Anything is Possible from The Canary Collective on Vimeo.

There are no words to describe how thrilled we are: Brian Bordainick will be the opening keynote to GES. He will speak at the opening banquet, in front of GES staff, delegates and everyone who has collaborated with the realization of the Summit, including Northwestern’s President Morton Schapiro.

Why Brian?

The opening keynote should give delegates a taste of what GES is about, what they should expect from the Summit and above all, it should give them a clear sense of WHY they are here. They are here to form a learning community of individuals that care to see beyond the end of their nose, and dare to act upon what they see.

Brian is one of us. When he graduated, he went with Teach for America to New Orleans. He found a community devastated by hurricane Katrina. Right now, kids at George Washington Carver High School receive classes in prefabricated trailers and of course there is no proper sports infrastructure.

New Orleans’ 9^th Ward suffers from many illnesses related to lack of infrastructure and places for the community to gather and enjoy. The aspect of a place can affect a community in very bad ways.  Brian saw that obvious connection between low graduation rates, high crime and drug use with the fact that students were not motivated by their surroundings.

Due to these harsh realities and after being promoted to Athletic Director after only 3 months in Teach for America, Brian founded the 9^th Ward Field of Dreams, a non profit organization that has already raised more than a million dollars for a project that will bring a football field, track, lighting system, and stadium seating to New Orleans. This will not only benefit Carver High School, but also the rest of New Orleans.

This project builds community by creating a space for young people to practice sports and for the whole community to enjoy themselves, get to know each other and this way realize all the potential they have to further improve their surroundings. When they accomplish their goal, the 9^th Ward will be completely conscious of the inherent ability all communities have to come together and fight for the same cause.

The lesson:

After hearing Brian’s story, delegates will realize that it is never too early to take upon projects that seem “too big” for young people like us. At GES, delegates will make life long connections and learn skills that will enable them to take over projects that improve communities in the same way – and through a million different methods-that Brian is doing with New Orlean’s 9^th Ward. He inspired us, we hope he inspires you too!!

At GES, we tend to focus on ideas. Big ideas. After all, why not? Big ideas change the world. We tend to focus less on hard numbers, data, and statistics, and more on individual stories and communities. While an understanding on the individual level is key, numbers can also help tell our stories.  But as much as some of us might hate to admit it, data and statistics lie behind these changes.

Hans Rosling presents an engaging way to look at data and statistics about global development. It’s a big idea- with some hard numbers behind it. (Of course, his humor doesn’t hurt the video’s appeal, but think about how much he is telling us- both about numbers and about global development.)

At the heart of Rosling’s work is an idea that we struggle with at GES and in the social sector at large: How do you measure, assess, and present your impact in a way that is tangible?  As GES continues to grow, we endeavor to make statistics and data a tool we can use to our advantage.

GES 2009 Nathaniel Whittemore Keynote: “A New Story About Our Generation” from Nathaniel Whittemore on Vimeo.

One of the most important responsibilities of the Content Team is to select two keynote speakers for the conference: one who will talk at the opening banquet to the GES community (staff and delegates) and one who will close the conference with a speech to the entire Northwestern community. Last year GES hosted Nathaniel Whittemore and Premal Shah as opening closing keynote speakers, respectively. This year, Content wanted to follow more or less the same model, choosing a young, inspiring storyteller that can connect immediately with the delegates, and a pragmatic, accomplished individual recognized in the social entrepreneurship sector who can draw from his or her experience to encourage Northwestern and GES members to pursue similar work.

Nathaniel Whittemore and Premal Shah were such inspiring keynotes that the task of choosing keynotes for GES 2010 seemed overwhelming at first. We had to take a step back and ask: what makes a good keynote? Is it a big name? Accomplishments? How recognized the person is? The truth: there is no such formula. That “something” that you feel when you see an inspiring speaker can’t be defined by prominence, big names or accomplishments. We will simply choose people who have passion to change the world through their own innovative approaches, and who can effectively transmit their passion to GES and Northwestern.

Next week our team will start meeting with Northwestern organizations such as NCDC and The Global Engagement Summer Institute so we can get ideas to improve our curricula and expand our contacts. This way, we will have a wide range of possibilities when we choose facilitators. Our staff is currently brainstorming for new workshop topics for next year. They have great ideas. We have discovered that students new to GES and unfamiliar with the social entrepreneurship sector offer a less limited, creative perspective when suggesting topics and organizations.