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07/03/12 | Uncategorized

The Woman Leaders At Singularity University

People don’t always like to change but at the end, everybody loves to be on the winning side. Therefore if you are really passionate about your idea and you can clearly see that the change you are creating inspires positive outcomes, then the people will love you and will follow you and will not want to let you go.

By Bogdana Rakova (Computer Science Student, University of Sofia “St. Kliment Ohridski)

Over 40% of this year’s Graduate Studies Program class at Singularity University is made of women entrepreneurs in all fields – from technology to finance, from neuroscience to reinventing the educational system… But what is the Singularity?

One of the best descriptions of the term comes from Ray Kurzweil’s book – “The Singularity Is Near” – he says “an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today — the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend out biological limitations and amplify our creativity. In this new world, there will be no clear distinction between human and machine, real reality and virtual reality.”

Together with Peter Diamandis, Ray Kurzeil founded Singularity University in 2009. They have programs inspired by the future of abundance where we will have no restrictions towards what we can possibly achieve. The faculty is proud to have over 40% of women in the Graduate Studies Program from all over the world, speaking more than 30 different languages.

Last week was Global Challenges week. Every day, we had a panel of amazing speakers talking about different global challenge areas. The sessions were a deep dive into the real problems of today. The speakers were truly involved into their fields with very much experience and understanding about the problems involved in each of the challenge areas – Global Health, Water, Food, Energy, Poverty, Security, Environment and Education.

One of the amazing guest speakers we had just a few days ago was Sushmita Ghosh – one of the leaders behind the Ashoka organization. Ashoka envisions an Everyone Is A Changemaker™ world – a world that responds quickly and effectively to social challenges, and where each individual has the freedom, confidence and societal support to address any social problem and drive change.

She talked a lot about what sparks the changemakers – how you have to give people the power and the opportunity to succeed in making a difference. When I asked her backstage about how is the right way to introduce that change into the society, she gave me an answer I’ll always have with me.

She explained that people don’t always like to change but at the end, everybody loves to be on the winning side. Therefore if you are really passionate about your idea and you can clearly see that the change you are creating inspires positive outcomes, then the people will love you and will follow you and will not want to let you go.

My GSP12 classmates and I are very excited to be part of Singularity University and are looking forward to start work on our team projects. One of the goals of GSP is to design a solution, create a company or launch a project that could positively impact one billion people in 10 years. It may sound overwhelming but some of the women entrepreneurs here this summer, CEOs of their own startups, are already changing the lives of hundreds of thousands today!

Editor’s note: Got a question for our guest blogger? Leave a message in the comments below.

About the guest blogger: Bogdana Rakova is software developer at Completit, bringing microcontrollers to the everyday people with a Lego-style way of working with real world embedded devices. She was a finalist in the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition for an interactive app teaching people about environmental sustainability. Bogdana’s current project is Graboo, helping you pay attention to nutrition products consumed and how they affect your health. She is currently a computer science student in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland, an intern with Women 2.0, was on the StartupBus. She studies neuroscience at Mount Holyoke College, where she is trying to merge a passion for tech and the brain into a new wave of cognition-based technology

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