Fall 2004 Commentary: Social entrepreneurism: GEM practical leadership in action

The World Bank’s Development Marketplace Program has spawned rapid social change in developing nations recently.  Venture capital ‘seed funds’ help spur innovation and feed democratic social change.  Some examples of successful Development Marketplace investments in creative ideas for constructive change include:

• ‘Elephant pepper’ (chili pepper plants installed as a border row surrounding staple crops repel elephants from trampling crops, and the chilis are sold for additional income) in Zimbabwe
• Rat detectives identify landmines in Mozambique and tuberculosis in Tanzania
• Children’s merry-go-rounds pump clean drinking water (‘play-pumps’) in South Africa
• Used tires build earthquake resistant housing in Turkey
• Subtitled popular music videos on TV increase literacy in India.

‘Social entrepreneurs’ with creative ideas, energy and passion, who work with local communities and benefit from small start-up funding, are making a world of difference.  An army of social entrepreneurs exists in the Global Environmental Management Education Center (GEM) at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.  Having established the first conservation education major in the nation in 1946 based on the conservation heritage of John Muir, Aldo Leopold and Gaylord Nelson, the UWSP College of Natural Resources (GEM’s administrative home) is the largest undergraduate institution of natural resources and environmental management in North America with over 1300 baccalaureate students, 150 graduate students, and 100 faculty and staff.

Here are some of the ways that GEM is helping this army of social entrepreneurs to make a world of difference:

The GEM Student Ambassador Program provides on-the-ground learning enrichment opportunities for CNR students in local communities mostly overseas.  With GEM seed funding of $80,000 annually for three years through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, at least ten eager and energetic GEM student ambassadors will be connecting with and empowering local citizens worldwide in 2004-2005 on a variety of projects to build success and relevance.

As a prelude to the GEM Student Ambassador Program in 2001-2003, Miriam Wyman focused her M.S. thesis on helping locals create community-based ecotourism and supplemental income while sustaining the natural resource base of the landholdings of the Veinte de Noviembre ejido in the Maya forest of Mexico. Marisol Mayorga-Castro’s M.S. project in Costa Rica applies the Wisconsin River Educator Network program on building capacity through water resource education to two nature centers in the Sarapiquí watershed of Costa Rica.

The pioneering GEM student ambassadors to inaugurate this program will work with citizens and partners in:

• Costa Rica – assistance in water monitoring training workshops and to collect and analyze water samples to help develop an overall assessment of the water quality of the Sarapiqui River. (GEM Student Ambassador: Kurt Rasmussen)
• Alaska – work with USDA Forest Service staff to develop an educational and interpretive plan for the Thorne Bay Ranger District in the Tongass National Forest. (GEM Student Ambassador: Nelli Atkinson)
• South Africa – participate in a ground-breaking pilot study which will develop and apply methods for establishing a cooperative water management strategy for the semi-arid, water scarce, Kat River Valley region that may be applied elsewhere in South Africa. (GEM Student Ambassadors: Paul Vandeford, Chad Heimerl and Mark Breunig)
• South Africa – assist in an aquatic biodiversity assessment of the Upper Zambezi River system to help resource managers develop a plan for sustainable use and resource allocation. (GEM Student Ambassador: Edward Moye)
• French Polynesia – assess microbial contamination of surface waters on the French Polynesian Island of Moorea., help identify possible causes of contamination, and educate residents about the linkages between land use and water quality and health. (GEM Student Ambassador: Justin Barrick)
• Puerto Rico – help implement and evaluate a model for an internationallenvironmental education program which will allow Wisconsin and Puerto Rican teachers to interact, share their experiences, and learn from one another. (GEM Student Ambassador: Susan Ermer)

Additional GEM Student Ambassadorship opportunities have been developed in the Bahamas, Mexico, Brazil, Guyana, Peru, Austria, Slovakia, Germany, Lithuania, Kenya, Uganda, China, and India.

The GEM Student Mentoring Network links students with CNR alumni who are working professionals in all fields of natural resources and environmental management.  The mentor/mentee pairs interact together on career development and job placement strategies.  The network is comprised of a database of volunteers made up of CNR alumni, and professionals in the Wisconsin Rural Leadership Program and other leadership/community development organizations who interact with students and recent graduates to answer career and advancement-related questions. It is anticipated that many of the alumni will also be able to provide job-shadowing opportunities for students. The network will allow students to potentially access the more than 7500 CNR alumni to help jumpstart successful career pathways.

The GEM Student Leadership Intern Project provides practical opportunities for students to add a leadership training component to their existing CNR summer internships on real-world assignments with resource professionals in local communities primarily in Wisconsin.  A cooperative agreement between the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the GEM Rural Leadership and Community Development Program will provide $50,000 annually for three years to implement this initiative in social entrepreneurism.  This pilot project involves 21 interns in the summer of 2004.  Leadership learning objectives and methods will be introduced by GEM staff and external internship hosts, and regular and frequent interaction between the student interns and their mentors will take place throughout the summer.  In fall 2004 the interns will come together as a group to engage in critical analysis of observations made over the summer and present their observations in a public forum.  The program will be quadrupled in 2005 and by 2006 we hope to secure funding to sustain the program in perpetuity for all CNR internships.

Closer to home, GEM Sustainability Leadership in Action is contributing to the UWSP sustainable campus initiative.  GEM staff and students are active in generating creative ideas to design and implement progress towards achieving a sustainable campus.  In collaboration with others across campus and in the community, activities include:

• Planning and hosting an international conference on Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (EMSU 2006) in Stevens Point
• Contributing to the completion of energy, water, and waste stream audits of the UWSP campus
• Exploring feasibility of UWSP obtaining ISO 14001 environmental management certification via GEM’s Environmental Management Certification and Compliance Program
• Generating and assessing ideas for sustainability pilot projects to demonstrate innovative efforts on the UWSP campus in moving the Talloires Declaration agenda forward
• Installing demonstration projects via GEM’s Sustainable Energy Systems Program in energy efficiency and conservation measures, rain gardens for storm water run-off, green roof designs for energy savings, native landscaping, and more.

How do we move beyond ivory towers—reaching out to build sustainable communities?  We need to embrace and implement sustainability measures on our campuses to demonstrate sustainability leadership and action on the ground.  We need to build and participate proactively in current global networks via the Talloires Declaration of universities committed to sustainability, UN Millennium Development Goals Implementation Plan, UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development, the World Bank’s Global Development Learning Network, and others.  We need to lower the drawbridges of our ivory towers and race out to embrace local communities that have real world problems in urgent need of solutions.  We must remove the dams of isolation, inaccessibility, and intellectual retrenchment and empower citizens as agents of change now.  We need to operationalize lofty policy words into concrete, tangible products and services at the local level, one neighborhood at a time, one farm field at a time, one stream segment at a time, and one factory at a time.  In short, we university educators need to instill hope and a ‘can-do’ positive attitude in learners who can change the world.  We need to develop and practice expertise in “bridge building and dam removal” beyond ivory towers.

Our GEM staff and students anticipate and are challenged by change.  By engaging citizens in practical, applied projects at the local community level, these innovative, passionate social entrepreneurs are building a sustainable future one day at a time, and one village or community at a time.  And they are learning meaningful life skills, instilling hope, having fun doing it.

Best regards,