How would you use technology to make the world a better place? Progressive thinkers from around the world came together to address this very question at the Social Good Summit held in New York in September.<\/p>\n
Commerce students Anna Dunnett and Zac Farrow received a Curtin Give to Change Development Scholarship<\/a> to attend the summit and hear first-hand examples of how people are delivering progress.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got the idea of attending the summit after coming back from the Stanford International Honors Program<\/a>, where we became really interested in social enterprise and the intersection between activism and technology,\u201d Dunnett says.<\/p>\n The summit united corporations, non-profits, government, universities and social enterprises to discuss what type of world we want to live in by 2030. It featured back-to-back panel sessions by individuals who are using technology and business to lead the way in global progression in areas such as education equity, gender equality, environmental sustainability and financial autonomy.<\/p>\n Farrow was particularly impressed by New Story, a San-Francisco based charity using 3D technology to print houses for people living in slum conditions in developing countries.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 24 hours, the 3D printer can create a new, 600-square-foot home for under $4,000 [US]. They\u2019ve constructed homes in Haiti, Mexico, and Bolivia, and there are plans to build a whole community of homes in El Salvador next year,\u201d Farrow says.<\/p>\n For Dunnett, the opening speech by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Arden was the summit highlight.<\/p>\n \u201cMy family is from New Zealand, so I was \u2018fan-girling\u2019 over her a bit! But I have such respect for Arden as she pushes the envelope and actually makes a difference. She\u2019s well respected within the UN community and it\u2019s inspiring to see a woman in politics who is unapologetic about her actions and ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n Dunnett has just completed her final year exams in business law and international relations, and says the summit inspired her to realise the career possibilities available after university.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best thing was seeing the breadth of opportunity out there. I\u2019ve always been a planner and thought I had all these things in place, but experiences like the summit showed me that there are people out there doing all sorts of different jobs, but still aim to make an impact in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of thinking, \u2018Well I\u2019ve done this degree, now I\u2019ve got to get this type of job\u2019, it showed us that there are people who are doing things differently, or maybe they\u2019re working in regular roles but they\u2019re pushing for change in their industry.\u201d<\/p>\n While it may be easy for a young graduate to be optimistic about the future, social enterprise is a bourgeoning sector that is improving societal, financial and environmental challenges by adopting trade strategies.<\/p>\n \u201cJust giving financial aid doesn\u2019t always work, or isn\u2019t sustainable, so social enterprise looks at what businesses can be built to fix certain problems,\u201d Farrow says.<\/p>\n Like Dunnett, the summit has inspired Farrow to use his degree in business law and accounting to do something positive<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to focus more on commercial law, but apply it in a socially good context. A key theme of the event was to just make a start on something you care about.\u201d<\/p>\n Dunnett says there are multiple opportunities available to Curtin students that can help them find purpose beyond the classroom.<\/p>\n \u201cTake up those opportunities. You think you\u2019ll never get it because you think you\u2019re not good enough, but just apply and see. Getting involved at uni and going to the summit have honestly been the best things that I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a Curtin commerce student and would like to experience opportunities like the Social Good Summit, contact Industry Connect<\/a>. If you\u2019re studying a degree other than business or law, you can check out UniHub<\/a>. Both initiatives connect students with a range of academic and development opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two Curtin commerce students travelled to New York to join a global discussion on how to solve some of the greatest challenges of our time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4182,"featured_media":7239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":3,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-7238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"Business Law and International Relations Double Major","qualification":"Bachelor of Commerce","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/study\/offering\/course-ug-business-law-and-international-relations-double-major-bcom--mjdu-blwir\/","description":"","faculty":"Curtin Business School"},{"title":"Accounting and Business Law","qualification":"Bachelor of Commerce","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/study\/offering\/course-ug-accounting-and-business-law-double-major-bcom--mjdu-accbl\/","description":"","faculty":"Curtin Business School"}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}},"post_components":false},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/SocialSummitNewYork-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Zoe","last_name":"Taylor","display_name":"Zoe Taylor"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 16:52:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7238"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=7238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}