When it comes to spotlighting how students are working to solve social problems, it is hard to find someone more dedicated than Megan MacLeod. Megan is a non-profit leader who has been working on clothing drives to serve her community since 2010:
“My venture is called Warm Up for Winter. I founded this campaign in 2010 when I saw a need for winter clothing in Downtown Hamilton. I collect used/new winter clothing and distribute it to residents of Downtown Hamilton at no cost to them. To date, I have collected and distributed over 45,000 items. I work with a team of volunteers to assist in the collection/sorting/distribution, and work with partnering agencies i.e. City of Hamilton, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board to set up drop boxes. I do not seek any grants and any costs come out of my own pocket.”
Megan noticed the high need for winter clothing and accessories in the community after volunteering at the Norman Pinky Lewis Recreation Centre. She started the project while completing her undergrad in Health and Gerontology at McMaster University. Megan has recently finished her Masters in Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Carleton University and works at McMaster University as a Development Officer. Earlier this year, she received the impressive accolade of Business Link’s 40 Under Forty Business Achievement Award, which recognizes the next generation of business leaders. She was also nominated for the YWCA Women of Distinction Award.
Because of Megan’s full time job and studies at McMaster University, she is exposed to many social entrepreneurs who inspire her. Several of these ventures come out of the McMaster University program called Spectrum. According to the website, Spectrum provides extracurricular programming to encourage, develop, and support all McMaster entrepreneurs, including students at all levels of learning. McMaster also has a start-up accelerator called The Forge, where students involved in Spectrum have a physical workspace to work on their ideas.
One specific example of a McMaster graduate who influences Megan is Stephanie McLarty, Founder of REfficient. REfficient repurposes and fixes different technological items to sell and then donate profits back into the community. Megan explains:
“It’s amazing to see such a small community like Hamilton house these examples of entrepreneurship and make an impact across Canada and internationally.”
Megan is also inspired by Craig Kielburger, founder of @FreeTheChildren, @WeDay, and @MetoWe and author of Free the Children: A Young Man Fights Against Child Labor and Proves that Children Can Change the World. Megan purchased his book and saw him speak at a conference in high school, which inspired her to start her first venture “Feet First for Haiti” where she collected shoes after the devastating Haitian earthquake in 2010.
While inspiration abounds and accolades mount, Megan continues working away on her venture and serving her community- collecting clothes in the spring and distributing them in the fall.
[box] A New Chapter of Storytelling
Increasingly, we are seeing that some of the greatest advances in social entrepreneurship and social innovation are coming from students. These stories are being lived, but they are rarely told. As a result, RECODE and the Trico Charitable Foundation are collaborating to survey and interview leading examples of Canadian post-secondary students who are developing social enterprises (for profit or not for profit).
This work seeks to build on RECODE’s survey activities with Emory University in Atlanta, and the insights from the Scaled Purpose and Mount Royal University report “Where to Begin: How Social Innovation is Emerging Across Canadian Campuses”.
It is hoped this research will inform our efforts to help Canada’s post-secondary institutions lead the way in supporting student social entrepreneurs and social innovators. But more than that, it will lead to a series of blogs capturing the students’ journeys. These stories will “reveal how process and purpose can converge to power a new economy for social and ecological impact” and, hopefully, inspire and inform social entrepreneurs within and beyond our Universities.
Stay tuned for updates on RECODE and Trico Charitable Foundation.[/box]