The Ashoka U Exchange conference, this year held in Sand Diego, CA from February 21-23, is the premiere gathering for college students, faculty and staff who are involved in or passionate about social entrepreneurship and changemaking to come together to share ideas and form relationships. There was a major contingent from Tulane, with 19 students, faculty and staff and alum in attendance. The conference was a combination of networking, workshops, panels, and presentations, with some time to explore beautiful San Diego in the process.

I found that I was really proud of how well Tulane was viewed in this community; we were seen as leaders in social innovation and service learning, and our large group (every one we met seemed to remark, “ANOTHER Tulane student? You guys are everywhere!”) only helped reinforce our place in the Changemaker Campus community. It was exciting as well to see that we were not alone, with schools from Arizona State University to Rollins College engaging in social innovation programming and activities on their campus. I learned about a bunch of new exciting social ventures and ideas for future programming at Tulane, not to mention all the amazing students I connected with about the work they were doing. Our Tulane group became friends with Tomas and Yanniz, two students from Mexico who had started a organization called Industrial Designers As Social Entrepreneurs (IDASE) that worked to strengthen the sense of belonging in middle and high school that we take for granted here in the US. Some of the conference alums were able to reconnect with friends from years before and to advise the newbies on how best to take advantage of the conference’s offerings. For me, I enjoyed the networking opportunities (the chance to hone my skill as a networker) and the increased fellowship with our Tulane group.

I’ll be posting more about some of the organizations we met while in San Diego, but you can check out more about the Exchange here.