The Social Entrepreneur's Handbook by Rupert Scofield is an interesting read but there are parts of the book that I disagree with. For example, the section called 'The Importance of a Finding a Mentor' assumes that a person can easily find a mentor in their field or occupation and this isn't always true. Some people struggle to find a mentor for various reasons. When Scofield explains how to recognize potential mentors he says that they have to notice you first. I truly believe that this isn't always true, it might be true in some cases but not all of them. My personal motto is "No one else is going to do it for you. If you want it bad enough go out and do it yourself." I believe that most of the time your boss or mentor won't always have time to mentor. But my views are biased and focused on big corporations. Personally I have worked hard to get recognition from my mentors. I stayed after every meeting at Brookline Teen Grant Makers last year to help clean up and talk to Jennifer about the program and just life in general. I think I made a real connection with her and I also believe that she is an amazingly kind person. Over the summer when I had an internship at Harvard whenever I was finished with my work given to me, I would check in with other people in the office if they needed a hand on anything. When I did this I got one of my bosses to notice me and appreciate that I went the extra mile to help out. I think if you want someone to be your mentor you have to get noticed not wait to be noticed.
Another part of the chapter addresses the fact that a lot of colleges these days do have a type of social entrepreneurship program. The author at first discredits them not believing that they really teach student about social entrepreneurship. But once Scofield talked at many schools like Columbia Business school, he started to approve of the programs. Personally I think that schools teaching about social entrepreneurship is important. I believe having the opportunity to work with BCF has made me realize that there is a lot of trouble in this world and that I can take part in fixing it.
Of course, I totally agree with you about social entrepreneurship, and I'm seeing this situation change overnight. There are more and more programs popping up, both on the undergraduate and graduate levels, because students are demanding them--and there is a huge market of jobs in this area. I'm pretty confident that social entrepreneurship opportunities will continue to expand, especially as the baby boomers get older, the country's problems get huger, and the budget to deal with these problems gets smaller.
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