, we learn more about this unique program, discuss impact investing, water filtration systems in Nicaragua, and the opportunities that can not only change a life, but change the world. [SPEAKERS] Aidan O’Neill, Senior, Economics Aidan is a senior Economics major who seeks to use the tools he’s learned at SCU to truly improve his industry or field of choice. His experiences abroad, both as volunteer and as traveler, instilled in him a passion for the poor jumpstarted by a microeconomics lecture where he learned that poverty is not a simple byproduct of capitalism, but rather a burden on the economy. His passion and his studies met, and as a result he looks forward to pursuing this issue even further. Keith Warner, OFM, Director, Education and Action Research Keith Douglass Warner, OFM directs Miller Center's education, fellowship, grants and action research activities. He is a practical social ethicist in the Franciscan tradition. He has designed and implemented innovative, inter-disciplinary educational programs that advance social justice and Catholic identity in higher education since he came to Santa Clara in 2004. He directs the Global Social Benefit Fellowship, which provides a comprehensive program of mentored, field-based study and research for SCU juniors within the Center's worldwide network of social entrepreneurs. With Thane Kreiner he designed the fellowship and wrote the grant that funds it. He also teaches in the Honors Program, School of Engineering, and Religious Studies Department. Keith is an active participant in the retrieval of the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition, and on the Board of Regents at the Franciscan School of Theology.