Billy Parish Headlines Symposium

From Jan. 24 - 26, the Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship (MCSE) will host its second annual Symposium on Social Entrepreneurship and Social Justice. The event will feature student presentations on social issues in Addison County, Vt., workshops led by six champions of social entrepreneurship — two of whom are alumni — and keynote speeches from Billy Parish and Majora Carter.

Both Parish and Carter are recent recipients of the MCSE Vision Award, a recognition given by the Center to standout social entrepreneurs.

Parish helped found Energy Action Coalition, the largest student group focusing on climate change in the world, after dropping out of Yale University in 2003. He is currently the president of Mosaic, Inc., a solar power investment company.

Carter’s project, “Greening the Ghetto,” is based in the South Bronx, and works to spur social change, promote health and tackle environmental degradation through the creation of parks and green space.

“[Parish and Carter] are exemplary in that they combine how they live their daily lives with their moral principles,” said Lauren Kelly ’13, an intern at the MCSE.

On Jan. 26 at 10 a.m., Parish and Carter will sit on a panel with Schumann Distinguished Scholar Bill McKibben, leading environmentalist and founder of 350.org, a global grassroots movement to stop climate change.

McKibben started 350.org along with seven students in 2005, and since then has grown to become one of the largest grassroots climate organizations in the world. With roots in 191 countries (every country except North Korea), 350.org has organized approximately 20,000 demonstrations in attempt to spur environmental action.

McKibben believes the growing tradition of environmental activism at the College will continue to grow with the symposium’s help. The focus of the forum, however, is not exclusively environmental.

We all have these hopes and dreams for the world,” said McKibben. “I think we need some real practical advice about how to make these things real.” McKibben believes Parish and Carter are perfect advocates of this idea.

“They’re both profound examples of what idealism mixed with a certain kind of shrewdness can accomplish,” he said.

With this overarching message, organizers hope that the symposium will catalyze reflection and change in a variety of fields.

“I hope that everyone who attends, from high school students to grandparents, will use the symposium as an opportunity to reflect on their own agency, to connect with others, to analyze the world around them and to prepare to engage the world in new ways,” said Jonathan Isham, professor of economics and director of the Middlebury Center for Social Entrepreneurship.

According to Isham, the symposium is in the spirit of much of the work being done by students, staff and faculty at the MCSE.

“We invite cutting-edge practitioners to campus, offer students the opportunity to lead projects over the summer and convene classes and informal gatherings designed to help students to reflect, connect, analyze and engage,” he said of activities at the MCSE.

McKibben echoed this sentiment in voicing his goals for the symposium.

“I hope [students] get fired up to realize that the array of choices of what people can do with their lives is way greater than sometimes we think,” he said.

Encompassing creativity and passion in the fight for social justice is part of the MSCE’s central ambition. Organizers hope that the symposium will serve a similar purpose, providing a creative spark for all participants.

“The ultimate objective lies in the hope that students will see that they don’t have to pick between doing well and doing good,” said Kelly.