Four CU graduates are looking to fuel social change with the establishment of the Unreasonable Institute, President and Co-founder Daniel Epstein told the CU Independent.
“What it comes down to is our fundamental belief that social entrepreneurship is the answer to most social problems today,” Epstein said. “It is the necessary ingredient for making change.”
The Unreasonable Institute is a non-profit organization committed to addressing social issues through the focus of social entrepreneurship. Social issues include poverty, climate change and social injustice, Epstein said.
Teju Ravilochan, “Connections Extraordinaire” for the Unreasonable Institute and co-founder of the organization, described the central goal of the institute.
“Our mission is to incubate early state social ventures that will improve the lives of people around the world,” Ravilochan said.
Ravilochan said that to accomplish this mission, the institute will carefully select 25 social entrepreneurs with the target age group between 20-30 years old. These finalists will be deemed “Unreasonable Fellows” and will have the opportunity to attend a 10-week program this summer. At the summer institute, the fellows will develop the entrepreneurial skills necessary to launching a venture that is purposeful and sustainable, Ravilochan said.
Ravilochan said the institute and the Unreasonable Fellow terminology was inspired by a George Bernard Shaw quote: “The reasonable man adapts himself to his environment. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt his environment to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man [and woman].”
The selection of the 25 Unreasonable Fellows, Ravilochan said, is based off of two criteria: the effectiveness of their idea to create social change and the personal qualities of the individual.
“We look for someone with a serious sense of urgency about addressing these problems now,” Ravilochan said. “We will ask them ‘what are you doing about it right now?’ And if they don’t have an answer then we don’t want them.”
Other attributes include individuals who are willing to endeavor solutions that have never been attempted and individuals who take risks and are willing to risk failure, Ravilochan said.
Motivation for the organization, Ravilochan said, emerged from both frustration and opportunity.
“We felt pretty frustrated by the fact that our education in no way prepared us for the practical skills needed to create social change,” Ravilochan said. “So, I traveled to India to do some research on non-profits that addressed poverty and found that they relied heavily on charity-based approaches that proved ineffective.”
Ravilochan said the organizations in India that were able to prove effective were those who utilized social entrepreneurship to address poverty.
Despite the vast organizations that rely on charitable funds, the Unreasonable Institute is self-sustaining, Epstein said.
“We’ve created an institute that truly treats people in a dignified manner rather than a charitable case,” Epstein said.
The institute is funded through the $6,500 tuition fee for each fellow attending the summer program. To go along with their self-sustaining model, the organization does not allow the fellows to pay the fee. Instead each fellow must raise the money through gaining support for their proposed venture, Ravilochan said.
“This is the best test of entrepreneurial ability,” Ravilochan said. “Can you make someone believe your idea, and actually vote for you and want to see it take flight?”
Sarah Olson, a 19-year-old sophomore business major, said she plans on applying for the institute but is intimidated by the competition.
“I would love to be a social entrepreneur for the program because the founders seem like they have some awesome visions,” Olson said. “But I’m a little afraid of the competition.”
The Unreasonable Institute will be accepting applications until Dec. 15. and the application is available on the company’s Web site.
The founders of the Unreasonable Institute said they haven’t forgotten what CU has taught them.
“I am grateful for my CU education for the people it connected me to,” Ravilochan said. “I was able to meet people who shared my hunger and motivation and found that there are a lot of incredibly bright people who really want to change the world.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Kylie Horner at Kylie.horner@colorado.edu.
