The Incredible Global Engagement Summit. I just returned home from Northwestern University in Chicago, where I attend the Global Engagement Summit (GES), a 5-day training conference for young social entrepreneurs from around the world to learn how to put their ideas into action. The conference hosted 65 delegates from 20 countries and featured incredible speakers and mentors like Brian Bordainick from 9th Ward Field of Dreams (who, for the record, may be the most genuine and inspiring public speaker I’ve ever seen), Blair Miller from Acumen Fund, and Josh Nesbit from FrontlineSMS:Medic. But being a completely student-run organization with only 5 years under its belt, how does GES attract such high-caliber human beings year after year?
The answer may come from a short story I heard from Scott Sherman of the Transformative Action Institute.
One of You is the Messiah. Somewhere in Eastern Europe, long ago, a group of monks established a monastery. At first the monastery community was strong, but over time, it waned. Fewer monks were entering the fold. The townspeople, who once enjoyed coming to the monastery, rarely visited anymore. The monks grew concerned.
Just down the street from their monastery was a small synagogue that had become a thriving hub of community activity, drawing both Jews and non-Jews together for meals, service projects, and dialogues. The monks decided to approach the Rabbi of the Synagogue and ask for his insight help restore their community and save the monastery. So they invited him to pay them a visit.
The Rabbi happily agreed and was shown around the monastery very hospitably, being treated to food and drink and every other comfort the monks could spare. At the end of his visit, the Rabbi collected his things and said, “Well my brothers, I really can’t say what the problem is. But I do know this for certain: one of you is the Messiah.” And uttering these words, he left.
The monks were astounded to hear the Messiah was among them. But without being able to know for sure who it was, they began to treat each other as though any one of them might be the Messiah. Within months, the monastery community was completely transformed. New monks joined. The local townspeople returned with generous contributions of food and money. It began to thrive.
The Power of a Loving Team. Perhaps the reason that GES attracts such incredible people every year is that its staff continues to treat every person on the team with a deep love, respect, and honor. “Before anything else, GES is a family,” Emily Kingsley-Ma, one of the GES staff, told me at the Summit’s annual Ethiopian food night.
The GES 2010 Staff
And even thought it’s a family that’s 80 people in size, every single member of the team, from its leaders to its newcomers, knows and celebrates everyone else. When you are around a team that loves each other, around a group of people who treat each other like any one of them could be the Messiah…you never want to leave. You want to invest, you want to advise, you want to come back again and again. And that’s the magic of GES.
Photo credit: Kalyan Varma and The GES Facebook Page
