Deadline: June 1, 2016
The Harvard Social Innovation Collaborative invites applications for the Village to Raise a Child (VTRAC)
VTRAC is a program established by the Harvard Social Innovation Collaborative (SIC) that identifies and nurtures five young entrepreneurs from around the world. These five students—called “Global Trailblazers”—are invited to come to Harvard to attend and present their ideas at the annual Igniting Innovation Summit, giving them the tools, skills and resources they need to execute their community-based projects.
Taken from the old adage “it takes a village to raise a child”, this name signifies three important aspects of our program:
- Community-wide effort
- Youth Involvement
- Youth Empowerment
Eligibility
- open to any student or group of students (from any country) who is currently enrolled in a high school or its equivalent.
- Applicants must have an innovative idea or recently initiated project that attempts to solve a community-wide problem.
- Ongoing projects must be less than two years old.
- Applicants do not need to speak English fluently, but familiarity with the language is preferred.
- Students applying as a group must choose one leader to represent them for the subsequent steps of the application.
Important Dates
The new contest schedule is below:
June 1: Application and videos due
June 5: Videos published on website
June 5 – July 1: Voting period
July 5: Finalists announced
July 5 – July 20: Interviews
July 25: Winners announced
September 24: Winners arrive on Harvard’s campus
October 1: The Igniting Innovation Summit!
Costs
Applicants are not expected to pay out-of-pocket for any part of their participation in this program and selection as Global Trailblazers does NOT guarantee that VTRAC will be able to fund the student’s airfare and other related expenses. However, VTRAC will assist Global Trailblazers in setting up a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for their plane tickets to and from the U.S.
How to Apply
Please complete and submit the online application here. Application contains the following short essays
- Why do you want to be a Global Trailblazer?
- How and why are you fit to execute the project you are proposing?
- Describe the problem in your community that you want to solve. Why is it worth solving?
- How do you plan to solve this problem? Please describe the idea or project you wish to execute.
- How is this project innovative?
- How will this project sustain itself over time? Is it economically and/or environmentally sustainable.
- What particular resources or materials do you need for this project?
Please submit questions and/or concerns to [email protected]
For more information, visit Igniting Innovation Summit
