'It set me up to compete with others'
For Simon Stumpf, CLC helped pave way - to Yale and, ultimately, Africa
In 2002, when Simon Stumpf left Pierz Healy High School and took a year's worth of classes at Central Lakes College, he was already embracing change. Advocacy was in his nature.
In 2006, he graduated with honors from Yale University, majoring in anthropology and African studies. This academic path has led his good intentions to work for an organization that is creating meaningful social impact in the world.
Stumpf is a change manager for the nonprofit organization Ashoka, founded almost 30 years ago by Bill Drayton, a former Environmental Protection Agency official, in order to build an army of social entrepreneurs.
Simon Stumpf, a native of Pierz and a former Central Lakes College student, was in Delhi, India, last year to select Ashoka Fellows to help the people of India and Sub-Saharan Africa solve complex social problems. Behind him is Qutub Minar, a 12th-century sample of Indo-Islamic architecture and, at 238 feet, the tallest brick minaret.
Ashoka, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is dedicated to helping create global justice through farming. Across Sub-Saharan Africa and India, rural communities that rely on agriculture for their food and income are facing increasingly complex challenges.
Social entrepreneurs pioneer solutions to overcome systematic obstacles facing small farmers. Stumpf's assignment as a manager is to assist with rural innovation and farming.
"I believe in the power of engaged global citizenship," he said.
As a teenager from a family of 10 children, some adopted and challenged, Stumpf had an appreciation for the value of helping others. His choice of a college close to home kept him near his loved ones, but he said it was liberating.
"In high school I was in student council and groups involved with issues and speaking to groups," he said. "My opportunities to do more for others arose by going to Central Lakes College using the post-secondary option. Class time was structured differently and could do more work for causes that help people with issues such as respiratory illness and special needs."
Composition courses at CLC helped improve Stumpf's writing.
"I hadn't written much before that," he said, adding that he worked for the college newspaper to develop interview and style skills used today. Likewise, cultural anthropology opened the ultimate career door.
"American Sign Language was a helpful course. It meant going to homes all over the community to practice and experience multi-generational learning," Stumpf said.
"I had more independence and contact with collegiate energy that leads to engagement and things like protesting at Walmart."
At Yale he said he came across some the same textbooks he had kept from CLC.
"I used the same anthropology book at Yale, so I didn't have to buy it," he said.
He said that, at Yale, "Coming in, some struggle with feeling they can't keep up, coming from a public school. My PSEO experience both on campus and with advocacy issues provided relevance for later at Yale. It set me up to compete with others at Yale. It also taught teamwork that is important to me today."
He said he was fortunate to have different academic opportunities at Pierz and CLC.
"I think more about how many students stop their education after high school or with their AA degree, and that works but (a higher undergraduate degree) can set you up for your next academic adventure and give you a practical, broader approach."
For those who don't go beyond the two-year degree, he said, "You still get multi-disciplinary learning for a good job when you finish."
From 2002-2006, he worked with the Student Campaign for Child Survival. That led to committee coordination with the Greenheart Foundation, marketing work for Global Justice and becoming a national organizer for Ashoka.
He and his wife are preparing to be in Africa for as many years as necessary.
"It will be at least a couple years, but it is open-ended," he said. "We both love Kenya from when we met there as students."
He also has been to India, which is part of the Ashoka commitment along with Sub-Saharan Africa.
"I was in Delhi for a work trip selecting leading social entrepreneurs into the Ashoka Fellowship," he said.
Dedicated to solving urgent social problems, Ashoka Fellows help develop infrastructure and other means for citizens to better their lives through technology, healthcare, education and income generation.
"We help them implement local solutions to solve the continent's most pressing social problems," he said. "It is rewarding to empower people to create their own economic and civic opportunities."
Examples of the work include enabling people to address the pandemic of HIV/AIDS and other health concerns, introducing effective education systems, resolving conflict and protecting the environment and natural resources.
For more about Ashoka and the work Stumpf is doing, go to www.ashoka.org.