“To meet and hear our institution’s leadership express their support and commitment to social impact galvanized my motivation for using enterprise models as tools for creating social good,” said Middlebury Institute student Mario Romero MBA ’17. Romero was among the forty social impact leaders who joined a large group of Middlebury and Middlebury Institute alumni at the scenic Taste of Monterey on Cannery Row for a reception with Middlebury President Laurie Patton recently.
In her remarks, Patton acknowledged the Institute’s Center for Social Impact Learning (CSIL) and its Frontier Market Scouts (FMS) program for its “world-class” training program for successful social impact investing. Patton offered attendees the opportunity to share stories and ask questions resulting in a very lively exchange of ideas. “It was clear that many of the attendees were inspired to collaborate and share notes on the future of social innovation and ethical economic progress,” shared Erina McWilliam-Lopez CSIL Social Impact Programs Director.
“Having been through the Frontier Market Scouts training and connected with practitioners within a rapidly growing field really demonstrated that social impact is driving the world forward,” said Romero and added that he is very excited to start his FMS placement and put the theoretical tools he has learned into practice.”
This past January, the Frontier Market Scouts (FMS) program welcomed 40 professionals from 13 different countries for its 15th training program taught by successful impact investing and social enterprise leaders. Jointly developed by the Middlebury Institute, Sanghata Global and Village Capital in 2011, the FMS is a social enterprise management and impact investment certificate training and fellowship program which has coached and trained more than 400 professionals since its inception. The FMS received a 2013 Cordes Innovation Award from AshokaU and was honored in the AshokaU Hall of fame in 2015.
To learn more about how you can support the Frontier Market Scouts program, contact Erina McWilliam-Lopez (emcwilliam@miis.edu) 831-647-4645
To learn more about the program, visit the Frontier Market Scouts page.
Photo Slideshow:
Click on the image below to open a photo slideshow of the evening.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/miis_ia/sets/72157679509818085/with/32336229812/