Den­nis Shaugh­nessy founded the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute, an aca­d­e­mic unit within the D’Amore-McKim School of Busi­ness, and is its first and only Exec­u­tive Direc­tor.  Pro­fes­sor Shaugh­nessy pro­vided the seed cap­i­tal to start SEI in 2007, and remains its prin­ci­pal donor.  Pro­fes­sor Shaugh­nessy cre­ated the under­grad­u­ate cur­ricu­lum for social enter­prise stud­ies at NU in 2008, which now lead to either a busi­ness major within the entre­pre­neur­ship con­cen­tra­tion or an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary minor.  He also intro­duced social enter­prise to the MBA pro­gram at NU.   His courses range from an intro­duc­tion to global social enter­prise and eco­nomic devel­op­ment, to impact invest­ing and micro­fi­nance, as well as field research pro­grams in the Domini­can Repub­lic (Haiti), South Africa and Nicaragua.  These unique field pro­grams and on cam­pus courses and sem­i­nars have led to NU’s social enter­prise pro­gram being one of the largest and most diverse among under­grad­u­ate insti­tu­tions world­wide, with nearly 500 stu­dents from NU and part­ner insti­tu­tions engaged in social enter­prise research, learn­ing and ser­vice each year.  He also cre­ated and teaches sem­i­nars in social enter­prise in NU’s Hon­ors Pro­gram, includ­ing impact invest­ing pro­grams in which stu­dents invest cap­i­tal from out­side donors in orga­ni­za­tions pro­vid­ing enter­prise solu­tions to global poverty.   Pro­fes­sor Shaugh­nessy is also the fac­ulty advi­sor to the SEI Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion, the SEI Newslet­ter and the SE Review, and has won numer­ous awards for his teach­ing.  In addi­tion to his role as Exec­u­tive Pro­fes­sor at NU, Pro­fes­sor Shaugh­nessy is also a Dis­tin­guished Vis­it­ing Pro­fes­sor at TSiBA of Cape Town, South Africa (a free uni­ver­sity for dis­ad­van­taged stu­dents) and INTEC of Santo Domingo, DR, where he teaches courses in social enter­prise.  Pro­fes­sor Shaugh­nessy is an investor and a phil­an­thropist as well, sup­port­ing social enter­prises that bring inno­v­a­tive and high impact solu­tions to global poverty. In addi­tion to his work at NU and SEI, Pro­fes­sor Shaugh­nessy has more than 25 years of expe­ri­ence as a busi­ness exec­u­tive, cor­po­rate direc­tor, lawyer and pub­lic ser­vant. His advanced degrees include a doc­tor­ate in law (Univ. Mary­land), and mas­ters degrees in busi­ness (NU) and social pol­icy (Univ. Michigan).

Gor­don Adomdza, PhD, is an Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor of Entre­pre­neur­ship & Inno­va­tion. Prior to join­ing the DMSB fac­ulty at North­east­ern Uni­ver­sity, Pro­fes­sor Adomdza was a lec­turer at the Uni­ver­sity of Water­loo, Ontario, Canada and Wil­frid Lau­rier Uni­ver­sity in Water­loo, Ontario, Canada. He also worked with Con­tin­uum Inno­va­tion, in Boston, on projects towards the devel­op­ment of design-innovation cur­ricu­lum; with the Cana­dian Inno­va­tion Cen­tre, in Ontario, on mar­ket analy­ses for new ven­tures; and with Gen­eral Leas­ing & Finance Co. Ltd., in Ghana, as a finan­cial analyst. 

Gordon’s research inter­ests are in the areas of micro-level entre­pre­neur­ship and cor­po­rate entre­pre­neur­ship, with a devel­op­ing inter­est in inno­va­tion & design for the base of the pyra­mid, as well as sus­tain­able busi­ness mod­els for social entre­pre­neur­ship. He teaches courses in the areas of inno­va­tion and entre­pre­neur­ship to under­grads and grads at North­east­ern. The inno­va­tion course iden­ti­fies ideas through design strat­egy and was co-developed with Con­tin­uum Inno­va­tion. Gor­don also teaches a course uti­liz­ing human cen­tered design and inno­va­tion con­cepts for emerg­ing mar­kets and the base of the pyramid. 

Gor­don grad­u­ated from Uni­ver­sity of Water­loo, Ontario, Canada, in 2008 with a Ph.D in Man­age­ment of Tech­nol­ogy, an MASc in Man­age­ment Sci­ence and an MA in Applied Eco­nom­ics. He also got a BA in Eco­nom­ics from Uni­ver­sity of Ghana, West Africa.

Sophie Bacq, PhD, is an Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor of Entre­pre­neur­ship and Inno­va­tion in the Col­lege of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion. Pro­fes­sor Bacq received her PhD in Eco­nomic and Man­age­ment Sci­ences from the Uni­ver­sité Catholique de Lou­vain in Bel­gium. Her research inter­ests include social entre­pre­neur­ship, gov­er­nance and man­age­ment issues in hybrid orga­ni­za­tions, and inter­na­tional new ven­tures. She has pub­lished book chap­ters and arti­cles in inter­na­tional peer-reviewed jour­nals and is the author and edi­tor of sev­eral forth­com­ing books. Pro­fes­sor Bacq’s teach­ing expe­ri­ence cov­ers entre­pre­neur­ship, cor­po­rate strat­egy, social entre­pre­neur­ship, as well as field trip expe­ri­ence in India, among others.

Prior to join­ing North­east­ern Uni­ver­sity, Pro­fes­sor Bacq was a Vis­it­ing Scholar at New York Uni­ver­sity Stern School of Busi­ness. She holds a Master’s degree and a Bachelor’s degree in Busi­ness Engi­neer­ing from the Uni­ver­sité Catholique de Lou­vain and stud­ied a semes­ter at the National Uni­ver­sity of Sin­ga­pore in 2005. 

Esther Chou cur­rently works at the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute as the Assis­tant Direc­tor of Pro­grams. She grad­u­ated from North­east­ern Uni­ver­sity with a Bach­e­lors of Arts in Inter­na­tional Affairs & Eco­nom­ics and is pur­su­ing a Mas­ters of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion.  As an under­grad­u­ate, Esther interned for the United Nations High Com­mis­sioner for Refugees in Meheba Refugee Camp in rural Zam­bia by help­ing to reset­tle refugees from Rwanda, Angola, the Demo­c­ra­tic Repub­lic of Congo and Sudan. She also worked for a refugee relief orga­ni­za­tion as the Project Man­ager for their micro-finance ser­vices, help­ing to cre­ate income oppor­tu­ni­ties for rural farm­ers and small busi­ness entre­pre­neurs. She has spent three years work­ing in the inter­na­tional devel­op­ment field in cen­tral and south­ern Africa.

Caitlin is a senior Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Stud­ies stu­dent con­cen­trat­ing in Pub­lic Advo­cacy and Rhetoric with minors in Global Social Entre­pre­neur­ship and Inter­na­tional Affairs. Through her first co-op at Root Cause, par­tic­i­pa­tion in the South Africa Field Study, and var­i­ous ser­vice activ­i­ties, she has become increas­ingly ded­i­cated to social enter­prise and the pos­i­tive effects that it can have. Her sub­se­quent co-ops led her to six months in India work­ing for the Desh­pande Foun­da­tion to train young pro­fes­sion­als in social entre­pre­neur­ship and busi­ness skills and then back to Boston to work for the Office of the Provost in assess­ing their first-year pro­grams.  Caitlin recently returned from a Crit­i­cal Lan­guage Schol­ar­ship with the  U.S. Depart­ment of State and the Bureau of Edu­ca­tional and Cul­tural Affairs where she stud­ied Hindi in-country for three months. Orig­i­nally from Col­orado, Caitlin enjoys hik­ing, snow­board­ing, and any­thing outdoors.

Kelly is a senior Hon­ors stu­dent pur­su­ing a major in Inter­na­tional Affairs and a minor in Social Entre­pre­neur­ship and Psy­chol­ogy. Since work­ing for SEI her fresh­man year, Kelly has a vested inter­est in micro-finance and impact invest­ing and hopes to earn an MBA after grad­u­a­tion. Kelly par­tic­i­pated in a Dia­logue of Civ­i­liza­tions pro­gram in Indone­sia where she researched how to increase per­sonal finance man­age­ment skills among young orphaned adults prepar­ing to enter the job mar­ket. She also par­tic­i­pated in an Ara­bic immer­sion Dia­logue in Jor­dan. Out­side of SEI, Kelly has vol­un­teered for local non-profits includ­ing Cit­i­zen Schools and Hori­zons for Home­less Chil­dren. Kelly has co-op for the Grameen Bank research­ing micro-finance in Bangladesh as well as for Pri­mates­Peru research­ing tamarin mon­keys in the Peru­vian Amazon. 

Mon­ica is a fourth year Inter­na­tional Affairs and Envi­ron­men­tal Stud­ies dual-degree major with a minor in Social Entre­pre­neur­ship. In the sum­mer of 2011, Mon­ica par­tic­i­pated in the South Africa Field Study Pro­gram. She has cooped at Oxfam Amer­ica, an inter­na­tional relief and devel­op­ment orga­ni­za­tion that cre­ates last­ing solu­tions to poverty, hunger, and injus­tice. Her sec­ond coop was at the Cor­rymeela Cen­tre, a peace and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion cen­ter in North­ern Ire­land. She is cur­rently intern­ing at the Mass­a­chu­setts Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and is work­ing on their Tox­ics Use Reduc­tion Pro­gram. Mon­ica is inter­ested in pur­su­ing a career in envi­ron­men­tal pol­icy and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. Mon­ica hopes to use her expe­ri­ences and knowl­edge of social entre­pre­neur­ship to help fos­ter and sup­port inno­v­a­tive solu­tions to envi­ron­men­tal issues, both domes­ti­cally and globally.

Nate Bessa is a junior at North­east­ern Uni­ver­sity, dual major­ing in Com­puter Sci­ence and Busi­ness. Nate serves as the Web & Knowl­edge Man­ager for SEI and he is devel­op­ing the new Social Enter­prise Review web­site. Nate is also involved in Project Plus One, an orga­ni­za­tion sup­port­ing health care sys­tems in Timor-Leste. Nate helped to co-lead the stu­dent steer­ing com­mit­tee which hosted the Mil­len­nium Cam­pus Con­fer­ence at North­east­ern in the Fall of 2012; MCC 2012 engaged over 1,200 stu­dents from across the globe to take action on the UN Mil­len­nium Devel­op­ment Goals. Nate recently returned to NU after com­plet­ing his co-op at the Brigham & Women’s Hos­pi­tal. Nate’s inter­ests lie in health care tech­nol­ogy and research.

Sarah is a senior Inter­na­tional Affairs major with minors in Global Social Entre­pre­neur­ship and Man­darin. She com­pleted a 5-month co-op at the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 2011 research­ing their micro-credit deliv­ery model and finan­cial prod­uct devel­op­ment, and a sec­ond co-op with a start-up com­pany in Shen­zhen, China in the Spring of 2012. With an increas­ing inter­est in sus­tain­able enter­prises that pro­mote income devel­op­ment for small­holder farm­ers, Sarah recently cre­ated a 4-month inde­pen­dent study in Kenya this past fall and engaged with inno­v­a­tive enter­prises in the country’s IT and agri­cul­tural sec­tor. With plans for a future career in SE strat­egy devel­op­ment, she will be return­ing to Kenya after grad­u­a­tion to work in busi­ness devel­op­ment for mSur­vey—a telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions social ven­ture that devel­ops M&E sys­tems for com­pa­nies work­ing in emerg­ing markets.

Sarah has joy­fully worked with the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute since her arrival at North­east­ern. Through expo­sure to con­sult­ing with social enter­prises and entre­pre­neurs in the Institute’s field stud­ies in the Domini­can Repub­lic, Belize and South Africa, Sarah has been ener­gized by the poten­tial of the pri­vate sec­tor to gen­er­ate last­ing eco­nomic devel­op­ment. After gar­ner­ing inter­est in con­flict res­o­lu­tion in the Balkans this past sum­mer, Sarah some­day hopes to build envi­ron­ments of entre­pre­neur­ship into the recon­struc­tion of post-conflict states.

Melissa is a third year Busi­ness stu­dent con­cen­trat­ing in Mar­ket­ing and Social Entre­pre­neur­ship and pur­su­ing a minor in Urban Stud­ies.  She first became involved with the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute dur­ing her first year by vol­un­teer­ing with the Cit­i­zen Schools pro­gram. She is now the Urban Engage­ment Coor­di­na­tor for SEI, orga­niz­ing ser­vice learn­ing events and the Cit­i­zen Schools Writ­ing Coach pro­gram.  She par­tic­i­pated in the 2011 South Africa Field Study Pro­gram in Cape Town and is also on the E-Board of Net Impact. She com­pleted her first co-op in Spring 2012 at Oxfam Amer­ica, work­ing in the Com­mu­nity Engage­ment Depart­ment. She is excited to con­tinue her stud­ies around Social Entre­pre­neur­ship and inte­grate it in her upcom­ing Spring co-op.

Michael Behan is a fifth year busi­ness stu­dent at North­east­ern Uni­ver­sity con­cen­trat­ing in social entre­pre­neur­ship and finance.   He is a Pub­lic Rela­tions Asso­ciate at the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute and founder of a start-up social busi­ness, Njabini Apparel.  Michael recently par­tic­i­pated in the South Africa Field Study this past sum­mer after com­plet­ing an inter­na­tional co-op work­ing for Fly­ing Kites Global in Kenya. 

Olivia is a third year stu­dent at North­east­ern pur­su­ing a Bach­e­lor of Arts in Inter­na­tional Affairs with minors in Global Social Entre­pre­neur­ship and Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion. Her involve­ment with the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute, as well as her inter­est in social entre­pre­neur­ship and micro­fi­nance stems from her par­tic­i­pa­tion in the institute’s Field Study Pro­grams to the Domini­can Repub­lic in 2011 and South Africa in 2012. She was for­merly the Pres­i­dent of Northeastern’s Net Impact chap­ter. Olivia com­pleted her first-co-op at City Year, a non-profit work­ing to bridge the achieve­ment gap in under-performing schools, an expe­ri­ence that grew her inter­est in urban edu­ca­tion inequity in the US. Olivia is cur­rently on co-op at Root Cause, a non-profit con­sult­ing orga­ni­za­tion based in Cam­bridge, Massachusetts. 

Rob is a fifth year Inter­na­tional Affairs and Eco­nom­ics stu­dent with a minor in Social Entre­pre­neur­ship grad­u­at­ing this May. In 2007, Rob trav­eled to Swazi­land with the U.S Funds for UNICEF and Key Club Inter­na­tional to visit sev­eral UNICEF project sites in order to return to the states, raise funds, cre­ate mar­ket­ing mate­r­ial and advo­cate on behalf of the pro­grams at var­i­ous com­mu­nity ser­vice con­ven­tions. This expe­ri­ence, in addi­tion to Pro­fes­sor Shaughnessy’s Social Entre­pre­neur­ship class and the South Africa Field Study Pro­gram, inspired his involve­ment with the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute. His expe­ri­ences with Tech­noServe Guatemala and a cross-cultural con­sult­ing firm in Boston have inspired Rob’s inter­est in not only in the effi­ciency, sus­tain­abil­ity, and impact of social enter­prises, but that of all types of enter­prises around the globe.

Audrey is a fourth year Hon­ors stu­dent pur­su­ing a BSBA in Social Entre­pre­neur­ship & Inno­va­tion and Finance with minors in Span­ish and Inter­na­tional Affairs. In addi­tion to her work with the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute, Audrey serves as the Invest­ment Offi­cer for IDEA: Northeastern’s Ven­ture Accel­er­a­tor and is an active mem­ber of the North­east­ern under­grad­u­ate chap­ter of Net Impact. Audrey vol­un­teers as a “free­lance farmer” with The Food Project as often as her busy sched­ule allows.

Audrey is cur­rently on her sec­ond co-op at The Boston Con­sult­ing Group, the world’s lead­ing advi­sor in busi­ness strat­egy. Audrey com­pleted her first co-op at Root Capital, a social lender that invests in agri­cul­tural SMEs in Africa and Latin Amer­ica. She has also interned for Grameen Amer­ica, a micro­fi­nance orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides finan­cial ser­vices to low-income entre­pre­neurs in the United States. Audrey has trav­eled to the Domini­can Repub­lic, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and South Africa with the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute to con­sult with social enter­prises and micro-entrepreneurs.

Audrey is look­ing for­ward to a career in strat­egy con­sult­ing for social enter­prises, specif­i­cally those in the impact invest­ing space. She hopes to gain expe­ri­ence in these fields through con­tin­ued work, study and travel with the Social Enter­prise Institute.

Rachel is a third year Polit­i­cal Sci­ence stu­dent pur­su­ing minors in Inter­na­tional Affairs, Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion, and Social Entre­pre­neur­ship. She has vol­un­teered for the Tan­dana Foun­da­tion through the 2010 Alter­na­tive Spring Break pro­gram in Otavalo, Ecuador, help­ing con­struct a water fil­tra­tion sys­tem for a local Ecuado­rian com­mu­nity fac­ing health issues. Although she has always been inter­ested in human­i­tar­ian issues, the field of social entre­pre­neur­ship has espe­cially inspired Rachel. She recently com­pleted her first co-op at Root Cause, a research and con­sult­ing firm for non­prof­its focused on social impact and cross-sectoral col­lab­o­ra­tion. At Root Cause, Rachel gained a greater appre­ci­a­tion for the social issues preva­lent in the United States, includ­ing home­less­ness, school readi­ness, and youth vio­lence. This sum­mer she will be par­tic­i­pat­ing in the SEI Field Study Pro­gram in Cape Town, South Africa. 

Gail is a second-year Polit­i­cal Sci­ence and Inter­na­tional Affairs stu­dent in with a minor in Global Social Entre­pre­neur­ship. In the past she has been an Hon­ors Pro­gram Scholar and a Teach­ing Assis­tant for the Fresh­man Hon­ors Inquiry Sem­i­nar, as well as par­tic­i­pat­ing in the 2012 Domini­can Field Study pro­gram. She cur­rently serves as the Sec­re­tary of the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute Stu­dent Association. Inquiries or sug­ges­tions related to SEI SA may be directed to SEISA.Secretary@gmail.com.

Laura is a fourth year Eco­nom­ics and Polit­i­cal Sci­ence dual-degree major. She is an alum­nus of the SEI’s South Africa Field Study Pro­gram 2012. First intro­duced to the topic of social inno­va­tion dur­ing an intern­ship at the White House Domes­tic Pol­icy Coun­cil, Laura has remained com­mit­ted to its prin­ci­ples through co-op at the MacArthur Foun­da­tion and an inde­pen­dent research project in Costa Rica. The con­nec­tions between eco­nom­ics and pol­icy are ubiq­ui­tous, and Laura wishes to see fur­ther inte­gra­tion of social entre­pre­neur­ship and impact invest­ing in decision-making across all sec­tors. Orig­i­nally from Ger­many, and raised in Chicago, she enjoys vis­it­ing fam­ily where ever they may be, pho­tog­ra­phy, and writing.

Anahi is a sec­ond year Inter­na­tional Affairs stu­dent pur­su­ing a minor in Social Entre­pre­neur­ship.  While trav­el­ing in her native Mex­ico and other less devel­oped nations in Cen­tral Amer­ica, Easter Europe and the Mid­dle East she encoun­tered var­i­ous poverty issues and became inter­ested in find­ing solutions.

This past sum­mer she par­tic­i­pated in the Dia­logue of Civ­i­liza­tions to Brazil where she did com­mu­nity work at the fave­las. This semes­ter she is a Pro­gram Coor­di­na­tor for the Nicaragua Advance Cap­stone trip and the Dia­logue of Civ­i­liza­tions to Domini­can Republic.

Since tak­ing Pro­fes­sor Shaugnessy’s class she has become very enticed with micro­fi­nance and has the inten­tion to pur­sue a career in the social enter­prise sec­tor after Northeastern. 

Rebecca Wil­lett is a senior Hon­ors stu­dent pur­su­ing a BA in Inter­na­tional Affairs and Anthro­pol­ogy with minors in Social Entre­pre­neur­ship and Latin@, Latin Amer­i­can, and Caribbean Stud­ies. She has stud­ied human rights and devel­op­ment in Costa Rica, cooped in Hon­duras as an Eng­lish teacher and vol­un­teer coor­di­na­tor at a pri­mary school, and trav­eled through­out much of Cen­tral Amer­ica, includ­ing Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Sal­vador. She has also trav­eled to the Domini­can Repub­lic three times dur­ing her career at North­east­ern, includ­ing with the SEI micro­fi­nance field study in 2012. Hav­ing recently com­pleted a coop as a Pro­gram Assis­tant at Interise, a Boston-based non­profit work­ing in small busi­ness devel­op­ment nation­wide, Rebecca hopes to con­tinue work­ing to improve oppor­tu­ni­ties for small entre­pre­neurs and their fam­i­lies in the US and Latin Amer­ica. In her spare time, she enjoys bik­ing, Latin dance, and spend­ing time with her fam­ily and two dogs.

Ali Mat­alon is a first year hon­ors stu­dent at North­east­ern Uni­ver­sity and a Social Enter­prise Hon­ors Schol­ars. Ali has not yet declared a major but is hop­ing to find a field of study that allows her to pur­sue her inter­ests in inter­na­tional issues, as well as, issues in her home com­mu­nity. She is cur­rently pur­su­ing both Span­ish and Social Global Entre­pre­neur­ship minors and will be attend­ing the SEI– led, Dia­logue of Civ­i­liza­tions in the Domini­can Repub­lic this sum­mer. Ali Mat­alon is a Jamaican stu­dent and has trav­elled to var­i­ous parts of Europe, Latin Amer­ica and the Caribbean. Ali enjoys meet­ing new peo­ple, writ­ing spo­ken word poetry and hopes to con­tinue explor­ing dif­fer­ent parts of the world through ser­vice projects and co– op opportunities.

Catia is a senior study­ing Inter­na­tional Affairs and Envi­ron­men­tal Stud­ies with minors in Social Entre­pre­neur­ship and Polit­i­cal Sci­ence. She cur­rently works for the Mass­a­chu­setts Exec­u­tive Office for Admin­is­tra­tion and Finance, coor­di­nat­ing and imple­ment­ing reforms that change the way gov­ern­ment does busi­ness through the Governor’s annual bud­get. While she is presently focused on devel­op­ment here in Mass­a­chu­setts, her pas­sion for help­ing oth­ers help them­selves has led her on Research and Field Stud­ies to Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Domini­can Repub­lic, Cuba, Geneva, Saudi Ara­bia, and Ice­land. Catia looks for­ward to a career in eco­nom­i­cally and envi­ron­men­tally sus­tain­able development.

Edwina de Abreu is a senior busi­ness stu­dent at North­east­ern Uni­ver­sity con­cen­trat­ing in Entre­pre­neur­ship and Mar­ket­ing. Her first coop was at Diag­nos­tics for All, a non­profit that is try­ing to develop afford­able, easy to use diag­nos­tic devices for patients in the devel­op­ing world. Her sec­ond co-op was as a mar­ket­ing assis­tant at App­neta, a net­work per­for­mance man­age­ment busi­ness. She became involved with the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute recently, when she took Pro­fes­sor Shaughnessy’s Social Entre­pre­neur­ship class. Now, she is look­ing for­ward to the unique and prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence she will gain by par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Spring Break Cap­stone Trip to Nicaragua and the South Africa Field Study in the sum­mer. Born and raised in Mozam­bique, Edwina plans on return­ing home with a wealth of knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence to help alle­vi­ate poverty in her country

Paula is a fourth year stu­dent major­ing in Inter­na­tional Affairs with minors in both Social Global Entre­pre­neur­ship as well as Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion. Dur­ing her sopho­more year she par­tic­i­pated in the cap­stone pro­gram to the Domini­can Repub­lic and has since then being very inter­ested in pur­su­ing a career in the social enter­prise sec­tor. She has also interned at the Cen­ter for Women and Enter­prise, a local non profit that pro­vides busi­ness train­ing for women. Paula plans to go back to her native Bolivia for coop in the upcom­ing fall and work with coop­er­a­tives that pro­vide basic ser­vices such as water and electricity.

Saman­tha is a first year Hon­ors stu­dent with an Inter­na­tional Affairs major and minors in French, Psy­chol­ogy, and Global Social Entre­pre­neur­ship. Hav­ing been born and raised in a third world coun­try (Venezuela), she has always been inter­ested in the prob­lem of poverty and how to alle­vi­ate it. After tak­ing Pro­fes­sor Shaughnessy’s Social Entre­pre­neur­ship class, she real­ized that there are many alter­na­tives when it comes to doing some­thing for the world and those less for­tu­nate in it.

Once she became aware of the many ways of help­ing to erad­i­cate poverty (such as social enter­prises) Saman­tha has wanted to par­tic­i­pate in the SEI in order to be able to help in any way pos­si­ble. She applied to the Social Enter­prise Hon­ors Schol­ars Pro­gram and was accepted. To fur­ther develop her skills, she also applied to the Field Study Pro­gram in the Dominican Repub­lic and, with 30 other stu­dents, will go this sum­mer to study and put into prac­tice what she will have learned, directly with Esper­anza Inter­na­tional, a com­pany that works to cre­ate social change. 

From the time she came to Boston, espe­cially to North­east­ern and SEI, Saman­tha has been impressed by the way in which peo­ple come together to help those in need and hopes to be able to col­lab­o­rate in the future and pay back in some mea­sure for all the amaz­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties that life has given her. 

Michelle is a senior Human Ser­vices stu­dent with minors in Social Entre­pre­neur­ship and Inter­na­tional Affairs. She has been study­ing non­profit man­age­ment and spent her most recent co-op as the vol­un­teer man­ager for an edu­ca­tion non­profit work­ing with inter­na­tional exchange stu­dents. Her most recent intern­ship was at Interise, which pro­vides busi­ness edu­ca­tion pro­grams to entre­pre­neurs in low-income com­mu­ni­ties; she hopes to con­tinue work­ing with small busi­nesses in Boston. Michelle par­tic­i­pated in SEI’s 2012 Field Study to South Africa and a 2010 Dia­logue to Costa Rica. While on cam­pus, she vol­un­teers with The Art Col­lab­o­ra­tive and Global Path­ways. Michelle grew up between Las Vegas, NV and New Lon­don, CT and enjoys spend­ing time cook­ing and reading.

Becky Dar­ling is a sopho­more Inter­na­tional Affairs and Human Ser­vices dual major, she is also pur­su­ing minors in Social Entre­pre­neur­ship and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions. She will soon be trav­el­ing with the Social Entre­pre­neur­ship cap­stone course to Nicaragua to gain first hand knowl­edge of the strug­gles of the rural poor, with a par­tic­u­lar focus on cof­fee coop­er­a­tives in the coun­try. Becky enjoys trav­el­ing and has spent time in Europe, as well as Cen­tral and South Amer­ica. Dur­ing the remain­der of her time at North­east­ern, Becky hopes to par­tic­i­pate in SEI Dia­logues to the Domini­can Repub­lic as well as South Africa. She hopes to pur­sue social entre­pre­neur­ship in her future co-op search, as well as a poten­tial career path. 

Marisa Kallen­berger is a first year hon­ors stu­dent from Irvine, Cal­i­for­nia. She is cur­rently unde­clared, but is lean­ing towards major­ing in Busi­ness with minors in Human Ser­vices and Global Social Entre­pre­neur­ship. Hav­ing taken Pro­fes­sor Shaughnessy’s Social Entre­pre­neur­ship class just by chance, it opened up a whole new world for her. Marisa had been hes­i­tant in the past to declare busi­ness because she is not the ideal stereo­typ­i­cal busi­ness­woman, but social entre­pre­neur­ship gave busi­ness a new dimen­sion to her stud­ies. She cur­rently par­tic­i­pates in the Cit­i­zen Schools Pro­gram as a writ­ing coach to an 8^th grade stu­dent at Orchard Gar­dens Pub­lic School. Marisa loves vol­un­teer­ing and trav­el­ing, and hopes to par­tic­i­pate in future SEI-led dia­logues to South Africa or the Domini­can Republic. 

Mika is a junior Human Ser­vices major, spe­cial­iz­ing in chil­dren and fam­ily ser­vices, and minor­ing in Social Entre­pre­neur­ship and Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion. Since tak­ing Pro­fes­sor Shaughnessy’s class, she has become very inter­ested in find­ing sus­tain­able solu­tions to erad­i­cate poverty. Prior to becom­ing involved with the Social Enter­prise Insti­tute, Mika com­pleted her first co-op at Root Cause as a Social Impact Research Fel­low Assis­tant. There, Mika devel­oped a greater under­stand­ing of domes­tic social issues, such as Youth Devel­op­ment and Col­lege Access, as well as the best prac­tices to address these issues.  In addi­tion to SEI, Mika serves as Co-President to the stu­dent group, North­east­ern Students4Giving, a stu­dent phil­an­thropy group that makes last­ing impact in the com­mu­nity through informed grant­mak­ing. This sum­mer Mika will be par­tic­i­pat­ing in the South Africa Field Study Program.

Armaan Bhutani is a sopho­more pur­su­ing a degree in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion with a dual-concentration in Finance and Entre­pre­neur­ship as well as a minor in Eco­nom­ics. After hav­ing lived in New Delhi, India for five years, Armaan has a strong inter­est in end­ing the vicious cycles of poverty and illit­er­acy. He is cur­rently work­ing on a start-up involv­ing finan­cial lit­er­acy and entre­pre­neur­ial edu­ca­tion in the prison sys­tem, with the use of men­tor­ing and micro financ­ing pro­grams. In the future, Armaan hopes to be involved with many busi­nesses and projects that have impact­ful social goals. 

Ellie is a fifth-year Inter­na­tional Affairs stu­dent with minors in Social Entre­pre­neur­ship, East Asian Stud­ies, and Polit­i­cal Sci­ence. Through her involve­ment with the stu­dent group Peace through Play, she com­pleted her first co-op at a small com­mu­nity high school on an island in Belize. The fol­low­ing year, she com­pleted a co-op at Physi­cians for Human Rights in Cam­bridge, MA and spent the fall semes­ter study­ing human rights and devel­op­ment in Latin Amer­ica at the Inter­na­tional Cen­ter for Devel­op­ment Stud­ies in San José, Costa Rica. As a mem­ber of the FACE AIDS Ride Against AIDS team in 2012, she biked from San Fran­cisco to Boston with sev­en­teen other stu­dents to increase pub­lic aware­ness of the HIV/AIDS epi­demic in the U.S. Her par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Ride Against AIDS led to a third and final co-op work­ing for FACE AIDS and Part­ners in Health in Rwanda. She was intro­duced to SEI through the South Africa Field Study Pro­gram dur­ing the sum­mer of 2011 and has been involved ever since.

Molly is a first year hon­ors stu­dent pur­su­ing an Inter­na­tional Affairs major with minors in Span­ish and Social Entre­pre­neur­ship. She came to North­east­ern with a num­ber of goals, includ­ing one of learn­ing more about ways in which to com­bat poverty. With this goal in mind, she took Pro­fes­sor Shaughnessy’s sem­i­nar class and has since become very inter­ested in the field of Social Entre­pre­neur­ship. She is excited to be learn­ing more about micro­fi­nance while par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Domini­can Repub­lic Field Study Pro­gram dur­ing the sum­mer of 2013. She vol­un­teers for the Cit­i­zen Schools Pro­gram as a writ­ing coach for an 8^th grader at Orchard Gar­dens School. In the future, Molly hopes to co-op with social busi­nesses work­ing to fight the vicious cir­cle of poverty.

Aline Bey­ler­ian is a first year hon­ors stu­dent who enjoyed tak­ing Pro­fes­sor Shaughnessy’s Voices of Devel­op­ment Fresh­man Inquiry class. Aline is major­ing in Eco­nom­ics, minor­ing in Inter­na­tional Affairs, Global Social Entre­pre­neur­ship, and Ara­bic.  Help­ing oth­ers is a pri­or­ity of Aline’s as she is a writ­ing coach for 8^th grade stu­dents from Orchard Gar­dens through the Cit­i­zen Schools pro­gram and is the ser­vice coor­di­na­tor for SEI. At North­east­ern she also enjoys par­tic­i­pat­ing in activ­i­ties includ­ing, the Armen­ian Stu­dents Asso­ci­a­tion, the Entre­pre­neurs Club, and the SEI Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion. In her free time at home in New Jer­sey, Aline enjoys play­ing the piano, being active in her church com­mu­nity, and spend­ing time with her fam­ily. In Aline’s future she hopes to con­tinue to travel the world while help­ing peo­ple through Social Enterprise.