28 Aug Why We Renewed Rêve Revival in 2017

This time last year, we were nervously kicking off our first un-fundraiser. We wondered, Would people come? Did it reflect the values of our organization? Was it worth adding more work to an already-crowded summer?

It was all that and more. So we revved up Revival for a second round in 2017! This time, 24 students participated and we raised enough money to serve 300 future students. Here are three more reasons we believe in this event:

1. It’s centered around students

Rêve Revival isn’t your average fundraiser. Rather than have attendees write a check or bid on auction items, we invite corporate sponsors to demonstrate their commitment to the workforce of the future. They support Revival financially and also send a group of their best and brightest employees to mentor students throughout the day.

This model lets our staff, volunteers, and students focus on their job: building skills for future careers. Students spend a large part of the summer working on business ideas that answer the question, “How might we create a better community?” Then they bring those ideas to Revival and make them even better with the help of participants from sponsor companies. In other words, Revival couldn’t happen without students and their ingenuity. Pretty cool!

2. It’s challenging

Both at Revival and leading up to it, students embody the role of a company’s C-suite—the CEO, CTO, and so on. This gives them decision-making power for their business idea—adults help, but do not direct. Despite that, it’s still scary to put your ideas out there. Revival challenges students in other ways: it requires them to seek and implement feedback, present themselves professionally, and think like an entrepreneur. By holding high standards for students, we help them build grit that will be an asset throughout their lives.

3. It builds ideas with staying power

We’re not just saying that. Here are just a few ideas that students refined and presented at Rêve Revival 2017:

Be Heard

An app that transforms the public’s idea of what a protest is. This tool helps people identify where protests are happening and helps them get involved in a peaceful way.

Voice = Vision

An initiative that uses kiosks called Voice Boxes to collect community input on civic decisions. That input is shared with elected officials to help them make informed choices and better represent their constituents.

Cheer

An app that helps students anonymously report bullying or other unsafe situations to school authorities, with a focus on ease of use for students and clear trend reports for admins.

These concepts are so promising that we’re trying to develop them further—with students leading the way, of course.

Now that you know how valuable Revival is, may we suggest becoming a sponsor or volunteer? Not only will you have a meaningful volunteer experience with young people, you’ll get to network with top business leaders in the Twin Cities. If you want to learn more, please contact us!

To learn more about the ideas presented at Revival, please see this executive summary. If you’d like to see more pictures, you can find them here.