SOCAP21 Virtual Scholarship Entrepreneurs Winners
Every year, SOCAP grants scholarships to social entrepreneurs from all over the globe. This year’s entrepreneurs represent incredible solutions to pressing social, cultural, and environmental problems. Check out the full list of winners here.
Below, see how seven entrepreneurs from around the world are making a difference in education, from STEM education delivery in Nigeria to career-readiness for students in underserved communities. And, be sure to join us at SOCAP21, alongside all of our social entrepreneurs who are bringing the most innovative solutions around the globe to scale.
What is your company solving for?
Canon Education is a social enterprise that improves STEM education delivery in Nigeria. We partner with schools in low-income communities in Nigeria, and we build computer and science labs and embed STEM teachers in our partner schools. We are currently building a STEM teacher training hub to equip the next generation of STEM teachers across Africa.
What is inspiring you now?
The opportunity to use technology as a leveller for education and actually deliver education equity to our community of students who come from low-income communities.
What call to action or advice do you have for others?
Co-create! Partnerships will be key to delivering impact and we think a commitment to learning what works from those closest to the situation is key.
What is your company solving for?
Colorwave is helping close the racial wealth gap by connecting professionals of color to opportunities at VC-backed startups. We are building a community of professionals, investors, and startups committed to a more equitable and inclusive innovation economy.
What is inspiring you now?
We are in the midst of running our flagship fellowship program with 50 fellows across the country. We are inspired by the energy our fellows bring to our program and the impact we’ve begun seeing. Many current fellows and alumni are understanding where they fit in the innovation economy and are taking roles with startups that provide a pathway to more professional responsibility and potential financial upside.
What call to action or advice do you have for others?
We officially launched our organization in fall 2020. We have proven our model is working and we hope to galvanize the SOCAP community to share more about our story, vision, and impact. Ultimately we hope that through this community, we can find more investors and startup partners who see the potential for change in our work and decide to partner financially or via our programming.
What is your company solving for?
Learning Squared provides a practical and sustainable solution to increasing access to quality education for children. Learning Squared helps women create a sustainable solution to funding their children’s education, reducing poverty and generating income to contribute to their children’s education and help improve the quality of life for themselves and their families.
What is inspiring you now?
Expanding our work and providing innovative solutions to the many challenges children and women face in rural Liberia. Mentoring, coaching and tutoring young Liberians to become effective leaders. Leading and solving complete community problems.
What call to action or advice do you have for others?
Multiplying the power of education.
What is your company solving for?
Na’amal delivers a remote work readiness program through self-paced asynchronous online modules, virtual group interactive workshops, one-to-one mentorships, and reflective, practical assignments. Na’amal then facilitates program participants to access dignified digital remote employment.
What is inspiring you now?
The partnerships that are being forged.
What call to action or advice do you have for others?
Encourage a re-conceptualisation of funding.
What is your company solving for?
Positively Caviar, Inc. focuses on using positive thinking and optimism as a vehicle to instill mental resilience and disrupt mental health stigmas faced in underserved communities.
What is inspiring you now?
We are inspired to do this work because the mental wellness tools we are providing to youth are what we wish we had when we were younger. Seeing the transformation in real time with the youth is fulfilling because they are able to immediately apply the strategies and tools in their lives to decrease stress, overcome adversity, and cultivate more positive moods.
What call to action or advice do you have for others?
To increase the funding and resources to combat mental health stigmas faced in underserved communities in the U.S.
What is your company solving for?
We help teams become more connected so they can orchestrate their best work. We do this through a radically-inclusive approach in which we co-create our hands-on team building workshops with leaders from underserved communities around the world. We participate in 1% for the Planet and donate an additional 5% of our revenue to nonprofits benefiting those communities through innovation.
What is inspiring you now?
We are inspired by the work of the Global Innovators we collaborate with. For more information, check out our blog here.
What call to action or advice do you have for others?
We all have a role to play in the fight for social justice — what’s yours?
What is your company solving for?
SuitUp is a 501c3 non-profit that increases career readiness for students in underserved communities through innovative virtual and in-person business competitions.
What is inspiring you now?
We are inspired by the commitment of our students to persevere in the face of Covid and racial inequity.
What call to action or advice do you have for others?
Our call to action for the SOCAP community is to critically think about how they are furthering future diversity in their specific companies and industries. What are specific practices, recruitment tactics, and outreach to the community?
