Changemaker Education

Change your campus. Change the world.

Giving Canadian youth the skills to thrive

Imagine an education that equips young people with the skills they need to create positive change in a troubled world. Imagine attending a college or university that prioritizes collaboration, competency, and hands-on changemaking. Imagine a campus that challenges students to apply learnings with empathy, creativity, and purpose.

Imagine a world where everyone is a Changemaker.

Ashoka believes that colleges and universities are ideally positioned to equip every student to be a Changemaker.

We partner with institutions of higher learning to prepare young people to lead and thrive in:

  • a world that is increasingly uncertain, complex, and ambiguous
  • a workforce with demands we cannot yet predict
  • a society hungry for humble, collaborative, and relevant solutions to global challenges

Changemaker Education shifts mindsets toward social innovation and social entrepreneurship.

We work to transform the institutional cultures of colleges and universities.

With our partners in post-secondary education, we equip graduates with the knowledge, skills, and outlook to lead and create change in a world desperately in need of transformation.

What is a Changemaker?

Changemakers are practical visionaries. They imagine new ways of being, and then act, in collaboration with others, to bring to life new ideas, systems, and relationships that benefit everyone.

Changemaker Education develops students’ capacity to create positive and purposeful social change.

Changemaker Education develops and hones students’ empathy, teamwork, collaboration, leadership, and creative problem-solving. It is brought to life through methodologies that include civic engagement, social innovation, and social entrepreneurship.

Empowering Communities of Changemakers

Empowering post-secondary students, staff and faculty as changemakers to galvanize their campus communities around a collective changemaker identity.

Catalyzing Social Innovation in Higher Education

Breaking down structural barriers to institutional change and fostering a campus-wide culture of social innovation.

Creating a Thriving Global Network

Connecting and inspiring a global network of entrepreneurial students, staff, faculty and Community leaders to broaden the reach and deepen the impact of innovation around the world.

Solving Global Challenges through Effective Changemakers

Impacting the education of millions of students and empowering them to solve Global challenges through the Changemaker Campus network.

Become a Changemaker Campus

We’re ensuring that changemaking becomes the new normal on Canadian campuses. Join us.

Meet the Canadian Changemaker Campuses

We’re part of a global community of post-secondary leaders who are transforming student and faculty experience through social innovation and changemaking.

Explore ChangemakerEducation’s Knowledge Hub

Access a curated selection of resources to support your campus’s evolution into a Changemaker institution.

Ashoka Canada envisions a day when changemaking is embedded into the DNA of every college and university.

ACTIVATING
CHANGEMAKING
IN HIGHER EDUCATION

We partner with higher education to build a world where everyone can be a Changemaker.

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Highlights from the Network

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Manifesting As A Changemaker Toolkit

This toolkit presents the Manifesting As A Changemaker Model, focusing on building students’ capacities in empathy, teamwork, leadership, and changemaking.

Beyond Borders and Boundaries: Expanding Possibilities for the Future of Higher Education

The Exchange is Ashoka U’s annual global gathering for social impact educators. See highlights from our 2019 Exchange in San Diego, CA!

“What makes a movement?” Ashoka U Exchange 2019 keynote panel

Ashoka Fellows Saru Jayaraman, Jessica Ladd, Erica Gerrity and Rev. Jennifer Bailey discuss their work, their impact, and what it takes to build a better future.

Laurier’s team was named champion among 58 teams across Canada.

The team will represent Canada at the Enactus World Cup. Learn more about the amazing initiatives designed by WLU students.

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HEC Montreal becomes the world’s first French-language Changemaker Campus.

The School joins a select group of colleges and universities worldwide, united in their commitment to social transformation.

Ashoka Canada and Royal Roads University have established a new research chair in changemaking.

The Ashoka Research Chair in Research Effectiveness aims to evaluate change through socially engaged and effective research.

Changing the Now in Simcoe County

Over the course of eight months in 2019, Georgian College — an Ashoka Changemaker Campus — took on the challenge of building a region of changemakers in Simcoe County.

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Georgian was the first college in Canada to be designated a changemaker college by Ashoka U.

The designation falls under the Changemaker Campus program, which recognizes more than 40 colleges and universities globally that have embedded social innovation and changemaking into their culture, programming and operations.

Canada’s youth
in the new economy

“I am very proud and thankful to be part of the Ashoka global movement and to be designated as a Changemaker campus. Collaborating with our Ashoka U colleagues helps our students, faculty and staff identify and maximize their capacity for social impact across Canada and beyond.”

 Dr. Johanne Turbide, Secretary General of HEC Montréal
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RBC and Ashoka are preparing Canada’s youth to meet the challenges of the future.