Developing a project to promote change in the society is never easy because you will face many different challenges: delays and re-scheduling, lack of resources to complete the tasks, cultural shocks, bureaucracy and detractors.

Having a good team to work with is the key to successfully implement changes in society. During 2019-2020 a small group of IMBA students decided to promote an awareness event called Leaders Building Bridges.

Leaders Building Bridges was the result of the exhaustive effort of eight IMBA students to promote Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) practices and encourage students to participate in the life of social organizations through a two-day event with in a fun atmosphere.

I truly believe we co-worked well towards the objective and I’m sure that the chemistry of the team and the combination of our different leadership capabilities was a tremendous asset to accomplish the goal of having three different activities to support two NGOs: Énergie Jeunes that develops student retention of 123.250 kids.[1] and l’association Valentin Haüy, which improves the life for blind and partially sighted people.[2]

First Event: Trading Games

We created an event in which the attendance could learn the rules of trading in a fun environment. To create the ambiance of a real trading experience we decided to use the Trading Room located in Grande ROMEROArche Basement (GB41) and let the participants to invest by their own: deciding what to do with a stock (buy/sell/hold) using a graph with only 5 seconds to answer. That small exercise was the simplest version of what being a trader feels like.

Second Event: Societé Generale Corporate Talk

During the second activity we had the pleasure to meet Marie-Laure Bourat, Co-founder of Société Générale’s Social impact Solutions. She gave us the chance to learn more about how Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development Goals are currently practiced in Societé Generale. The event had impact and generated a lot of interest among our colleagues attending.

Activity 3: Brain games

The challenge consisted in five consecutive brain games and a minimum passing score to access the next level that was assessed by an online platform.  the performance of the participants. The activity caught the attention of many students and the place was crowded during all day.

Having a great attendance could be very challenging, so the team decided to use board games to help the people relax from your tough schedules and enjoy more the experience. This also help us to get more attention, because some students play really well, and we took advantage of the opportunity to promote even more the two associations in the meantime.

Thanks for all the work done by Marius DeLorenzo, Alina Ksendzenko, Cristiane Carneiro Da Silva, Enrique Romero, Alberto Rodriguez, Natalia Gonzalez And Prateeka Mandadi in the end we could deliver one of the best Leadership Projects of the 2020 cohort. I feel fortunate for being part of such a great team!

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[1] Energie Jeunes. (29 de March de 2020). Retrieved from https://energiejeunes.fr/decouvrir-energie-jeunes/ [1] l’association Valentin Haüy. (29 de March de 2020). Retrieved from https://www.avh.asso.fr/fr/lassociation/fondation-valentin-hauy