We read the headlines every day. Cities and towns across America have seen businesses shut down. Citizens have lost their jobs and communities are struggling to adequately fund public services. But by partnering with the entrepreneurial spirit and talent of Notre Dame's student body, the South Bend community is solving some of these problems in a new way. Since 2012, the enFocus fellowship program has partnered with the community to ignite change in local companies, nonprofit organizations, and public entities. South Bend native Andrew Wiand tells the story of how hometown pride inspired him to join the enFocus team, and begin to develop a scalable model for economic and community development.The enFocus fellows are graduates of Notre Dame's ESTEEM program, a one-year master's program in innovation and entrepreneurship that develops a select group of science and engineering students to put their skills to work commercializing technology to serve the common good. These entrepreneurs create, shape, and deliver positive impact across a variety of public and private sectors. In its first year, the enFocus team helped save the South Bend community approximately $3.2 million. These are dollars that will support its schools, emergency services, and healthcare clinics—making life better for the people of South Bend.The University of Notre Dame asks you, "What would you fight for?" Learn more about this work and how to support it at http://fightingfor.nd.edu
More from What Would You Fight For?
- 2:01Fighting to End PovertyIn Dandora, Kenya, a sprawling neighborhood in Nairobi, housing for 250,000 people is built around the city’s largest dumpsite. Life near a large trash heap exposes the population to problems ranging from illness to unemployment to extreme poverty.Many of the town’s residents spend their days wading in the trash, looking for bits of aluminum and plastic that they can exchange for a few dollars to support their family. Others, typically women, run roadside stands selling goods like fruit or medications. For many families, the profits from these microenterprises are the only way to put food on the table or to send children to school.Notre Dame and its Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity have been invested in Dandora for several years. Research projects and a Holy Cross parish have taken root. In speaking with the local population about their needs, the Ford Program asked a trio of Notre Dame economists — Wyatt Brooks, Kevin Donovan and Terry Johnson — to come to Dandora to explore problems surrounding unemployment.For more information: http://ntrda.me/FFEndPoverty
- 2:01Fighting for the Lives of ChildrenWhen your child is diagnosed with a rare, genetic disease, it feels like you’re rolling down a mountain, just waiting to hit rock bottom, says Doug Berns. When his daughter, Samantha, was diagnosed with Niemann-Pick Type C, an incurable, neurodegenerative disorder, he and his wife watched as Samantha’s energy depleted, her balance became shaky, and her laughter quieted.At Notre Dame, researchers in the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases seek to identify and advance treatments for a number of rare diseases, including Niemann-Pick Type C.For more information: http://ntrda.me/LivesofChildren
