Usap Alum Andreata Muforo Wins $20,000 in "Entrepreneurial President" Essay Competition
Story by S.E.VEN, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Compelling student essays advise Rwanda on enterprise solutions
February 19, 2009 — CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS —The Social Equity Venture Fund — S.E.VEN — is proud to announce the winners of its 2008-2009 Student Essay Competition. The two student winners include Ms. Andreata Muforo, a second-year MBA student at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, who wrote the winning essay in the graduate category; and William Kalema, a junior at Northwestern University majoring in history, who wrote the winning undergraduate essay.
The winners, selected through a competitive review process that included a jury of leading business executives and development experts, were chosen from more than 650 essays. Entries were received from more than 450 institutions and 35 countries, with submissions from places as diverse as Iran to China, and Peru to Burundi.
Students reviewed a video interview with His Excellency, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda discussing his vision for the Rwandan private sector, and assumed the role of policy advisor in the area of pro-entrepreneurship development. The graduate winner was awarded a $20,000 scholarship, and the undergraduate winner was awarded a $10,000 scholarship. The winning essays will be presented to President Kagame for his review.
"Our intention was to create a global discussion among the world’s brightest and most action-oriented students over what makes good policy in a progressive emerging economy; our two winners, both of whom are African, represent all 650 entrants with great distinction," said Michael Fairbanks, co-founder of the S.E.VEN Fund.
About S.E.VEN
S.E.VEN (Social Equity Venture Fund) is a virtual non-profit entity run by entrepreneurs whose strategy is to markedly increase the rate of innovation and diffusion of enterprise-based solutions to poverty. It does this by targeted investment that fosters thought leadership through books, films and websites; supporting role models - whether they are entrepreneurs or innovative firms - in developing nations; and shaping a new discourse in government, the press and the academy around private-sector innovation, prosperity and progressive human values.