UMBC & The Next Generation of Social Entrepreneurs

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is committed to educating and mentoring the next generation of the workforce to be “Agents of Change” in their communities. UMBC’s Shattuck Family Internship Program for Entrepreneurship Innovation & Social Change provides selected students with a stipend to intern as member of a start-up for one semester. At the end of the internship, students can apply for seed-funding to support an entrepreneurial venture of theirs.

Andres Camacho and Josh Massey are both students who were selected to be a part of the Shattuck internship program. They have spent the past few months working for Columbia based sustainability company, greeNEWit. In addition to being the state leader in providing household energy retrofits, greeNEWit’s Agent of Change program provides students with an entrepreneurial mindset, both undergraduates and high school students, with mentorship and a supportive environment that encourages interns to develop and flex their social entrepreneurial muscles.

Cleats For Bare Feet (C4BF), a social project operated by the Agents of Change Program and sponsored by greeNEWit, was founded in 2009 with the goal of providing used soccer equipment to less fortunate players all over the world. To date, we have collected over 6000 pieces of equipment and distributed nearly 5000 to smiling kids around the world: The US, Senegal, Cameroon, Romania, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Sudan, Zimbabwe, China, and many others.

As the newest Co-Directors of C4BF, Andres and Josh are working to re-imagine the nature of charitable giving in the 21st century. Last week, C4BF launched a crowdfunding campaign in order to raise the funds needed to create a social media website that connects the following three groups anywhere in the world:

1. People who have second-hand sporting equipment or cleats to donate.

 
2. Players, organizations or schools who need cleats and sporting equipment.

 
3. People who can take cleats abroad while on their travels around the world.

 

The social media web platform will solve the distributive difficulties associated with sending equipment to those in need (it's super expensive!), and it will also re-imagine the typical donation process as a more interactive and enriching experience. Users will be able to track their cleats as they travel the world, discover the impact they are making and connect with others through the love of the game. 

Andres completed the Shattuck program last semester and, thanks to a scholarship from Mayo and Molly Shattuck, will be contributing $1,000 in seed funding to the project. I’d like to give a big “THANK YOU” to Mayo and Molly Shattuck as well as to UMBC, for their support of social entrepreneurship and innovation in undergraduate education. Josh just completed his semester in the program and will be applying for the scholarship from the Shattuck’s as well.

For More information on the Shattuck Family Internship Program Visit the UMBC Shirver Center’s website or read a short release about the 2012 Interns.