Four Brigham Young University students walk through the exploratory and often challenging process of moving from a questioning college student to an aspiring social innovator.
Benjamin Gong, Kyle Durfee, Natalie Dance, and Jace McLaws have been selected as BYU Ballard Center Social Innovation Fellows. As part of the fellowship program, they have each been paired with knowledgeable mentors in the space and have crafted personalized career paths for life-long involvement in social problem-solving.
Gong is studying economics and business strategy. He has an interest in microfinance and international business, and he has spent the past two summers working for microfinance institutions in mainland China.
Durfee is studying business strategy and sociology. He founded BYU's Anti-Human Trafficking Club and spent the summer working at Polaris Project, a leading anti-human trafficking organization.
Dance is studying marketing and communications. She spent last summer as a communications intern for Ashoka in Washington, DC. Dance currently works for Good Line, a creative agency focused on making micro-documentaries for the social sector.
McLaws is studying accounting. Over the summer, he traveled to Uganda to teach entrepreneurial training courses to local residents. McLaws hopes to apply his accounting skills to help social organizations financially succeed.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.*
*Subject to certain rules and regulations.
