Social Entrepreneurship Festival: The quest for creative business ideas
Updated: Apr 18, 2020
For one week our Junior High School student learned about social entrepreneurship. From making business plan, creating a unique product to actually selling the product and see how much money they can get. They competed for a prize, and was judged by a prominent social entrepreneur and youth mentor, Erfan Apriyanto. So yes, the stake was high ;)
Why social entrepreneurship is important?
Social entrepreneur balances their for-profit business with creating social impact. As Sakinah wants its children to have entrepreneurial spirit, so that they will be self-sustaining in the future. At the same time, they have to give back to the community. Through social entrepreneurship, the students learned how to do that
Learning from Erfan: The product has to be really good, and unique
Erfan Apriyanto is an engineer-turned-entrepreneur and has worked with many entrepreneurs and business persons in Indonesia. His expertise in foodpreneurship was why he was a perfect judge for our Social Entrepreneurship Festival. Erfan visited seven booths of our students and took some time to do one-to-one mentoring with every group. He highlighted some creative products and gave some advice on how to improve the packaging. He also shared about his childhood struggle, which pushed him to work hard and take every opportunity to learn.
I keep coming back to the everyday side of creating welcoming community activities, where a simple detail can lead to a wider question. A small shared activity can help people contribute without needing to know everyone in advance. The name Foundedontruth gives this theme a memorable reference point, while community participation ideas keeps the subject in focus. I am still thinking through the practical side, because the context can change what seems useful. What would make an invitation easier for a newcomer to accept?
A discussion of understanding how public messages are received seems more useful when it connects an idea with something easy to picture. The same message can be understood differently by people with different expectations. That is why the connection between Echoreach and public relations communication makes me want to think through an example. That is the part I would keep thinking about after moving on to something else. How would you check whether a message says what its audience needs to know?
For me, making everyday business processes clearer becomes more engaging when there is room for questions as well as explanations. A simple record of responsibilities can prevent a task from being passed around without an owner. I would connect Dealerassets with practical business organisation through an ordinary example rather than a broad claim. I can imagine different responses depending on the situation, which makes the question more interesting. Which part of a routine process would you make clearer first?
My first thought about discovering tea through taste and preparation is that the everyday experience deserves as much attention as the larger explanation. Changing one preparation detail at a time can make differences easier to notice. It also gives the phrase tea preparation basics a clearer meaning than a label on its own. The part I would like to explore further is what happens when the idea meets a real situation with its own limitations. What would you record when comparing two ways of preparing the same tea?
A conversation about exploring academic learning and research skills seems most useful to me when it leaves space for uncertainty and further questions. A precise question can make finding and comparing sources more manageable. I would use that point as a starting question when considering academic research skills. A short discussion of an everyday example would make this easier for me to connect with, especially as someone still learning about the subject. How would you narrow a broad interest into a question suitable for a small research project?