Social Justice: From Theory to Practice

Grinnell’s dedication to educating individuals “who are prepared in life and work to use their knowledge and their abilities to serve the common good,” as stated in the College’s mission statement, is perhaps nowhere demonstrated so strongly as in the recognition of global innovators through the Grinnell College Innovators for Social Justice Prize.

Awarding $100,000 each to two winners annually, the prize establishes close, long-term relationships with social entrepreneurs and their organizations. And in the five years since its inception, it has done much more.

“Our real goal is not only to honor people doing meaningful and impactful work in the world, but also to provide resources and motivation to the next generation of social innovators,” says Saunia Powell ’02, most recent coordinator of the Grinnell Prize. “We’re expanding the networks available to students, faculty, staff, and alumni to include people who are doing cutting-edge, innovative work.”

Now celebrating its fifth anniversary, the Grinnell Prize has begun to highlight an important new trend in social entrepreneurship — a focus on sustainability. “More and more we’re seeing people evolve away from the idea of just doing good,” says President Raynard S. Kington. “These winners, along with others before them, are doing good in a way that is independently sustainable, creating models that will continue to have an impact even if they don’t get grant funding.”

Deborah Ahenkorah, 2015 Grinnell Prize winner, has developed a book publishing company as a part of her organization, Golden Baobob, creating a regular source of income to fund her project of supporting emerging African illustrators and writers through training, workshops, and prizes. Maria Vertkin, also a prizewinner this year, has developed her organization, Found in Translation, which trains disadvantaged, bilingual women to be translators, into a viable business. By hiring the women she’s trained and then contracting with other organizations for translating services, Vertkin’s model safeguards the success of her project. This kind of long-term, innovative thinking in the field of social justice is an important hallmark of the Grinnell Prize.

An influential investment

When Melisa Chan was hired in January 2011 as the first coordinator of the Grinnell Prize, she had some significant challenges facing her. Although the prize project had been announced the previous fall, there was no formal process to narrow the 1,200 nominations to just two or three winners. In addition, there was an unexpectedly negative backlash against the prize.

“One of the biggest challenges we faced was credibility. Many people wondered why Grinnell was spending so much money on a prize that goes to individuals and organizations that may not be affiliated with the College,” says Chan. At the time, critics lacked tangible evidence of the prize’s benefit to the campus community.

By involving large groups of students, faculty, staff, and alumni to help sift through nominations and spearhead the selection process, Chan was able to turn most of those critics into supporters.

But it wasn’t until the winners began coming to campus and developing their partnerships with the College that the true benefits of the Grinnell Prize became clear. Winners met with student groups to answer questions and provide advice, gave presentations on their work, and established student internships and staff fellowships for the College community. Some winners even returned to give presentations in classes or to teach short courses.

Kevin Jennison ’12 recalls his interactions with 2011 winners Eric Glustrom and Boris Bulayev, who founded the nonprofit organization Educate!. The organization provides training in social entrepreneurship and mentorship to African youth to empower them to create solutions to poverty, disease, crime, and other issues of international importance.

At the time, Jennison was in the early stages of founding his own nonprofit, Tab for a Cause, which has now raised more than $170,000 for charity. “One piece of memorable advice they gave me was not to get caught up in short-term successes until they become long-term,” Jennison said. “The meeting also led to an excellent partnership between Educate! and Tab for a Cause; we’re very proud to support them.”

The positive impact of the Grinnell Prize also extends to the student interns who participate in the selection process each year, doing in-depth research on the finalists and presenting that research to the selection committee. Students not only hone their analytical and public speaking skills, they also learn about inspiring projects around the world.

“You get to see these amazing people and how their personal and social lives have grown around their career,” recalls Kenneth Wee ’16, who interned for the Grinnell Prize in spring 2015. “The money that we’re willing to give them suddenly opens up massive possibilities that they wouldn’t have been able to accomplish otherwise.”

When an innovator wins the Grinnell Prize, a mutually beneficial and rewarding relationship is initiated, and the value of social justice and global responsibility is embedded even further into Grinnell’s culture.

Building a better future

One of the first prizewinners was James Kofi Annan, who received the prize in 2011 for the work he’s done with his organization, Challenging Heights, which seeks to end child slavery in Ghana. Since winning the Grinnell Prize, Challenging Heights has been able to employ a larger staff, build a shelter for children rescued from slavery, establish a sports program, and build a library. It has also expanded its efforts to work with families in villages to combat poverty and end the cycle of slavery. Annan used his personal share of the prize to establish a large restaurant that generates additional revenue to support the organization when grant funding falls short. As of this year, Challenging Heights has rescued more than 1,200 children from slavery.

Challenging Heights has maintained a strong connection with Grinnell through many student internships. One of those interns, Opeyemi Awe ’15, credits her experience in Ghana with the discovery of her passion for development work. “When I came to Grinnell, I was a chemistry major, and then I went to Ghana and I didn’t think about chemistry a single time,” Awe says. “I did think about governance, about politics, and how to lift people out of poverty.” Upon returning to Grinnell, she declared an independent major in international affairs.

Awe says her internship saved her a lot of time after graduation. Learning about the day-to-day realities of nonprofit work helped her to identify early on that it wasn’t the path for her. Instead, she wanted to focus on the role of policy in development. The recipient of a 2015 Watson Fellowship, she is now traveling the world to understand how social entrepreneurship can address development issues.

“Our relationship with Grinnell has been very positive,” says Annan. “What we would love to see, moving forward, is more alumni getting involved.”

Changing lives through journalism

Another prizewinner who has continued a symbiotic relationship with the College is Cristi Hegranes, a 2012 prizewinner. Her organization, Global Press Institute (GPI), provides training-to-employment opportunities in journalism for young women around the world, opening an avenue for local people to report their own news to national and international audiences. Several of these reporters have come from backgrounds of extreme poverty and have gone on to win prestigious awards for their writing and investigative skills.

Two Grinnell students interned with GPI in 2013 and found themselves immersed in a challenging yet extremely rewarding experience.

“Working at the Global Press Institute definitely impacted my outlook,” says Mariam Asaad ’14. “I developed a much more nuanced sense of how important it is to seek out authentic voices instead of imposing our understandings onto different people, communities, and cultures.”

This knowledge has served her well in her life after Grinnell. Working as a Teach for Pakistan Fellow, Asaad is able to respect the differences between herself and her students and to incorporate those varying perspectives into the classroom.

Elena Gartner ’14 heard Hegranes’ presentation during the 2012 prize week and was immediately inspired to get involved. The Global Press Institute combined her interests in anthropology, media, and nonprofit programming in a way that affected the path she took at Grinnell and beyond.

“GPI’s empathy-based storytelling approach to journalism made me more curious about interdisciplinary approaches to creating social change and inspired me to think outside the box about development,” Gartner says. Now working for the nonprofit JUMP! Foundation in Bangkok, Gartner says that many people she encounters in Southeast Asia have only heard of Grinnell through their knowledge of the Grinnell Prize.

“This prize will continue to set Grinnell apart from other educational institutions as a learning environment that invests in the future,” says Gartner.

Since 2012, GPI has continued to train and employ female journalists around the world, and has also established itself as a legitimate news service, supporting the enduring feasibility of the project.

Students like Awe, Asaad, and Gartner, along with many others, will continue to be inspired by the prizewinners to undertake their own global endeavors and to leave their marks on the world in their service to “the common good.”