- Name: Meenal Rana
- Degree: PhD, Human Development and Family Studies
Interest in Social Entrepreneurship and/or Environment Issues
- My interest lies in engaging adolescents and young adults in environmental and social issues. It is important to engage them in community development work for several reasons; the work may help them: 1) develop a sense of self-efficacy and responsibility towards their communities 2) enhance civic engagement, 3) have better academic outcomes, and 4) to be able to influence their community members and leaders for increased engagement.
- My interest in engaging communities is not new. However, the interest in social entrepreneurship is fairly new. Due to the recent work with Lonny Grafman, my wonderful colleague and an experienced professional in the field, I am in love with the idea of making communities self-sufficient while finding solutions to environmental issues.
Experience in Social Entrepreneurship and/or Environment Issues
- I have been working with Environment and Social Research Organization (ESRO),a non profit organization based in Delhi (regional office: Baraut) since 2014 as a consultant. We used the youth adult partnership (Larson, 2005) model in high school classrooms to prepare youth to become educators for environmental and social issues in their communities. ESRO has been working with school youth since last 6 years. However, with the application of this model, the team has started giving them more leadership roles to plan and implement various engagement activities in their communities around social and environmental issues.
- In our recent project, "Rural Youth Volunteers in India", a collaborative team of 7 Cal Poly Humboldt (California, USA), 8 Lady Irwin College (New Delhi, India)students, two NGOs namely, Environment and Social Research Organization (ESRO), Grameen Evam Paryavaran VIkas Sansthan (GPVS), and faculty members from Cal Poly Humboldt and Lady Irwin College, has been working in two rural communities of Bagphat district (Tavelagarhi and Daula). The team is working to create economic opportunities through social entrepreneurship while educating communities and promoting behavior change towards water conservation, safe storage, and waste management.