OK, budding New Radicals, tell me you don't want to be part of this.
Riders for Health has just announced that they're working with Stanford University's Graduate School of Business to demonstrate how reliable transportation can reduce preventable disease in Africa.
I've written about Riders for Health before. You'll recall they're the folks who've established a system of two- and four-wheeled vehicles to take medics and supplies to people in urgent need in African countries.
This newly-announced project will take five years and is funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It's going to be interesting to see the results of this partnership, for sure. But it also demonstrates that mainstream organizations are eager to find ways to partner with New Radicals. In this case, a university and a social enterprise.
Maybe because it's back-to-school time, I've heard from readers about a bunch of different education-related ventures. In fact, here's another example of a university and a New Radical working together.
Robert Tolmach http://classwish.orgtold me about a terrific new service that's designed to recognize how important teachers are, and give us a chance to say "thanks!". MyTeacherMyHero http://myteachermyhero.com was created in partnership with the University of Southern California School of Education. Robert asked me to submit a short video about the most important teacher in my life. Check out the site to see what these people have to say: Esther Dyson, Seth Godin, Craig Newmark , Kyle Zimmer (Founder of First Book), Antonio Villaraigosa (Mayor of Los Angeles), Caryl Stern (CEO of UNICEF USA), Robert Rubin (former Secretary of the Treasury), Alan Mulally (CEO, Ford), Pras (Fugees), Barry Mayer, (CEO, Warner Brothers), Dominique Moceanu (Olympic Gymnast), Dan Bane (CEO, Trader Joes), Dick Cook (Chairman, Disney Studios). And take a minute to thank your favorite or most influential teacher, too!
Education is clearly in the air. Ever eager to improve my ability to connect with an audience when I speak, I've been reading Parker Palmer's thoughtful book, The Courage to Teach. I'll be writing about the Courage to Teach movement soon.
This seems like a perfect opportunity to share an idea. Readers often ask me for information about where they can study to become New Radicals. It occurs to me, dear HuffPo community, that you have the answers to this question! So, this is my call to schools, colleges, and universities that are offering programs of interest to New Radicals-in-the-making (that is, people who want their work to be the way they make a difference in the world, for more, please see archived articles). I'm thinking law. Science. Medicine. Arts. Business. Journalism. Engineering. Maybe all kinds of cool things we've never heard of...
Please send me a note about what you're doing, and I'll write about the most interesting programs in a future column. Or feel free to leave a comment to whet our appetites now.
In the meantime, those of you who have gone back to school, are thinking of going, or are starting a program that is going to give you the foundation of your first career, please share your story by commenting below.
As always, I invite you to email me directly at julia (AT) wearethenewradicals (DOT) (COM).
Julia Moulden's new book is We Are The New Radicals: A manifesto for reinventing yourself and saving the world. She is also a sought-after speaker for conferences and special events.
Readers often email to ask where they can hear me speak about the New Radicals. Mostly I do private events (corporations, associations), but there's one public forum on my schedule this fall. I'm on the bill at the Why Everything Must Change conference. Hope to see you there.