Moving beyond the brink

When I first told my friends that I was going to be spending my summer interning for the Unreasonable Institute, all of them laughed at me. When I asked why the notion was so humorous one of my friends remarked, "Jennifer, you are the most reasonable person I know." Although I have been active in bringing opportunities to engage in social enterprise to my fellow students at the University of Denver, I have always preferred to take the safe route after carefully Mapquesting directions. Maybe that's why my friends were initially skeptical that I could hack it in among the 25 greatest risk takers and disruptive thinkers in the field of social enterprise.

I was recently sitting in the Colorado State Capital three feet away from Governor Bill Ritter. When Governor Ritter walked to the podium before the graduation of the first cohort of Unreasonable Fellows, I was struck be the irony of the situation. It was here in these marbled halls that I had originally envisioned spending my career. It seemed like a pretty good gig: help make big policy changes that address social issues and they’ll even throw in health insurance and a regular paycheck. As I listened to the governor speak and looked over to the audience of Unreasonable Fellows, something shook me to the very core. How could I spend my days in a marbled building talking about change instead of eating, breathing, and living my social mission every day as the Fellows do?

After Governor Ritter spoke, the Fellows took the stage one by one to address their peers. Unreasonable Fellow, Pierre Bataille, spoke about the incredibly supportive community of change agents at the Unreasonable Institute saying, "For the first time, no one has told me to get a real job." Every fellow, mentor, and staff member at the Unreasonable Institute recognizes that being a social entrepreneur is a real job and that the work is significant, valuable, and urgently needed. This has truly inspired me.

Instead of being a scholar of social enterprise or watching the field develop from the Ivory Tower of Public Policy, I am now ready to take my own passion for social enterprise to the streets and live audaciously. I resolve to be part of market based solutions instead of being solely an advocate for them.

This is where my story begins and ultimately where I hope to move beyond the brink of radical change.