Verona High School senior Nic Freschi has been spending some time lately interning with VisionSpring. The New York City-based non-profit works to improve eye care in the developing world and distribute free glasses to poor people so that they can see well enough to work at their jobs.
Freschi recently wrote a post for VisionSpring’s “Business In A Bag” blog in which talks about how he first came to learn about VisionSpring’s social entrepreneurship model through a book written by David Bornstein entitled How To Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas. In it, he talks about how reading the book has altered his thoughts on what he wants to be in the future. Here’s an excerpt:
To be able to create something new, something of my very own, yet at the same time be able to benefit the world. The deeply rooted idea that money was a measure of success began to wither and die inside of me, for here in front of me was a new, better way to measure achievement. What could I do to help the most people? What could I do to make the most difference in the world? It was not a slow and subtle change. Rather, my entire way of thinking about the world switched in between the time I picked up that book and put it down a few days later. It made me realize that going out and changing the world is not just something you read about people doing on the news and in blogs. I realized it was something I could do, something I had to do. Everyone should read this book. Of course there will be those who read it and put it down and walk away. But if you are lucky enough, it may just spark something inside of you that will change your world.
