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.

A simple commodity like sanitary napkins is considered in the United States to be an inexpensive necessity that women would hardly think to go without. In Kenya, Donald G. McNeil Jr wrote in a NYTimes article, the location where these school girls reside, they are so expensive and rare that few dream of such a luxury. Most Kenyan families simply cannot afford to purchase a box of pads because it costs roughly the same price as a bag of flour, an indispensable item for any family. Therefore, what comes to happen is Kenyan school girls going without what should be available to them without limitation are having to actually miss school due to discomfort, embarrassment and sexual vulnerability. These girls are actually put at a risk when they attend school, clearly marked by their condition, because males notice and pressure them for sex. What is most unfortunate about this is not the mere loss of a comfort during a period that would otherwise be very uncomfortable, but their inability to pay for such an item causes serious problems such as infection, disease, and AIDS. The fact that males seduce the girls more vigorously when they’re noticeably ovulating in turn helps advance the rampant spread of AIDS in African countries. The disease itself causes tragedies worse than death, such as orphaned infants and broken families. Hence, the seemingly trivial problem of a lack of disposable sanitary napkins becomes quite grave, and can contribute to some of the most serious problems plaguing Africa currently.

Fortunately, an initiative undertaken by several organizations, all of which share the spirit of Global Engagement Summit, has developed a creative and immensely beneficial solution: washable and reusable sanitary napkins, in addition to safe sex kits. This simple kit could transform the educational experiences of teenage girls and could greatly help prevent sickness, infection, unsafe sex and AIDS. This initiative merges with that of the microfinance initiative of Amerishare, which aims to help young girls pay for these kits by giving them loans. The compassion and ingenuity of these organizations should be applauded, and if done successfully, could provide the key to making large strides toward the progression of suffering African countries.

GES Alum Alice Bator works to create reusable and sustainable sanitary pads through the Kasiisi Project.

One of the best parts about sports in general are the celebrations of the athletes. They’re so satisfying, even when the athletes are just competing for themselves or for some team. But in the Olympics, they’re competing for their country. The celebrations are breathtaking, inspiring. We all come from somewhere, and somehow we are all connected to the people who come from the same place. Usually the word “nationalism” conjures a somewhat negative meaning, but the fact is, the Olympics would be nothing but another tournament without it.

We choose who to cheer for based on which flag is plastered across the TV when the athlete appears. Maybe we pull for the country where we went on vacation once, where we studied abroad, where they speak the language we study, where our ancestors came from. I know I do. But I would imagine that most of us are cheering mainly for our country, the country where we come from. And I’m also pretty sure that when we cheer, we’re not just cheering for the athlete, but for the country as well.

The Olympics are such a wonderful celebration of athleticism and unity because of the way the nationalism pulls us together. The whole world is watching, everyone is following the stories and watching what’s going on, and even though we’ve got out favorites and we’ve probably had them determined by our birthplace and our TV broadcast, we’re usually still happy to see the celebration of whoever wins, even if it’s not our favorite. We all feel it — so it’s easy to imagine what they’re feeling and to empathize with them, no matter where they’re from.

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 RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin and Dell are seeking undergraduate and graduate students from universities and colleges around the world to share their ideas for making the world a better place.

Students winning the grand prize in the 2010 Dell Social Innovation Competition will receive $50,000 to turn their ideas into a new business or nonprofit with a mission to change lives for the better.

To participate in the competition students brainstorm and submit a creative, innovative idea to tackle a pressing social issue and enter it no later than March 1, 2010 to the Dell Social Innovation Web site. Along with students, citizens worldwide are invited to comment on, vote for and discuss the ideas in the online community forum. The community’s preferences help select the grand prize winner.

Teams selected as semifinalists by judges and the community will be asked to write a business plan and submit a three-minute video for consideration. Of the semifinalists, three teams will be invited to Austin, where they’ll present to a panel of judges for the chance to win the grand prize.

Submissions will be judged on overall concept, demonstration of the opportunity, assessed social impact, financial viability and sustainability, demonstrated leadership ability, management team, performance benchmarks, assessed risk and contingency plans.

Perhaps it is unsurprising that in recent years — amidst a global recession and widespread critiques of financial markets — a new breed of economist is emerging from the halls of academe and garnering public attention.  Rather than focusing on the theoretical or anomalous, these researchers explore how applied economics can be used to shed insight on some of the toughest problems in international development, from improving the efficacy of HIV/AIDS education in Africa to understanding the impact of microcredit on quality of life.  An aspiring economist myself at the time, I first learned of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab after reading a NYTimes article published in early 2008.  When columnist David Leonhardt surveyed economists to find out who was using economics to make the world a better place, “the small group of economists who work at the Jameel Poverty Action Lab at M.I.T., led by Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, were mentioned far more often than anyone else.”

Almost two years after that article was published, Esther Duflo, a faculty member at M.I.T., received a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant for her work.  As an article published by MIT boasts, Duflo “has gained renown for using the world as a laboratory to see why aid programs succeed or fail [and] in so doing, she has not just tweaked conventional wisdom but helped revitalize global antipoverty efforts.”  Although the experimental designs which often facilitate these types of analyses — randomized control trials in which persons are afforded different levels of treatment based on random assignments — are often hotly debated, they are constantly being refined and improved to ensure that the developing world does not become a testing ground for first-world tinkerers.  Despite the fact that the ultimate impact of these efforts is still largely unknown, it is encouraging that such research endeavors are being pursued (and rewarded) so vigorously.

On Friday afternoon, only hours before the Opening Ceremonies began, someone told me that one of the Georgian lugers had died on a practice run. Of course, the news was terribly sad. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to come so close to participating in the Olympics only to have everything end only hours before you were supposed to walk in behind someone carrying your country’s flag. Awful.

But I’m a little embarrassed to say that when I first heard the news, I figured it was a strange way of saying that an American luger from the state of Georgia had died. Still sad, no doubt, but there’s a big support system here, and back-up athletes. It only dawned on me that he was Georgian, from the country, when I saw his name. And this is coming from someone who thinks a lot more about Eastern Europe and Central Asia than most people!

To me, the fact that he came from Georgia makes it even sadder. Georgia is a country that sent less than 10 athletes to begin with, and you can imagine that their lives have been significantly more challenging than many other Olympians. When Nodar Kumaritashvili was born, his country was one of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Since then the country has gained its freedom, but there has been much political unrest, the government is not fully democratic in the sense that we take for granted, and the most attention the country has garnered on the world scene came from Russia’s invasion of it in 2008. There is still a Russian presence in Georgia, and the two countries are not, shall we say, pleased with each other. This is a different world we’re talking about.

You can bet that Nodar had to cross a lot of barriers to become an elite athlete in the sport of luge. It’s not like running or something, where he could just thrown on a pair of shoes and go. Imagine all the work he put into it. Imagine the 8-person team, imagine how close they must have been. There’s no way the whole US team could possibly have known each other — some of the most well-known athletes, the hockey players, hadn’t even arrived at the time of the opening ceremonies — but an 8-person team would be like a family. I know that NBC’s been trying to make you cry all weekend if you’ve been watching, but to me, leaving out almost any mention of the situation in the country itself was the wrong way to go about it. Georgia’s getting some more notice here, but I think we can all agree that they would rather not have it for this.

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.

GES has played a big part in NU Stands with Haiti, the Northwestern community’s response to the earthquake in Haiti. So far, the community as a whole (undergrads and grad students combined) have raised well over $12,000. And where has the money come from? Canning, bracelet sales, yoga classes, and, well, keggers.

We’ve spent a good amount of time at GES meetings discussing the way things are going here. It’s been a huge success in terms of fundraising, and a large part of Northwestern has contributed their time or money to help the hundreds of thousands of Haitians affected by the earthquake. And one of the best parts is that this extends way past the usual boundaries of engagement at Northwestern — there are easy ways for everyone, literally everyone, to get involved, even if it’s only by giving $5 and assuming that whoever you’re giving it to will get it to the right place.

I think we can all agree that the more money we can send to Haiti, the better. But are there any problems with the way we’re doing it? Is raising awareness by changing your facebook status or paying an extra couple of bucks for a party (I believe the term is “slacktivism”) the right way to go about it? Is there a right way to go about it? NU Stands with Haiti has also been arranging panels and discussions to actually educate the community, but on a college campus, it’s a certainty that the parties will be better attended than the panels, no matter which experts they bring it.

I think if we at GES had our way, everyone would know about the specific organizations they were supporting, and they would know exactly what was going on in Haiti, where their money was going, why it’s imperative to help this country, and why now. But the reality is that not everyone cares enough, and that anything that we as a community can do to help is better than not doing anything at all, even if it is just blindly donating. Right now, what Haiti needs is numbers, and if we can do that through appealing to Northwestern’s cravings for beer and baked goods, then that’s the way we’ll do it.

Well, we’ve got the perfect solution for you! GES is excited to announce an awesome opportunity being offered by our partner Sparkseed. It’s called the Social Innovation Competition, and wee are encouraging all delegates to apply! Sparkseed is accepting applications from exceptional college undergraduates who are leading or will launch ventures that tackle today’s toughest social issues. This is a great opportunity for GES delegates who are looking for funding, consulting, or mentoring opportunities. Prizes include $11,000 in seed money, $20,000 in pro-bono consulting, and top quality mentorships from entrepreneurs and executives.

To apply, go tohttp://www.sparkseed.org/competition/ and sign up!

The deadline to apply is February 7th, so don’t waste any time. When you apply make sure to let GES know so that we can encourage all of our staffers to follow your project profile on YouTube. Good luck!