Today marked the final day of the Acara Summer Institute. For our last day of classes, we finally presented our business plan pitches to the group.
Today marked the final day of the Acara Summer Institute.
On the way to class this morning, I was thinking how the past three weeks have flown by. So much has happened, and yet it feels as though the group just arrived jet-lagged and sweating to Bangalore yesterday.
Arriving at the Institute for the last day of classes, the room was a buzz with nervous mumbling as people tried to quietly practice their final business plan pitches.
After a brief practice session and a hearty lunch, the time had come to divulge our fledgling ideas to a group of strangers. I was amazed at the ingenuity and passion put forward within the pitches. The ideas ranged from a web-based platform for NGO communication and information sharing to SMS messaging to ensuring that rural women receive proper prenatal care to mobile education units for poor urban women.
Though many of the ideas generated within this week-long design session may not produce a thriving social venture, the process used to analyze a problem and formulate a solution will be invaluable in all of our future endeavors.
I have greatly enjoyed my time in Bangalore. I hope that for those reading these blogs, we have provided you with a little taste of Bangalore.
I will end with a quote.
"Yesterday, my life was headed in one direction. Today, it is headed in another. Yesterday, I believe I would never have done what I did today. These forces that often remake time and space, that can shape and alter who we imagine ourselves to be, begin long before we are born and continue after we perish. Our lives and our choices, like quantum trajectories, are understood moment to moment. The each point of intersection, each encounter, suggest a new potential direction."
-Cloud Atlas
