Left to right: Heidi Cuppari, Eric Glustrom, Hannah Davis, Luis Duarte, Summer Cuppari Gould, Anya Smith

The Dream Team had the pleasure of attending the GlobalMindED conference in Denver this past week. The conference brings together uncommon collaborators in education, business, STEM, government, and the nonprofit sector to support educational innovators who are setting a new standard for inclusive leadership.

Co-Founder and CEO Heidi Cuppari moderated a panel on social entrepreneurship including two of our 12 year old DreamMakers; Summer Gould and Anya Smith! The conference was a fantastic collection of professionals and students from around the country who are all working to make a difference in the world!

One of the great things about GlobalMindED is that they give out complimentary tickets to “First Gen’s”: the first in their family to attend college. These students mostly come from less privileged backgrounds and it’s important to enable them to participate in this great conference and contribute their points of view. At Dream Tank, we believe that every student deserves the opportunity to have their voices heard to start making their dreams a reality.

Story Architect founders(http://www.storyarchitects.biz/) and Dream Tank Junior Fellows Summer Cuppari-Gould and Anya Smith presented on a panel with other social entrepreneurs at the Global MindED conference in Denver last week. Heidi started off with a brief overview of Dream Tank, social entrepreneurship, and the story of how Dream Tank was created. Her daughter Summer told her that she saw that in society adults were not listening to kids and their creative ideas. Their dreams were being crushed, not praised or pursued. Heidi asked herself, “How can we use business and finance to make a positive impact in society? And lets bring kids into the discussion of solving global issues.”

Many of panelists had the same passion for change and diversity in the field of Entrepreneurship. For instance Eric Glustrom, the President of Watson University was there. Watson is a new university model for students ages 18-24 based in Boulder, Colorado dedicated to supporting next generation innovators, leaders and social entrepreneurs to solve the toughest challenges facing the world. MergeLane Program Director Hannah Davis was in attendance. MergeLane is an accelerator for businesses that have have at least one female executive. She stated, “ We need to broaden the definition of Entrepreneurship, it is a mindset of creativity and openness.”

Luis Duarte represented Gary Community Investments. His role includes identifying and developing public-private partnerships, and executing on philanthropic, near-market, and market-rate investment opportunities that encompass financial returns and social impact. He told a story about how he is reading a book called How to raise an entrepreneur and he challenged everyone in the crowd to “Let kids get their feet wet and chase their passions.” One of the main themes of the conference was diversity and inclusion in education and business. Anya said, “Everyone is so afraid of change. If people stood up and did something for themselves, it would create a chain reaction.” Summer indicated that if kids were in charge, “the world would be more colorful, there wouldn’t be as many endangered and extinct animals, there wouldn’t be climate change.” Join the movement to bring diversity to entrepreneurship with Dream Tank. Our call to action is an entrepreneurial ecosystem for kids and all walks of life!

Our team of fellows all attended GlobalMindED. Many of us experienced a conference like this for the first time! Dream Tank’s Fellowship Program is a pilot this summer where High School, College, and Masters Students learn social entrepreneurship and in return, take a role and lead something in Dream Tank.

Fellows were given a chance to spread our mission and learn about modern day solutions to issues such as access, equity, and opportunity for First Generation to College and underserved populations. We are always working to give our fellowship team beneficial experiences that allow them to make an impact while learning. The GlobalMindED conference was a great way to for fellows to take a seat at the table and start participating in important conversations with influencers across all sectors!

We are thrilled to be included in such an impactful conference and can’t wait for next year! Thank you

GlobalMindED~

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