Social Entrepreneurship Student Leadership program expands to college level, kicks off contest.
October 17, 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact: Elizabeth Foy, 603-715-5155
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CONCORD – New Hampshire residents – what’s your major concern? The state’s high school and college students want to hear about it and begin to solve problems that affect all citizens. Over the next three weeks, New Hampshire residents will be asked about the major issues they see the Granite State facing as part of an expanded effort to challenge students to develop innovative ways to address these concerns. 

“These are challenging times, and some of the best ideas are developed and implemented during such times,” said SESL Executive Director Elizabeth Foy.  “This expanded effort is designed to tap the creativity of our college population to address a real-world problem in our back yard.  We are very excited to kick this off and look forward to engaging students in an entrepreneurial way so they can play a viable role in making a change in our state.”

"Fostering entrepreneurship in our young people is another way the state is continuing to create jobs and grow its economy for the future,” Gov. John Lynch added.

Starting today, anyone can log on to www.seslchallenge.org and fill out a short online form to submit a challenge concept.  It should be an issue that is currently facing the state, should be one that has a wide impact, should be non-partisan, and should be one New Hampshire will still expect to face when student groups present their findings in the spring of 2009.  

Through the inaugural collegiate level SESL Challenge, teams from two- and four-year colleges throughout New Hampshire will be invited to present entrepreneurial solutions to a specific social challenge facing our state. In partnership with several prominent businesses and organizations, SESL and a panel of business and community leaders will come together to select from these online submissions the SESL College Track Challenge for 2009. 

Committee members include Tom O’Reilly, President of Logo Loc in Manchester, Common Man Vice President Diane Downing, Business & Industry Association of New Hampshire President Jim Roche, SESL Executive Director Elizabeth Foy, University System of New Hampshire Associate Vice Chancellor for External Relations Matt Cookson, CCA Global Chairman Howard Brodsky, Ocean Bank Marketing Coordinator Stephanie Capano, New Hampshire Business Review Editor Jeff Feingold, New Hampshire Charitable Foundation President Lew Feldstein, Knowledge Institute Chief Knowledge Officer Deb Osgood, New Hampshire High Technology Chairman Matt Pierson, New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility Executive Director Molly Hodgson-Smith, and New Hampshire College and University Council President Tom Horgan.  

Beginning in February college teams will have an opportunity to propose creative and realistic solutions to the designated SESL Collegiate 2009 Challenge and present their ideas to panels of statewide judges at SESL’s regional finals in April and the statewide finals in May. State finalists will receive scholarship or startup funding and be exposed to entrepreneurs across the state during a celebration of entrepreneurship at the finals.

The SESL Challenge is an initiative of the Center for Real World Education, an umbrella organization for programs that connect in-classroom learning with real-world experiences and lessons. Through the program, high school and college teams (in separate contests) research, design, and create solutions to community issues that are personally meaningful to them. Putting their ideas into a modified business plan format, student teams then present their ideas. In the process, both traditional and non-traditional learners are challenged to identify their strengths and work within a team of members who might work differently, foster brainstorming techniques, learn how to deal with conflict effectively, refine presentation and public speaking skills, practice time management, and most importantly, convert what they are learning in the classroom into real world applications that enrich their communities. 

Since 2006, over 300 high school students from across the state of New Hampshire have participated and competed in NH’s annual SESL Challenge, bringing personally meaningful projects to the fore in an effort to apply what they learn in the classroom to a real world experience, an experience which anecdotally allows students to overcome learning roadblocks (particularly for non-traditional learners), provides them with an opportunity to feel valued and validated, and solidifies in them the importance of thinking outside the box, dreaming big, and being the change they want to see in the world.

The SESL Challenge is sponsored by Manchester-based CCA Global Partners and Leadership Teacher. Partnering organizations include the New Hampshire College and University Council, the University System of New Hampshire, the New Hampshire Division of Economic Development, the New Hampshire Small Business Development Center and the Small Business Administration.