By Annie Makela, Director of the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship
“No child chooses to be poor.” Words from a 4th grade student during the recent Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship field trip to My New Red Shoes, a nonprofit organization in Redwood City that mobilizes resources to close the clothing gap for students in need. We started our visit to My New Red Shoes in the community boardroom, learning about the goals of the organization. Hillbrook students shared why they thought it was important that children had access to new clothes and shoes. “I know the feeling of getting to pick out something new and I think everyone should get to feel that way.” One student sitting in the front row asked, “so how do you get your funding?” Becca, our host for the day, was eager to share. “We partner with our community to receive grants and donations. We also work with organizations like Nike and Old Navy who believe in our mission and want to help how they can. And we work with schools like yours to get students involved!”
As the Director of the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship, building new partnerships and social impact learning experiences for children is my favorite part of this work. Yet, I admit I was nervous about this field trip. Talking about homelessness, poverty, and hunger is complex, at any age. I struggle every day to understand my role in the inequities. I know our students are thinking about these hard topics too.
Recently, an 8th grader at Hillbrook shared with me that one in ten people living in the Bay Area lives in poverty. This was part of his project focused on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “I always thought that poverty was something that happened in other countries,” he told me. Another student, focused on “SDG #2: Zero Hunger,” shared, “I try not to ever tell my parents I am ‘starving’ when I get home from school. That word feels different to me now that I know more about what it means to starve.” I haven’t cracked the code on how to talk to children about hunger and homelessness. I continue to find moments to share in their confusion, sadness, curiosity, activism and hope. During the field trip to My New Red Shoes I was reminded that showing up and listening to people’s stories is the first step in doing this work with the kind of care it deserves.
Our field trip was imperfect. We stomped flowers as we flooded into the Sobrato Center. We interrupted a board meeting thinking it was the bathroom. It took us longer than expected to drive from Los Gatos to Redwood City during rush hour. Yet as we boarded the bus to return to campus, I was given two points of important feedback: “I wish we would have had longer to do the work,” said one student. Another shared, “I had more ideas I didn’t get to share with Ms. Becca! Are we going to come back here again?” I was reminded, something imperfect can still be impactful.
That morning, as I watched our 4th grade class sit in the boardroom that Bay Area social impact leaders sit in every day, I couldn’t help but imagine how each of these students might show up in this same room in ten or twenty years—as a lawyer, as a philanthropist, as an educator, as a parent, as an environmentalist, as an activist, as someone seeking support, as someone ready to give support. We all bring different lenses to the work of social change. That is a good thing. Imperfect is impactful, and it’s never too early to start asking children the core questions that root our work at the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship: what matters to you?, followed closely by what are you doing about it?
We hope you might consider helping us spread an entrepreneurial mindset in our community. Use these two questions with close friends and colleagues. Maybe try it at a team retreat or a board meeting. We are eager to hear what you learn.