Social entrepreneurship motivates U-M student

As an incoming freshman, Benjamin Rathi had his mind set on a pre-medical path. Now three years later, he’s a business and computer science major who founded a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Blueprints For Pangaea, that will impact hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide by reallocating unused medical supplies.

Rathi came into his college experience knowing little about entrepreneurship and admits to feeling “a bit risk averse” back then. Since, he’s been named Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Zell Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, and has been actively involved in entrepreneurship in a variety of roles and organizations.

“As a kid, I always admired people in Silicon Valley for being at the center for entrepreneurship in the world, for constantly pushing humanity toward something greater,” Rathi says. Little did he know, one day he’d be that very entrepreneur pushing humanity toward something better. But instead of Silicon Valley, his journey began in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan.

So what exactly is a social entrepreneur? While definitions vary, most social entrepreneurs are simply individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.

The movement is growing, not just at Michigan but across the globe. More people want more from their job than just a paycheck, and social entrepreneurship is one way to get there. In a recent nationwide study by the national nonprofit Net Impact, researchers asked graduating students in the United States what they most want from their jobs and what makes them most satisfied at work. The study found that 72% of students polled said that doing work with positive impact on causes important to them is essential or very important.

Fortunately, Michigan’s growing array of social entrepreneurship programs and competitions give students the chance to witness the positive impact their ideas and research can make in the real world.