Professor Sabir's Posse

Today in class, we watched the New Heroes video profile of Muhammad Yunus, investment banker and social entrepreneur. We read an article earlier this semester about him. After the program ended and we had a little discussion, students wrote a three paragraph essay in response to the questions the research essay was supposed to answer: what is the problem the social entrepreneur wants to answer? How does he or she get the community involved? What are the measurable outcomes for the community and for the social entrepreneur?

Some of these questions, like what did the SE gain, will be implied, not necessarily stated. For Yunus, besides the fact that people are no longer starving, he might feel happy that people no one trusted or valued: the poor, now represent a population business is willing to take a risk. He could also be proud of the fact his trust was not misplaced.

A by-product or benefit to society is certainly the value Bangladesh society
places in its women and girls and the value mothers and fathers now have in their daughters. I'm sure in the recent past, women and girls were seen as homemakers exclusively which while important, is not seen as valuable, or as valuable as the man's role as provider. Now, thanks for Grameem Bank, women are also providers which gives them more negotiating power in the family structure and within the Bangladesh community.

Students turned in their fast draft. Tomorrow we will write another essay after watching a video. We were going to read a play. We might still do this. Wednesday
we will respond to a current event article about the recent shooting in Colorado.

If students would like to see what student portfolios look like visit me in my office. I will post a portfolio here. Click on comment to see a few. Thursday, we'll practice the introduction to the portfolio.

Dinner at Delancey Street
I will post the details about the dinner here later on today. I am finalizing the dinner plans now.