Halfway through her doctoral degree, Anita requested a year sabbatical from her studies to focus on her professional career. Her thesis supervisor advised against it, citing the high rate of attrition after long breaks, but she insisted. Six months later, when they met to catch-up, he offered this advice: “If you want to finish your PhD, you need to be passionate about your topic. So, go home to that box, drawer, or whatever you keep stuffing things into, and dig a little. I bet you’ll find your passion.” Initially, Anita scoffed at that suggestion. But then she discovered a folder in her filing cabinet labeled “Miscellaneous.”

Eureka! For more than a decade, Anita had been collecting stories about people solving social problems – a tribe known as social entrepreneurs. She found her passion, switched her thesis topic and defended her dissertation in 2011.

Watch this video to learn more about social entrepreneurship.

Watch an interview about Anita’s research: