Annual Report 2012 / 2013
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Global Entrepreneurship<br />
Summer School:<br />
Global challenges for the future<br />
The Global Entrepreneurship Summer School (GESS)<br />
is held annually by 4Entrepreneurship and the Social<br />
Entrepreneurship Academy. The Summer School was<br />
held for the fifth time in September <strong>2012</strong>, with substantial<br />
international attendance. Over an eight-day period,<br />
35 young people from over 20 different countries and<br />
universities on every continent worked in mixed teams<br />
at the SCE to develop business ideas that add value<br />
to society, but also generate a scalable profit. This<br />
year‘s theme, “People on our Planet – Challenges of the<br />
Future”, outlined problems global society will be facing<br />
over the decades ahead.<br />
There were several new aspects to this year‘s summer<br />
school, including the ability to conference in virtual<br />
team members at any time, allowing the retrieval of<br />
local-market knowledge from places like Uruguay and<br />
India. Also, the judges panel was internationalised<br />
through the addition of professors from the Netherlands,<br />
Mexico, China and the US, and the concluding<br />
page 37<br />
event was larger, reflecting the growing international<br />
GESS community.<br />
The judges named two award winners. The “Best<br />
Business Model” award went to Mahile Mobile – a<br />
project designed to give women in rural areas who<br />
have many children access to education via smartphone,<br />
and to reduce the birthrate on the lower part<br />
of the socio-economic scale through education. The<br />
award for “Most Innovative Idea” went to Early Birds –<br />
a concept addressing the problem of “1 billion illiterate<br />
people worldwide”. Mothers of young children up to<br />
three years of age receive preparation as to how to<br />
provide their preschool children optimum care through<br />
focused conversations.<br />
Coming after the exciting projects developed in <strong>2012</strong>,<br />
we cannot wait to see what solutions are developed<br />
at GESS <strong>2013</strong>, the theme of which will be “Rethinking<br />
Education”.<br />
GESS has received funding from Siemens Stiftung,<br />
Vodafone Stiftung and Haniel Stiftung. For more<br />
information visit www.globalsummerschool.org<br />
NETWORK
Change language