Tag Archives: NIU CAUSE

Making Waves with CAUSE

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With all the news lately about NIU CAUSE  and their upcoming Social Impact Summit, we took some time to interview Sophomore Rob Willer to figure out what all the fuss is about. 

What is CAUSE?

CAUSE stands for the Collegiate Association of Unreasonable Social Entrepreneurs.  The organization is a bit complex and for the sake of brevity I’ll provide this link to their about page rather than reciting all their motives, goals, and projects ( http://niucause.com/about-niu-cause).

How did you get involved?

Well there’s a few reasons.  My old CA (Zach Fiegel)  is the current president of Cause.  He had talked to me about the organization a few times before but one day in class I was talking to a few students who were in the honors program.  They mentioned the Cause meeting that night and they invited me to come.  I wanted to get involved in the actual business program and I thought this was my chance.  Zach pointed to me in a meeting and asked if I had any thoughts on a certain topic and I thought that was really cool.  Since then  I took over the role of Social Media, then treasurer and now I help wherever I can.

So what exactly is your title/duty in the organization?

Treasurer, pizza maker, pizza seller, promoter, social media…you name it.

We’ve been hearing a lot about the upcoming Social Impact Summit.  What’s that all about?

A lot of organizations have been putting on these conferences lately and they involve schools and businesses around their area. We thought, all of these other schools and groups are doing it, why can’t we?  We really want this to be an opportunity to students and businesses to network as well as promote awareness of a socially responsible mindset.

The website states that there are three goals in mind.  To Educate students and social practitioners about the applications of social entrepreneurship, to Inspire students and social practitioners to find ways to enlarge their societal and environmental impacts or just plain get started in the social space, and to facilitate Networking among students and social practitioners who are passionate about making a difference and changing the world.

Who is coming out?

We have two keynote speakers, Chuck Templeton and Megan Kashner along with numerous other companies and social incubators.  Over 130 students are coming out as well and you can still register at NIUCause.com and click Register Today!

1st annual implies that it will be a recurring event….any details on next year’s summit?

One step at a time…we’re putting the final touches on this year’s event but we hope that in this next month once we’re done reflecting and taking a breath, then maybe next year we can hope to get some new businesses/speakers and reach our goal of 250 participants.

Was orchestrating this event more work than you thought?

Definitely, but it’s been very rewarding!  It’s been nice to interact with a bunch of these companies online as social media guy for NIU Cause and get them all together in the same place.  I see lots of the companies that are participating tweeting about how excited they are.  It really feels great that there are  people out there that are as excited as we are.

What skills did you develop from this?  What lessons did you learn?

Teamwork: at first there was just four of us going out to find sponsors for the event.  Then we started dividing the responsibilities out to more members to get more people involved.  You get a little overwhelmed at the beginning because you see all these people so involved but it’s actually pretty easy to find a place, just ask questions during meetings and jump in where you can!

How can students get involved?

Come out to one of our weekly meetings on Tuesdays from  5-6 pm in BH 227.  There’s no application… just show up.  Students can also follow us on twitter @NIUCAUSE  or on facebook for more updates!  http://www.facebook.com/NIUCAUSE

Rob also writes for CLNS radio and the Northern Star.  Keep an eye out for his articles online and in print as the baseball season gets underway!

What is this CAUSE all about?

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I’m excited to interrupt the “Getting Involved” series of posts (which will resume next week) in order to introduce the very first Guest Post!  This week’s Guest Post comes from Ryan Sterling, a senior at NIU’s College of Business.  Ryan is also a co-Founder and Events Director of NIU CAUSE, a new student organization in the college.  Here are Ryan’s own words about NIU CAUSE, why it’s so meaningful, and how you can participate and make a difference in the world.

 What is this CAUSE all about ~ by Ryan Sterling Head Shot Professional What is this CAUSE all about?

In the coming months I will be taking the next steps in life, that of course being graduation and then a career in sales. I have been so fortunate to take part in so many opportunities here at NIU and in the College of Business (COB). All of which I feel have set me up for what I believe will be a successful career. That being said in my final semester I ask myself why I should put more on my plate by founding an organization. Well, the short answers are I love being involved, and giving back to the community. But CAUSE is so much more than that to me.

This semester I needed more credit hours in the college and so a friend recommended I take a course in the college called:  Management 311 Social Entrepreneurship (MGMT 311). Going into the course I didn’t know really much about MGMT 311 except Dennis Barsema was the instructor. In the first class Mr. Barsema asked if anyone would be interested in starting a social entrepreneurship (SE) club. The following class sessions I had become so empowered that I had to do something to improve the community around me and those abroad. After several meetings just this semester CAUSE was off the ground and running.

The name was one of the harder things to establish. We wanted to include SE in to the title and one of the founders came up with the acronym CAUSE and we liked it but we didn’t have a word to use for the letter U. After a few days an idea came to Dr. Christine Mooney (NIU CAUSE’s faculty advisor) while she was attending a conference. “Unreasonable” she said in the following week’s executive board meeting. The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World by authors John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan the book we are reading in MGMT 311. It was only fitting that we use the term because of what the definition means in the book “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world” whereas “the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” That is how the Collegiate Association of Unreasonable Social Entrepreneurs (CAUSE) was born.

Panel Picture 2 224x300 What is this CAUSE all about?After we met for a few weeks CAUSE was ready with a series of informational meetings to get the word out, and find out why other people want to make a difference. As the Events Director, I was responsible for putting together our kickoff event Panel Discussion this past Tuesday night which featured Rowan Richards of Steward’s Market and Kathleen Wright of Collaborative Group. The turnout and execution of the event was simply rewarding and I know my fellow peers were able to take something away from the experience. I encourage everyone to join NIU CAUSE and take part in the Entrepreneurship certificate classes. I am glad I learned about other ways businesses can positively affect their customers.

CAUSE logo 300x138 What is this CAUSE all about?Here’s how you can join CAUSE and make a difference in the world by attending our weekly meetings Tuesday nights in Barsema Hall Room 227 at 6:30pm. In addition, Follow @NIUCAUSE on Twitter, Add us on Facebook at C.A.U.S.E (Collegiate Association of Unreasonable Social Entrepreneurs), or by sending your email address to  me at Richard.Ryan.Sterling@gmail.com and we will be more than happy to add you to our Google Group  which will keep you updated with upcoming events. This is a new organization so we are receptive to hearing about any way people want to make a difference and we are more than willing to help people make that impact.