Student Ventures + GeeLearn

Venture Year / Entrepreneurship Gap Year

Inclusion, Equity and Diversity Statement, Updated 28 May 2020

Entrepreneurship entails exploration, learning, the uncovering of new opportunities, and building teams. Thinking out of the box is a must for inspired entrepreneurship. It is a team, not solo, sport. Our ability to find new opportunities and markets, to think differently, to innovate, and to build a group of people that can execute on a vision is aided by diversity. Surrounding ourselves with those that are different than us yet unique in their own individual ways results in new discoveries, fresh thinking, creativity, and innovation. The result is a formative and enlightened entrepreneurial journey. The entrepreneurs we admire are not only visionary team players but are builders of people in multidimensional ways. The best leaders construct egalitarian organizations where creativity, self-expression, and innovation thrive, and the wealth created is spread amongst all those who contributed and shared in the risk of the venture. Thus, we celebrate and embrace diversity, inclusion, and equity in the ethos of Student Ventures and our Gap Year Programs.ethos of Student Ventures and our Gap Year Programs.

Student Ventures and GeeLearn welcome diversity which includes, but is not limited to gender, race, religion, geographic location, ability or willingness to travel, nationality, sexual orientation, political beliefs, disability, and socio-economic background.

Vision

To positively influence the entrepreneurial and learning journeys of our diverse gap year student population so they are best positioned to create not only a prosperous livelihood but also a meaningful life and legacy. Our alumni base will change the world for the better.

Mission

To ensure that the widest range of life experience, knowledge, global perspective, creative expression, original thinking, business and social opportunity discovery, new product development, business modeling, human resource strategy, marketing and public relations strategy is shared across the breadth of Student Ventures gap year students, staff, advisors, mentors and guest educators, particularly by those with backgrounds historically less likely to have been represented in gap year programs.

We support the increased presence, academic and business success, intellectual achievement, wealth creation, and inclusion across all regions of the world and business opportunity spaces from these under-represented backgrounds in our gap year programs.

We achieve this by:

Affirming student entrepreneurial and experiential learning journeys as identity-informed and recognizing the whole student. Our students represent a wide range of identities, experiences, and learning journeys.
Encouraging a broad range of academic and entrepreneurial enrichment opportunities through a mix of virtual learning and doing activities through the Student Ventures Gap Year and Acceleration Programs.
Mitigating traditional financial barriers to academic and professional enrichment opportunities via direct-student funding and cost-sharing collaborations with external partners.
Providing an alternative virtual place on for students to create communities where they can be their authentic selves, away from their base university and college campus environments. We help create global citizens who are aware, informed, and connected to others in all parts of the global.
Incubating new business ideas that are ethical and legal in their jurisdictions
Facilitating the creation of born global ventures comprised of diverse team members from various countries of the earth, and targeting distinct markets including those historically under served.

Community

Student Ventures welcoming community supports undergraduate, postgraduate, professional, and postdoctoral students who are traditionally underrepresented and/or underserved. These populations include but are not limited to students who identify as students of color, native ancestry, low-income, first generation college students, veterans, non-traditional students, and the intersections of these and other identities. Student Ventures is also committed to a culture of inclusion in which students from diverse backgrounds experience a genuine sense of belonging, engagement, and achievement. We value and celebrate the unique strengths and experiences that students bring to our virtual space and experiential learning environment. We help them leverage these qualities as they seek to achieve their scholastic, professional, and personal goals.

Our community also includes staff, instructors, designers, suppliers, guest speakers, advisors, mentors, and other participants in our virtual programs.

Sense of Belonging. We strive to bring a “sense of belonging” and acceptance not only to our diverse student base, but also our staff, advisors, and mentors. This includes freedom from the feelings of discrimination based on gender, race, religion, political beliefs, geographic location, ability or willingness to travel, nationality, sexual orientation, disability, and socio-economic background.
Fairness. We promote opportunity for all, incorporate objectivity, are transparent and open. We also enable and encourage feedback from our staff.
Turnover Rates. Turnover in the employee and staff base is expensive in many ways beyond just financial. We seek to reduce turnover through being fair, delivering a sense of belonging, supporting our diverse staff and partner base.
Net Promoter Score. Essentially Net Promoter Scores provide a datapoint on how likely a group of people who experienced our service are to recommend it to others. We value Net Promoter Scores not only from our gap year student and alumni base, but also from our staff, partners, advisors, and mentors. Embedded in Net Promoter Scores are a range of subtle and often unarticulated criterion, one of which is the feeling of belonging in an open, transparent, and inclusive environment.

Suppliers

Essentially Net Promoter Scores provide a datapoint on how likely a group of people who experienced our service are to recommend it to others. We value Net Promoter Scores not only from our gap year student and alumni base, but also from our staff, partners, advisors, and mentors. Embedded in Net Promoter Scores are a range of subtle and often unarticulated criterion, one of which is the feeling of belonging in an open, transparent, and inclusive environment. drawn to startup companies co-founded by diverse teams and located in regions where entrepreneurship is encouraged and thrives, but especially under served areas that are perhaps not known for startup communities.

Find the Student Ventures Inclusion and Equity Strategic Plan here