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Upcoming Session Offers Tips for Making Online University Events More Engaging

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Spud Marshall, director of student engagement for the Sullivan Foundation, will lead an upcoming 30-minute session to help college and university educators make their online events more engaging. The session takes place from 1-2:30 p.m. (ET) on Friday, March 12. Click here to sign up for this free virtual event.

Connection Café is hosted by My Creative Community and Remo. Experience designers from My Creative Community will show you how to leverage facilitation tools to make your virtual programs more engaging, creative and participatory. You will also have a chance to experience the Remo platform in action while networking with peers from higher education institutions around the world.

Unlike a passive webinar, the session will be interactive, offering practical tools that higher education professionals can use on their campuses to enhance their virtual events.

The session will showcase the Sullivan Foundation’s Ignite Masterclasses as examples of meaningful and engaging virtual events that get changemakers excited and motivated to create real social impact in their communities, their country and the world.

“We’re hoping to support event organizers at all levels of the university, including student affairs, career services, alumni engagement, new student orientation or academic programs,” Marshall said.

Two Social Change Pioneers Lead Sullivan’s Ignite Masterclasses in November

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The Sullivan Foundation will wrap up its Fall 2020 Ignite Masterclass program with a pair of sessions in November about groundbreaking companies that are inventing new paradigms aimed at disrupting the status quo, leading up to the Foundation’s semester-closing Social Entrepreneurship Opportunity Fair on Monday, Nov. 16.

November’s first Masterclass introduces Erin Boyd, head of business operations for Culdesac, a company that is building a car-free community in Tempe, Ariz. The class, titled “Placemaking as a Tool for Community + Network Building,” takes place from 4:15-5:30 p.m. (ET), on Thursday, Nov. 5.

Click here to register for the free session.

In her Ignite Masterclass session, Boyd will talk about a new approach to urban design that re-envisions our public spaces for the enjoyment of people rather than the movement and storage of automobiles. Her session will also focus on how to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of every community. Boyd, who also cofounded Ashoka U, a global network for social entrepreneurship in higher education, will draw on her experience at Culdesac to explore the role of physical, cultural and social identities that define a space and support its ongoing evolution.

Erin Boyd of Culdesac

Related: Read more about the session and the car-free community called Tempe Culdesac.

Abhinav Khanal, cofounder of Bean Voyage (pictured at top), will lead the second November masterclass, titled, “How to Disrupt a Broken Global Supply Chain,” on Tuesday, Nov. 10. The class will be held in two sessions from 2-3:15 p.m. (ET) and from 6-7:15 p.m. (ET).

Click here to register for the first session and click here for the second session.

Khanal will share the story of how he cofounded a social enterprise—while he was still in college—aimed at helping smallholder womxn coffee producers lead their families and communities toward a sustainable future. Smallholder womxn coffee producers make 40 percent less than their male counterparts, although they comprise 70 percent of the coffee farmer workforce. Khanal’s nonprofit, Bean Voyage, provides training and direct-market access to these smallholder womxn coffee producers in Costa Rica.

The Fall 2020 Ignite Masterclass program culminates in the first Social Entrepreneurship Opportunity Fair, to be held from 6-8 p.m. (ET), Monday, Nov. 16. Participants will learn about internships, jobs, education and service positions that can help launch their careers as changemakers. From Benefit Corporations to global service organizations and from large foundations to small rural startups, the Social Entrepreneurship Opportunity Fair offers a multitude of ways to take concrete steps on your career path.

Space for the Social Entrepreneurship Opportunity Fair is limited, so click here to register and claim your spot today!

Reagan Pugh Leads Oct. 6 Ignite Masterclass on Empathy as a Tool for Social Justice

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Most of us believe in justice, but if we’re challenged to change our attitudes and beliefs about right and wrong, that’s a different story. In the Sullivan Foundation’s next Ignite Masterclass, Reagan Pugh of Assemble discusses the topic of “Developing Empathy as a Tool for Social Justice.”

The online class will be held in two sessions on Tuesday, Oct. 6. The first session takes place from 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. (ET). The second session will be held from 3 p.m.-4:15 p.m. (ET). The sessions are free and open to the public.

Click here to register for the first session and here to register for the second session.

Related: Reagan Pugh builds connections through storytelling

Most people have no desire to change, Pugh says, and outdating hardwiring in our brains causes us to avoid the discomfort of growth. This instinctual desire to maintain the status quo is a direct threat to justice and excuses individuals and communities from doing the hard work of including, respecting and empowering everyone.

But Pugh says we can shift our perspectives, evolve and mature as human beings when we practice empathy and pay attention to the experiences of others.

This Ignite Masterclass session will guide participants through a dialogue on default mindsets, examine how fear prevents us from growth and provide strategies for developing empathy as a tool for justice.

As co-founder of Assemble, Pugh delivers workshops and keynote speeches on personal effectiveness and leadership development around the country. Prior to the launch of Assemble, he was Chief Storyteller for the innovation consulting firm, Kalypso, and guided initiatives on storytelling, culture and leadership development at companies like Nike, Pepsico and Kimberly Clark. Pugh is a past workshop facilitator at the Sullivan Foundation’s Ignite Retreats and has designed leadership courses for Texas State University, Trinity University and Angelo State University.

With its popular Ignite Retreats, usually held twice a year in North Carolina, currently on hold, the Sullivan Foundation is bringing social-change leaders, college students and faculty/staff together through the weekly Ignite Masterclass sessions—and all classes are free. Even better, many participants say it’s the best online event they have ever attended.

Spud Marshall, the Sullivan Foundation’s director of student engagement, leads the sessions. Each one features a mini-lecture from a social innovator about a specific initiative, followed by a chance to network with peers, Sullivan coaches and other leaders in the field.

Additionally, classes taught by professors from across the Sullivan network—as well as some non-Sullivan schools—attend and participate in the sessions. Participating in the Oct. 6 session will be Dr. Anne Stone of Rollins College and her Communications Studies class; Alyson Francisco of Salem College and her Principles of Management class; Dr. Bruce Dorries of Mary Baldwin University and his Civic Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship class; Melanie Bullock Harris of Elon University and her Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellows; Liz Bailey of Elon University and her Exercise and Intervention class; and Valeri Werpetinski of the University of Illinois and her Illinois Impact Incubator participants.

“The Ignite Masterclass introduces you to leaders around the world engaged in social change and helps open doors so you can take the next step on your changemaking journey,” Marshall said. “With more than 50 coaches and speakers joining the sessions every week throughout the fall, bring your curiosity, because you never know who you might meet each week!”