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Get fired up! The Collegiate Association of Unreasonable Social Entrepreneurs (CAUSE) is ecstatic to announce that we're hosting the fourth annual Social Impact Summit on Friday, April 8, 2016 at the Barsema Alumni and Visitor’s Center at Northern Illinois University. Last year SIS drew over 220 attendees, who partook in powerful sessions from social entrepreneurs. If you want to get a good idea about what the SIS is all about, checkout our website at www.niucause.org
Our Unreasonable Lineup
8:30-9:15am: Coffee and Pastries
Opening Remarks from CAUSE
9:15-10:00am: Keynote
Katie Hilborn is the founder and director of Global Orphan Prevention, an international nonprofit dedicated to keeping mothers and children together through social entrepreneurship, education, and a clean birthing program. Currently, she is working on a social entrepreneurship program to help eradicate child trafficking in Nepal. By investing in cash crops (chili and cardamom farming), her hope is that these income generating activities will help empower the marginalized indigenous populations.
Breakout Sessions Group 1 10:05am - 10:45am
Impact Investing Panel
Somya R. Munjal, CPA, MBA, MAS is the Chief Youth Servant at Youthful Savings - an education technology company that empowers the next generation with financial education and entrepreneurship training through curriculum, technology and community. 10 cents of every dollar earned is dedicated to youth investment. She's also the Managing Partner of CPA for the People, LLP and the Creative Director of Audacious Endeavors. She's a firm believer in education as an agent for change and developing the human spirit.
Joe Parisi is a Co-Founder of Guard Llama. Guard Llama was created to help prevent violent physical and sexual assaults. Co-founders Adam, Joe and Dominick developed this revolutionary security tool in response to a tragic campus attack during their time at Northern Illinois University. Although Guard Llama was originally designed for college students, it was soon realized that the personal security system could be beneficial for all individuals. From real estate agents to taxi drivers, students to runners, we provide an unparalleled level of personal protection for all walks of life. Guard Llama is a complete personal security solution. We arm our users with a handheld remote to immediately and discreetly send their emergency profile and GPS location to the nearest police dispatch center.
Eric Wasowicz currently is an Investor and Advisor with Channel Clarity LLC, an Advertising Technology company focused in the higher education and financial services verticals and an Investor and Advisor with NxtTeam, Inc. the largest provider of Oracle education in the United States. He is an advisor to Keyword First a Digital Marketing agency and TSI a management consulting and technology strategy company. He also teaches entrepreneurship at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb.
Working In Developing Countries Panel
Katie Hilborn is the founder and director of Global Orphan Prevention, an international nonprofit dedicated to keeping mothers and children together through social entrepreneurship, education, and a clean birthing program. Currently, she is working on a social entrepreneurship program to help eradicate child trafficking in Nepal. By investing in cash crops (chili and cardamom farming), her hope is that these income generating activities will help empower the marginalized indigenous populations.
Kurt Thurmaier is a professor at Northern Illinois University. His research and teaching interests include budgetary decisionmaking at the local and state levels in the U.S. and other countries, comparative public administration (especially fiscal decentralization), intergovernmental relations, and e-government. His most recent work has focused on city-county consolidations and interlocal agreements among cities and counties, as well as financing state and local e-government. He has served as a consultant and researcher with ICMA, HIID, and several US local governments. He is a lifetime member of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), and has served as chair of the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management (ABFM). He presently serves on the editorial board of Public Administration Review.
Rich Johnson is the Cofounder and CEO of Spark Ventures, an international nonprofit investing in sustainable solutions to lift communities out of poverty. Through Rich’s leadership, Spark Ventures has raised over $4M to-date to fund partners and projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central America piloting their thesis of business driven philanthropy. Inspired to start Spark after a 2006 trip to Zambia, Rich and Spark Ventures are championing the concept of impact travel, hosting more than 350 travelers from across the country on life-changing trips to experience and engage their work in person.
Technology In the Social Space
Abby Ross is the co-founder and COO of ThinkCERCA. She was the former Managing Partner of Blueye, VP of Business Development at Where I’ve Been (acquired by TripAdvisor), and an Emerging Media Strategist at DraftFCB and Anheuser-Busch. When she’s not busy formatting a spreadsheet or sketching wireframes, she loves talking about education, entrepreneurship, traveling, yoga, and puppies
Moria Hardek Founder and CEO of Galvanize Labs, a technology company focused on the STEM education space with their product, "Taken Charge". Moira’s love and determination for thinking outside the box started from a very young age. She has been surrounded by the startup culture for most of her life, thanks to her father’s work in several Silicon Valley startups. Moira has never been one for convention and has set out to change the rules of the game. Her particular passion for issues regarding women in technology is what set her on the path of technology education. Creating a youth technology education program from inside the world’s largest consumer electronics retailer was just the tip of the iceberg.
10:50-11:30am: Breakout Session Group 2
Our three powerful panels, Impact Investing, Working in Developing Countries, and Technology in the Social Space, will be offered once again to enable our guests to attend more than one panel that day.
11:30-12:00pm: Lunch and Networking
12:00-1:15pm Pitch With a CAUSE Competition
Pitch With a CAUSE is a competition for anyone who has an idea for a business that makes a positive social or environmental impact. The competition is open to anyone who's interested in making a submission-high schoolers, undergrads, grad students, non-students, retirees, kindergarteners, etc. Everyone is welcome. A panel of expert investors and social entrepreneurs will select the top 5 submissions to present at the Social Impact Summit on Friday, April 8th. Each group will have 5 minutes to pitch their idea followed up with 5 minutes of Q and A from the audience and panel of judges. The team selected as the winner at the 2015 Social Impact Summit will take home the $1,500 grand prize! Second place wins $1,000 and third place wins $500.
Closing Remarks from CAUSE
