Where Leigh is from

Maryland, Baltimore, USA

 

Interview

What was your dream when you were a kid? What was the reason?

I wanted to be an actress or singer. I loved to perform.

 

What was your dream when you were 18 years old? What was the reason?

I wanted to travel the world and go to extreme places with amazing natural beauty, like the Seychelles, the Swiss Alps, Antarctica, and French Polynesia (basically anywhere photographed in Natural Geographic).

In terms of jobs, I wasn’t sure, but I think I knew education was where I wanted to end up.

 

What made you start thinking about social entrepreneurship/social enterprises? When was that?

I have always been interested in companies who have a mission/goal of contributing to “the greater good” or helping a cause—not simply making a product. As a term, I don’t think I thought about “social enterprises” by its name until I joined Hult.

 

How much do you think social entrepreneurs play an important role in the world?

A lot. We need to use the current state of the business world and its drive to make money/gain fame for good and to help tackle many of the social and environmental problems that plague our world.

 

What would you say to future social entrepreneurs / those who are interested in social entrepreneurs?

Social entrepreneurs are key for the future of business and ensuring the bottom line isn’t just purely profit.

 

What is your favorite quote? Who said that quote?

“A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.” – Unknown

 

Who Leigh is

Leigh was not one of our classmates, but the Dean of our Master of Social Entrepreneurship program at Hult International Business School. Regardless of her position, Leigh is the kindest person at school. In fact, I have never seen such a sweet, kind and helpful person like her in my life. She is willing to come offer any help and she will do her best to make it happen when you ask her a favor.

What Leigh has impressed upon me is that she knows us very well. She makes a quick scan with each of us, manipulates her “inner sensor” and uses the most classical but best way, she “listens” to us to know us better and better. he can handle any issues, problems and favors in the best way that fit each of us. That is her personality and that is who Leigh really is.

None of us have never hesitated to talk to her or ask her for any help throughout the whole year because her door was always open. I cannot imagine how the past year would have been without her. Meeting Leigh was one of the luckiest things that happened to all MSEs (our classmates; Master of Social Entrepreneurship) in the past year.

I personally appreciate that she helped me a lot during the year. It was like I gave her extra work and tasks that she did not have to do. When I needed to prepare for upcoming important presentations, she coached me mostly for correcting my pronunciation and grammatical errors. When I was experiencing a challenge as the HSA (Hult Student Association), she spared her time listening to me and gave me valuable advice. I know that it is impossible to thank you enough in my whole life, but thank you very much for everything that you did for us, Leigh!

 

Awesome Episode

Manon, Taliey and I invited Leigh to Hult Prize Global Finals in New York last September. She was so happy about it and said “thank you” to us many times, but there was no doubt that she deserved it. Also, her presence at the stage made us very happy, so we were the ones that needed to say “thank you” to her. However, there were others who appreciated that Leigh was there; my parents.

I invited my parents for the Finals as well, but the thing was that neither my father and mother could not speak English well. Maybe I should have taken care of them as their son but I was extremely busy as you may imagine, so all I could do to them was to leave them alone. Then, Leigh became a hero for me and my parents. Leigh was so sweet, spending most of her time sitting next to my parents, talking to them and guiding them. When everything was over that day, my parents came to me, saying “Leigh is very kind. She takes care of us all the time. We can’t thank her enough.”

My parents do not speak English so I do not know exactly what they talked about, but It was obvious that my parents had a good time with Leigh the whole night.

Yup, now Leigh is a hero not only for me but also for my parents.

 

The Power of MSE

What Leigh is holding is a symbol called “go-en(ご縁)”, which means ‘fate’, ’destiny’ and ’special tie.’

I believe that it is meant to be that we met in San Francisco! I studied Social Entrepreneurship with Leigh for a year, saying “We will make the world a better place.” I would love to spend the rest of my life with MSEs (Master of Social Entrepreneurship; my classmates) until the very day I die. They have already completely changed my life.

At the same time, however, I also think that we should not be together all the time, because that is not the reason why we learned Social Entrepreneurship. That is not how we will deliver the impact we want to give to society and to the world.

I think MSEs are like dandelions. We were seeded at the first day at Hult and we bloomed on our graduation day. Our mission is that we spread all over the world like dandelions and seed the future, the next generation, from each place where each of us has landed.

本当にありがとう(Honto ni Arigato-); Thank you very very much for everything!! The world needs you! Let’s make the world a better place together!!