Challenges to address
The issues selected for the President’s Challenge for social entrepreneurship were announced during a special kickoff on Wednesday at the Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab), which is hosting the challenge. Clean water, personal health, empowered education, global health, and clean air were chosen as the global issues to be tackled by the student teams. In making the announcement, keynote speaker Allen Grossman said that the issues were identified by a faculty panel drawn from across the University. The goal of the challenge is find scalable and impactful ideas that can help to solve the problems. “I can tell you from experience, this is hard, it’s really hard,” said Grossman, a Harvard Business School professor, when referring to social enterprise. “But it’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done,” he added, later sharing inspirational stories with students. I-lab Director Gordon Jones also addressed the crowd of 250 people, mostly students, expressing his excitement about...