Speaker to Discuss Impact of Voluntarism on Empowerment of Underprivileged Children

Vishal Talreja, Ashoka Fellow and social entrepreneur, to visit Wooster in November

WOOSTER, Ohio — Vishal Talreja, co-founder and director of Dream A Dream, an Indian organization that works with more than 3000 vulnerable children to increase their chances of normal childhood development, will present “Unleashing Voluntarism to Empower Underprivileged Children” on Thursday, Nov. 4, at The College of Wooster. The event, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Gault Recital Hall of Scheide Music Center. Indian snacks and Chai-tea will be provided before the lecture at 7 p.m. Talreja will also meet with community entrepreneurs and local non-profit leaders. In addition, he will speak to several classes during his three-day visit.

Talreja was elected to the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship in 2005. Formerly an investment banker and venture capitalist, he left a lucrative a career to work full-time in the social sector. With a wealth of entrepreneurial talent, he co-founded Dream A Dream in his early twenties and now leads a team of 25 professionals and 1,500 volunteers. The organization designs and implements programming that builds life skills in underprivileged children. As the executive director of Dream A Dream and a board member in numerous Indian social enterprises, he has mentored many other start-up non-profits.

Talreja represented Dream A Dream as an "Architect of the Future" at the Waldzell Global Dialog on Inspiration in Vienna, Austria, in 2006 and 2007, and at the Global Development Network Conference in Prague, where he was Global runner-up for the Most Innovative Development Project in 2010.

In 2009, a team of students, faculty, staff and alumni from The College of Wooster, designed the Global Social Entrepreneurship (Global SE) experience. Global SE is an innovative program that recruits a multi-disciplinary team of students and professionals to work with social entrepreneurs from around the world on short-term consulting projects. Dream A Dream was one of the first Global SE clients. Talreja’s residency at Wooster follows his engagement with this student-designed program, whose participants wanted the Wooster community to benefit from Talreja’s passion for social change, wisdom, and support for budding entrepreneurs. The international residency program is sponsored by the Center for Entrepreneurship (C4E) and Center for Diversity and Global Engagement (CDGE). C4E is funded by a Morgan-Kaufman grant and CDGE is a strategic initiative, now in its second year at The College of Wooster.

Additional information is available by phone (330-263-2287) or e-mail.