Social Justice Pioneers

Grinnell hosted its second annual Grinnell Prize symposium Nov. 12–16. This year’s winners, selected from more than 300 nominees in 45 countries, spent a week on campus discussing their work with the campus community. Recipients included Cristi Hegranes of the Global Press Institute (GPI), an organization that provides journalism training to women in developing regions; Linus Liang and Jane Chen, whose company Embrace Innovations provides low-cost incubators for premature babies in low-income communities worldwide; and Jacob Wood and William McNulty, founders of Team Rubicon, a group that helps veterans reintegrate into civilian life by involving them in disaster relief (Wood and McNulty were unable to attend the symposium due to Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. Their visit was rescheduled for the week of Feb. 24, 2013). 

During the week, prizewinners engaged with students through lectures, class visits, meetings with student organizations — even bowling. “They were really willing to talk to anyone,” says Alyce Eaton ’13, editor-in-chief of Scarlet & Black. She spoke to Hegranes about merging journalism with social justice. “It was cool and kind of intimidating how young she is. She has such a good understanding of what it’s like to be a student and also be thinking about the ways you can affect social justice.” 

Selection committee chair and professor of political science Eliza Willis says, “Cristi [Hegranes] was impressed with students’ practical-mindedness. They wanted to talk concretely about how you make things happen.” Student engagement with the prizewinners will continue next year, when Liang, Chen, and Hegranes return to campus to run workshops and short courses exploring how to develop and manage a justice-oriented organization. 

“The winners’ talks were excellent, and a lot of students who attended expressed how much they got out of it,” says Sarah Purcell ’92, associate professor of history and Rosenfield Program director. 

Keaton Cameron-Burr ’15 sits on the Rosenfield committee and says, “The symposium did a good job of channeling a certain entrepreneurial possibility — not necessarily for a business, but to do something independent of an institution or an entity.” 

Eaton agrees: “It’s a good reminder that students can accomplish things very soon [after graduating]. Especially as a senior looking at the job market, lots of people are scared. This shows that you can make your own path, that if you think something’s not working, you can change things. I think lots of students think everything that can be done has been done, or has been tried and failed.” 

Willis sees opportunities for engagement beyond social justice-minded students. “It’s not just about how you innovate and lead a nonprofit, but about how you do that with any organization,” Willis says. “Their impact is way beyond social justice; these are people who came up with an idea and made it happen. These were very challenging projects and could have easily failed. They provided a lot of insight into how they did that.”