Our Campus Celebrity this week, Megan Clower ‘12, is one of the Team Leaders of Amherst’s Social Innovation Leadership Team (SILT). Megan got involved with non-profits and volunteering when she was very young, but, “by the end of high school I’d become really frustrated with what I saw as their extreme inefficiency”. Her freshman year at Amherst, she was approached by Ashoka, a global organization of social entrepreneurs. “I was immediately drawn to the field. I’m an Economics major, so it’s no surprise that using market-based approaches appeals to the way I think.” Talking to Ashoka inspired Megan to get in touch with Oscar Lanza Galindo, the Community Partnerships and Programs Coordinator for the Center for Community Engagement (CCE), about starting a social entrepreneurship movement at Amherst. He was very supportive of the idea. Megan was hired as the, “Intern for Social Engagement” and got permission to start a team the following fall.
“This year, our team is running a variety of programs, many of which are actually open to students interested in all types of entrepreneurship. We have a workshop series that meets every Thursday. Many of these workshops are led by alums, and we hope to have all of our spring workshops led by alums. In addition, students in this program who are working on a specific idea have access to a one-on-one alumni mentor. Over interterm we will be running an intensive entrepreneurship seminar to help students with ideas launch their own ventures. We will also be helping these students apply to national business plan competitions throughout the spring. The Gumball Challenge will run for its third year in late February, and the second annual Amherst Innovation Pitch competition will be in April, co-sponsored by SILT, the AAS Enterprise Committee, and the Amherst College Entrepreneurship Society (ACES).”
In addition to her role in SILT, Megan is an enthusiastic and extremely well organized captain of the women’s squash team. She is also a big sister to Tatiana, “a super awesome eleven year-old,” through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. Her favorite thing about Amherst is the people. “I love the diversity of those I’ve gotten to know through my various activities around campus, my dorm, friends of friends. My three and a half years at Amherst have been a blast because of the people I’ve spent them with.”
There are still more male than female entrepreneurs out there, which is part of what makes what Megan is doing so awesome. If you’re interested in entrepreneurship, be sure to get in touch with Megan. She’s incredibly friendly and approachable, and in our economy gaining entrepreneurship skills is a very smart idea.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Amherst chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.