A few months ago, we told you about the Unreasonable Institute, which will bring 25 social entrepreneurs from around the world for a 10-week summer institute where they’ll receive the training, mentorship, and seed capital they need to get their ventures off the ground.

Now, our friends are one step closer to choosing their first crop of social entrepreneurs. 34 finalists are in a race to raise $6,500. The first 25 to cross the finish line will attend the Unreasonable Institute. And the outcome of this race is up to you.

Head to Unreasonable’s online Finalist Marketplace and vote with your dollars for an entrepreneur you believe will change the course of history. The fate of our finalists, and of the lives they will affect, rests in your hands.

As part of our media partnership Beyond Profit will feature “BP on the spot interviews” during the Summit. These interviews are two minutes long and will encompass many aspects of the Summit, and Beyond Profit will upload them to their blog.

To learn more about Beyond Profit, check out this document featuring an article by GES founder Nathaniel Whittemore! http://www.scribd.com/doc/27081250/Opportunity-Collaboration

You can also visit their website, http://beyondprofit.com, to learn more about them.

The New Orleans Saints’ path to the Super Bowl XLIV Title began long before their 2009 training camp. In fact, the franchise has faced many lean moments dating back to its inception into the National Football League (N.F.L.) in 1967. The Saints waited 33 years until their first playoff victory, and the organization was once well known for its “fans” wearing paper bags over their heads at games. However, these obstacles proved obsolete relative to the devastation and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

When Katrina struck southeast Louisiana on August 29, 2005, it caused unprecedented damage to The Superdome, the Saints’ home stadium, in addition to the homes, businesses, and people of New Orleans. In the aftermath of the Hurricane, the Saints moved their home games to New York, San Antonio, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the duration of the 2005 regular season, while the Superdome functioned as a much-needed shelter for those enduring the effects of Katrina.

Midway through the season, it was speculated that Saints owner Tom Benson planned to move the franchise to San Antonio and ultimately Los Angeles. Had the Saints relocated, New Orleans may have never again hosted a professional football team, let alone a Super Bowl Champion. Losing the Saints would have symbolized the struggle and loss the people of New Orleans experienced following Katrina. However, with the support of FEMA, the NFL, the state of New Orleans, and the Louisiana Stadium and Expedition District, a $185 million project to repair The Superdome served as a beacon of hope for the city’s recovery.

On Monday Night Football, September 25, 2006, over 70,000 fans packed inside the Superdome to see the Saints’ first game in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina struck the city. From this point forward, the Saints, once on the verge of leaving New Orleans, have inspired recovery efforts on and off the field. For this reason, their Super Bowl victory serves as both a milestone for the organization and symbols of progress and resilient optimism for the city. Although New Orleans’ rebuilding efforts will continue long after the Super Bowl, it has emerged as a unified city from its most desolate days.

I hope that the Haiti Relief organizers and devastated Haitian people can draw inspiration and hope from the Saints and New Orleans. The road to recovery presents many immediate challenges and trying moments. However, if the affected people rally together and take small steps towards improvement, their actions could lead to a celebratory moment of progress. This possibility alone makes initiatives such as NU Stands with Haiti worthwhile.

The undergraduate experience at Northwestern University is supposed to be about challenging the intellectual aptitude of its students, encouraging us to explore new disciplines, provoking our core beliefs. Yet after four years of debating, failing, molding and growing, we find ourselves doubting our own potential. We feel the pressure to fulfill a cookie-cutter mold of the ideal NU graduate. What if investment banking isn’t for me? And what if Teach for America isn’t for me? Isn’t there something in between?

As we grapple with discovering the right fit, we reflect back upon Premal Shah’s of Kiva keynote speech at GES 2009. During it he shared with us the words of Howard Thurman “Don’t ask what the world needs, do what makes you come alive; because what the world needs most are people who have come alive. ”

And with that we take comfort in knowing if we let this statement guide our decisions that everything is going to be alright.