Developing Entrepreneurship from Humanitarian Ventures

Winners

Eight years ago a simple act of generosity started a movement that has provided youth with unprecedented creative opportunities. It began with Nina Sethi, who was volunteering as a teacher in the slums of Delhi, India. Nina met Meher, a 4-year-old girl who was a victim of severe burns that disfigured her hands and face. Nina was struck by Meher’s disability but she realized there was no help available in India for her. She knew that Chess Without Borders in Barrington, IL had a mission of combining education with service so she asked them to raise funds for Meher’s surgery. Youth at Chess Without Borders in collaboration with District 220 schools and local businesses raised funds to support surgery of Meher’s hands and face. The plastic surgeon in India was inspired by the efforts and donated his services. In fact youth at the Metropolitan School in Berlin Germany also helped raise funds for her surgery.

This video shows Meher before and after surgery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1ZwXA6osEo

Meanwhile as the humanitarian efforts became widespread, every year for the last 8 years Chess Without Borders has hosted a chess tournament where 100% of the funds raised support Meher’s education and run a computer center in this same slum.

This video describes the children from the slums using the computer center

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmyDix4rvT0

As a result of this social entrepreneurship youth who served took on leadership roles in many areas such as public speaking, mentoring younger children, problem solving, team work, marketing, accounting, photography, technology, in addition to cooking, cleaning and running chess tournaments.

Presidential Youth Service Award winners have raised almost $130,000 for local and global charities through their social ventures. For the last 2 years they have raised funds for bringing a Christmas luncheon for x prisoners.

They have raised money and donated chess supplies to start chess clubs in underprivileged schools in Cambodia, The Marshall Islands, Borneo, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Chile, Sudan, India and Thailand. They have also donated funds to global charities for the last 12 years. They have won many awards for their work combining chess education with service and philanthropy including the Governors Award from the State of IL in 2006 and 2007 and were finalists for the Chicago Innovation Award in 2009.

Service transforms youth into creative machines. They are more driven when it’s done for others. As 11-year-old Ethan Gagliano said,” I want to do much more for others than myself”. Working in a team multiplies their efforts making their achievements successful, “beyond my wildest expectations”, said Rishi Sethi the founder of the program at Chess Without Borders.

Video directed by BHS Chess Team Coach Jeff Doles from the  on founder Rishi Sethi here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt3ggGr7pqQ

Watch this video to see how youth were impacted by their service:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQe0Y1FT3Co

The adult mentors on the team were:

Rishi And Dr Kalogeropoulos, Sethi (Founders)

Maggie Gruber Black, Nina Sethi, GM Yury Shulman, Zein Bertacchi, Jeff Doles and Adam Christian Gregory

The students on the team are:

Ethan Gagliano, Pranav and Prashant Ramachandra, Prathik Kandimalla, Jack and Jane Bradley, Vishal, Varun and Rohan Ahuja, Millen and Jeeven Srivastava, Eleanore van Marwijk Kooy, Kyla Smith, Aryan and Ayushi Shah, Toby Schwartz, Siddharth and Abhijeet Gehlaut, Yasoob and Nabeel Rasheed, Jack Bongiorno, Sanjaya and Sahitya Maheswaran, Lyle and Zach Green, Sophia Cai, Julie Ann Ashley and Sathvik Rachamarla

This program won the highest award for serving its mission.

Read here about the award:

http://www.pointsoflight.org/blog/2016/04/13/service-minded-chess-club-inspires-kids-play-purpose

 ”Congratulations on your students and administrators being selected as a Daily Point of Light Award honoree for your work empowering young children to make service a part of their lives through Chess Without Borders. The Daily Point of Light award is a national award that originated out of the White House in 1989 under President George H.W. Bush. It is given to exceptional volunteers who go above and beyond in their call to service. ”
Caroline Hendrix from Points Of Light

Hough Tournament

On Feb 22^nd 2014 one hundred thirty eight chess players competed at the 6^th Annual Hough School Chess Tournament where 100% of the proceeds was donated to 2 long standing charities adopted by the program. Thirty volunteers including GM Shulman and the Chief Tournament Director Jeff Weiwal donated their services. Almost $7000 was raised to benefit a little girl named Meher’s education and to provide support for the Maggie Gruber Computer Center. Another 300 people approximately visited the event.

The concept of accomplishing goals towards a common purpose motivated youth to create opportunities to raise funds. Eleanore van Marvijk Kooy, one of the CEO’s for the event cleverly designed a raffle with cash prizes to help raise funds. The other two CEO’s Jeevan Srivastava and Prathik Kandimalla joined in and went door-to-door in the cold employing their marketing skills to sell raffle tickets.

A big draw was our award winning Gourmet cook Zein Bertacchi and her sister Rima Said from Jordan serving and doing a live demonstration of Middle Eastern food. Beth Johansson who came especially for the cooking lesson with her sister said, “I am going home to make this today”. Volunteer Accountant for the day, 14-year-old Toby Schwartz said, “ I can barely keep up with taking the money from the sales of the Falafel orders”. There were many other youth and adults helping with the food sales including Toby’s parents who worked relentlessly to make pizzas and hot-dogs as well. Peter Chytia from the MacArthur Foundation whose son was playing in the tournament worked hard with volunteer Russel from BHS to help with the technology at the event.

16-year-old Lindsay and her younger brother Zach Green helped score the results and “barely had time to get out of their chairs” because 5 rounds of matches are held with many sections at the tournament. Based on the scores their next opponent is decided by the computer. These results are then sent to the US Chess Federation to determine the ratings of each chess player. This was an official US Chess Federated tournament.

Chess Tournament such as this one at Chess Without Borders become a celebration of achievements as chess players gather their USCF ratings, collaborate as workers, expand their experiences and express themselves artistically to raise funds for other children like themselves who have few opportunities in life.

A documentary has been produced on this project. This can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1ZwXA6osEo

On the basis of these long standing projects three high schoolers, Lindsay Green, Millen Srivastava and Varun Ahuja will represent Chess Without Borders at the UN Youth Assembly in New York this summer.

Three students also received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award from the White House because of their volunteer work over the past year with Chess Without Borders. These students were Ethan Gagliano, Peter Abrahamson and Bryce Cai.

This event has a tremendous impact on our students here in the US as chronicled in this article and in India for children living in the slums of Delhi. Perhaps Principal of Grove School, Dr Kalogeropoulos had this vision when she allowed her student Rishi Sethi to start a chess club in 1999. Rishi Sethi runs his own Data Insights Company in New York thanks to all the life lessons he learned from the District 220 Schools.

As illustrated in this article other students have discovered as well that there are:

“Promises to keep

And miles to go before you sleep” … Robert Frost

For more information go to: http://www.projectwhy.org/

Awards and Honors for the program at: http://shulmanchess.com/biography-of-chess-without-borders/

History of the project: secureafuture.blogspot.com

Printed in

http://barrington-il.patch.com/groups/business-updates/p/chess-and-creativity

Chess is about strategy, planning and  purpose. BHS student, Rich Ni who is the 2012 Presidential Service Award Winner embodies these qualities and more. Rich plays in the BHS chess team and  has served as a volunteer for the Hough Street School for several years. As seen in this photograph Rich is thoughtful, funny, reliable, patient and hard working as he organizes and teaches in the club under teacher Maggie Gruber.

Last week the 5th Annual Hough School Tournament was held and almost $6000 was raised for the education of a little girl adopted by the chess program and the Maggie Gruber Computer Center. The computer center will bring technology and education to 200 families living in the slums of Delhi, India. Rich worked hard to make the tournament a success by serving as the Assistent Tournament Director, general organizer and handing out the 2013 awards to the 4 volunteers who will follow in his foot steps.

Rich will represent Chess Without Borders at the prestigious 2013 UN Youth Assembly in New York where he will meet other youth volunteers from around the world who have engaged in outstanding humanitarian projects.

We salute volunteers like Rich who make a difference in this world for others by their bold moves!