 Hi guys, this is Ryan Hargraves and I am the director of admissions at the University of Vermont Thank you for joining us here for live at five. This series is an opportunity for you to learn more about what the University of Vermont has to offer Through the perspectives of some members of our community today We are very fortunate to be joined by distinguished faculty member Rashida weaver Rashida I know you're very busy and I want to thank you for taking time out of your schedule to join us today But why don't we start with a bit of an introduction? Tell us a little bit about yourself and your your path to University of Vermont So hi everyone. I am dr. Rashida a weaver I am an assistant professor of community entrepreneurship in the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics here at the University of Vermont and I actually I really came here by accident I was having a conversation at a research conference with a faculty member That teaches here sometimes and sometimes in Indiana and she was just talking about how much she really loved working here and how Collegial the faculty members are and how the students are great in Vermont so beautiful and And then she said that there was a position Like after talking to me that she felt I would be perfect for and I said well I'm not sure because I was working doing research out in New Jersey and I said I wasn't sure if I wanted to take it but then she convinced me to go on the interview and when I came here I was just blown away by a couple of really important things One Burlington is one of the most beautiful cities ever But in the country and two if you as you're driving around Burlington one of the things you notice is and the words community many places like on the businesses on different kinds of organizations the worst community and That I'm interested in community development. That's one of my focuses So I just really was drawn to that and then the third thing was the faculty Here just seem to really really like each other and you can work anywhere, but I was really drawn to The faculty here because it was seemed like a really great environment to work in and like everyone loved what they were doing their research They're teaching and so I was drawn to University of Vermont because of that for those three things Awesome. Well, New Jersey's loss is Vermont's game. We're so happy that that you are here So my first question actually is in regards to you mentioned Community entrepreneurship or social entrepreneurship. Tell us a little bit about that that field. What is that entail? So social entrepreneurship is the process of using business to combat social problems And a social enterprise is the actual business itself So I like to use the example of Newman's own because they're one of the most nationally recognized social enterprises and Newman's own is a for-profit Business, but they donate 100% of their profits to different charities across the country so that's what makes them a social enterprise and Community entrepreneurship, which is the focus of The Department of Community Development Applied Economics is really like how we use social enterprises To advance community development. So that's where we get the community entrepreneurship Okay, awesome. Thanks for that explanation. So I want to segue into your Experiences or your time in the classroom working with UVM students. So tell us a little bit about your initial observations of Students at the University of Vermont and what type of student do you think would be a good fit here at UVM? leaders leaders and forward-thinking very progressive students and When my initial observations, I've been here for eight months and I've taught now four classes over the last two semesters and This that my initial observations of the students are that they're they're world changers Really, they're world changers. They're they're students that actually believe that they can make a difference in the world a positive difference in the world And and they're going to do it and in our department So I'll mention it again Department of Community Development and applied economics So that word applied is really really important to our students and pretty much all the courses. I teach our service learning courses So right now Like some of my students are doing research out in different communities I have a student that's doing research from here, but in South Africa So we're very very applied and we're focused on equipping people with both knowledge But also skills we need both knowledge and skills in order to succeed in changing the world for the better So those people that are interested in doing that kind of work action-oriented people Positive people people that want to advance community development Those are students that are great for the University of Vermont in general because really you see Throughout the University of Vermont when you're just walking around the hallways You see people that are really interested in change creating positive social change That's what you see throughout the University, but especially in my department awesome, and you know speaking of your your academic work you teach the The pop-up enterprise course at the University of Vermont. So tell us a little bit about about that course Yeah, so the course one of the courses I teach is an award-winning course It's called introduction to community entrepreneurship and in this class We have a basically we develop a business and we run it for four weeks on campus So the first half of the semester students are learning about you know theories regarding starting social enterprises and And how they can influence community development and towards the second half of the semester which we're currently in right now My students are now they now have on businesses throughout campus that they're running Running around campus and that those businesses are called pop-up enterprises so we literally we want to give students this idea that you can You know literally launch your business and throughout the course of running your business you learn from trial and error and It's really exciting. I have currently have a hundred and eight students in the class and we break them up into teams of 10 So there's 10 or 11 students in each for each business that they create and they they develop their own business ideas and The revenue is all gen the revenue that's generated from these businesses is donated to various charities So one of the things we have in that class is charity week Where students literally go out throughout Vermont and they hop in cars and they go around and learn learn about different nonprofit organizations And and then they choose one that relates to a particular social mission that they're their social problem that they're interested in solving let's say environmental issues and They'll work with a nonprofit organization that does work related to environmental issues And then as they're running their business on campus after the four weeks They just donate all their revenue to that nonprofit organization So the students from this class they learn how to run a business they learn how to collaborate with other organizations They learn how to plan they learn how to plan use time management. They learn about teamwork it's a really exciting class and I really like it because you know I just had a doughnut that one of my students made and it's selling you have like trail mix companies You have button-making companies. You have all kinds of things this semester. So it's always a fun class Yeah, let me know where I can find that doughnut making student. I'm definitely Mason with the mission. It's really good. Oh, awesome. Awesome. Awesome. That sounds like a really good opportunity for For undergraduate students who are interested in business and interest in interested in making Social change and impacting their community. So thank you for telling us about that We we have kept you for Quite a bit of time. I know you're very busy so I'm going to ask one last question and It's just a question so that the audience can get to know you a little bit better So I know that you you like to travel. So what is your favorite place to visit and or vacation? so one of my favorite places to visit is Italy I actually studied abroad in Italy when I was an undergraduate and And then I loved it so much. I literally cried on my ride home from like to the airport I literally cried because I didn't want to leave. I was just so beautiful I studied in Florence, Italy, and it was just just it was literally like walking in a painting That's how beautiful it was and on the next year I actually went back and I toured lots of different cities in towns and throughout Italy So that's pretty exciting Awesome. Well, as they say in Italy, Grazie Well, thank you so much dr. Weaver for for your time This has really been informative and fun, and I hope the audience has taken away As much as I have from from this interaction But thank you guys for joining us for this segment of UVM live at five We'll be back with you soon until then take care