Service, a gateway drug for social entrepreneurship

I recently came upon this article on Twitter, the tweet said "Service, a gateway drug for social entrepreneurship." The tweet didn't make sense to me at first, but as I started to read the article, the idea came together. The article starts off with the story of a bright young mind who traded in his $80,000 a year job to do service in Haiti, very inspiring indeed. But what really got my attention in this article was how this young man used his experience in Haiti has an opportunity to think about a social venture concept. He actually put himself into a situation where he could get a first hand look for the problem and went on to innovate from there. Innovation can come from the most unexpected place, and doing service in an area that interests you is a great place to start.

This was a process that I personally connected with. It was  a trip to Tanzania two years ago that really shifted my thoughts about technology in emerging markets and it is an experience that is still fueling my drive to see entrepreneurship and innovation in Africa. I was working with my professor and a group of engineers from my undergraduate university to install computers in rural Tanzanian primary schools. From this experience I was able to realize issues with sustainably implementing technologies in underserved communities, but more importantly I was inspired by the motivation of the youth to use these technologies.  We had youth volunteering their time outside of school to learn how to use these computers, youth (literally) running towards me when I had a camera or mobile phone in my hand. Technologies I feel we take fro granted really excited these children. It was this experience that inspired to want to create a social venture for youth, that really leveraged their capacities.

I don't know if anyone else in the class had a similar experience but I feel the process of using service has an opportunity to  I feel as if this process is something that we can all something from as we think about our social ventures.

Article can be found here:
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1679373/fostering-the-next-generation-of-social-entrepreneurs-through-service