Since 2015, the CIL has organized CIL@ SF, a trip for approximately 10 students to meet Swarthmore alums and tour tech related companies in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley areas. Students have had the opportunity to meet with entrepreneurial alumni who live and work in the region, to learn about their work and their workplaces, and engage with start-up, venture capital, and tech communities. In January 2018, CIL@ SF visited parents, alumni, and colleagues at Google HQ, Ancestry.com, Title Nine, DFJ Ventures, Stitch Fix, OpenTable, and Stanford University’s d.school.

This year the CIL@ SF trip has been redesigned to align more closely with current classes being taught in Swarthmore, and in 2019 will be delivered as a supplement course to PEAC049: Be the Change! Social Entrepreneurship Principles in Practice, delivered by Denise Crossan, Lang Visiting Professor for Issues of Social Change. 

The CIL@ SF trip and supplement course is delivered as an engaged scholarship class.  Preparatory classes and in-depth learning experiences combine to give students the opportunity to explore, examine and reflect on theory in practice.  The required class preparation will consist of 4 classes of 2 hours duration delivered prior to Spring Break 2019. Students will be required to work in teams and individually to write short reflective reports on the learning experience throughout the course.  PEAC049A is for zero credit as it is a supplement to PEAC049 for Spring Semester 2019. 

CIL@ SF 2019 Learning Goals:

• Through case studies, examine a number of society’s “wicked problems”.  Explore the range of contributing issues to wicked problems and the methods employed to find solutions to seemly intractable issues.
• Understand and explore the principles of social innovation as applied in a number of different scenarios.
• Examine the knowledge base, experience and career paths of individuals who are social innovators across the public to private spectrum.

Who: 10 Swarthmore students
Where: Start-up, venture capital, and tech communities with a social entrepreneurship or innovation focus + more in San Francisco and Silicon Valley
When: March 10-16, 2019
Cost: $0. All travel, food, and accommodations are covered by the CIL

How to Apply

Registration for this supplemental class will be through a written online application and a short interview. Please note that this supplemental course is open to all students. While students enrolled in “PEAC049: Be the change! Principles in Practice” are encouraged to apply, it is not compulsory as part of the PEAC049 requirement, nor will places be reserved. To apply, students will be asked to submit:

• A current resume (PDF)
• An essay, no longer than 1,000 words, (PDF) answering the following questions
  • What do you think you’ll gain from the CIL@ SF Trip?
  • What would you most like to ask or learn from alumni working in social innovation and social entrepreneurship?  

Applications will be reviewed by a CIL panel, and on first round selection based on the essay, students will be asked to attend a short interview. Only 10 students can go on the trip and must confirm that they are available and committed to travel on dates between March10-16, 2019 (Spring Break week). Please note that this supplemental course is open to all students. While students enrolled in “PEAC049: Be the change! Principles in Practice” are encouraged to apply, it is not compulsory as part of the PEAC049 requirement, nor will places be reserved.

 Important Dates!

• An Information Session on CIL@ SF will be held:  Tuesday, November 27th, 12:30pm in Shane Lounge  
• Online applications should be submitted by:  Friday November 30th by 11:59pm via Google Form above
• Interviews will take place: the weeks of December 3rd/10th, Social Innovation Lab
• Notification by: No later than December 17th