How will you impact our world? Start here.
The Rustic Pathways Critical Issues Summit was a transformative event that brought together 100 young leaders from over 20 countries. Held in Southeast Asia from July 16 to August 2, 2019, this two-week program aimed to tackle pressing global issues through immersive learning, collaboration, and innovative problem-solving. Participants attended workshops, lived in local communities, and engaged in design challenges to develop actionable solutions for some of today’s most critical problems.
The Critical Issues
- Vietnam – Access to Education: Is it a right for all people?
- Thailand – Gender Equality: What’s the path to reaching equality?
- Cambodia – Access to Water: Is there enough on the planet?
The Critical Issues Summit Itinerary
Gaining First-Hand Insights into Community Challenges
During the first week, participants delved deeply into one of three critical global issues by living within local communities. They explored challenges like access to education in Vietnam, gender equality in Thailand, and water scarcity in Cambodia. These “classes” focused on understanding the human aspects of each problem through direct interaction with local families and leaders.
Reflective note-taking and group discussions allowed participants to synthesize their experiences and gain a deeper understanding of the issues at hand.
Before heading to Udon Thani, prepare to share what you’ve learned with your peers and build on your experiences during Action Week.
Meeting Local Leaders and Experts
Participants attended meetings with community leaders, NGO representatives, and academic experts. These discussions provided diverse views on the root causes of the issues and offered insights into possible solutions.
Through collaboration with local experts and leaders, participants had the chance to address each issue and explore practical, human-centered approaches. The experience sparked new questions about equity, resource access, and sustainability.
Designing Sustainable Solutions
In the second week, participants focused on creating impactful projects through workshops and collaborative teamwork. They used design-thinking frameworks, progressing through stages such as empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test.
The structured order of activities ensured that participants worked through each stage thoughtfully, developing sustainable solutions that addressed the issues they had explored.
Presentations and Funding Opportunities
The week culminated in project presentations, where teams pitched their ideas to a panel of experts. This was a chance for participants to speak about their innovative solutions and compete for funding.
The summit partnered with GiveBackHack to offer a $10,000 prize, ensuring that impactful ideas had the support they needed to begin implementing real-world solutions. Participants also had the opportunity to share their progress with the broader Rustic Pathways community, including through Facebook and other channels, to garner support for their initiatives.
Working in teams, develop a Social Innovation Design Challenge project aimed at positively impacting one of the critical issues and pitch it to a panel of social entrepreneurs, innovators, and sustainable development experts.
Key Skills and Lessons Learned
Building Resilience and Embracing Failure
Workshops emphasized the value of learning from failure and fostering resilience. Participants explored various options for tackling complex global problems while collaborating on innovative projects.
The summit encouraged reflection on critical questions, helping young leaders refine their approaches to problem-solving. By working through setbacks and learning from mistakes, they gained valuable skills to drive change.
Expanding Perspectives and Global Networks
Attending the summit allowed participants to build international networks and collaborate with peers from diverse cultural backgrounds. This experience not only enhanced their understanding of global issues but also helped them grow as individuals and leaders.
Personal growth was a key takeaway, as participants worked alongside passionate individuals who shared their commitment to global impact. Through collaboration, participants learned that together they could address challenges that were once seen as insurmountable.
A Transformative Chance to Make an Impact
The Rustic Pathways Critical Issues Summit provided young leaders with the tools and opportunities to address global challenges effectively. By blending immersive experiences with structured innovation sessions, the summit ensured that participants completed the program with practical skills, new perspectives, and actionable solutions.
This event was not just a meeting of minds—it was the start of meaningful work towards sustainable change. By working collaboratively, participants left with a clear view of the power of collective action to create a lasting impact on both their communities and the world.
Review the Daily Itinerary for Each Critical Issues Track
Choose from one of three Critical Issues to explore during Immersion Week before coming together as a group in Thailand for Action Week. Click below to explore resources for each critical issue.
Critical Issues Summit Webinar
Learn more about the summit by watching our recent webinar. Hear more detailed info about the itinerary, get tips about applying for scholarships, and more!
Scholarships
Nearly 300 students from 39 countries applied for 25 full scholarships to attend the Rustic Pathways Critical Issues Summit.
We now have students participating in the Critical Issues Summit from 15 countries, well on our way to our goal of bringing together future change makers from 20 countries.
Up to $10,000 Social Innovation Design Challenge and Entrepreneurship Incubator
Rustic Pathways will award up to $10,000 in seed funding to the most promising student-led project. Following the Summit, GiveBackHack will continue to work with the winning team, providing mentorship, in-kind resources, and support in allocating the $10,000 in a responsible and impactful way.
Judges will score each Innovation Challenge project based on how well it aligns with the Lean Startup principles and Design Thinking Framework. Students’ projects should be built around empathy for the experience of stakeholders; students’ assumptions should be validated with those stakeholders. Students should have clearly defined a problem, proposed a unique solution, and explained how their project will be executed towards creating an impact. Judges will also consider teams’ first prototypes or project iterations. Lastly, judges will score students on their plan to leverage the $10,000 of seed money towards their proposed solution.
Summit Partners and Resident Experts
GiveBackHack
GiveBackHack events bring together passionate community members to develop sustainable, technology-based solutions to some of our most pressing social issues. We are the launchpad for social innovation you need to turn an idea into a reality. We bring together community leaders, designers, developers, and other concerned citizens to create solutions that will help make a lasting impact.
Suzy Bureau
Suzy is designing the Social Innovation curriculum and overseeing the $10K challenge. As a co-founder of GiveBackHack, she has helped launch a variety of new products through GiveBackHack and CoverMyMeds, Ohio’s first unicorn. She has facilitated startup weekends from Europe to Southeast Asia and has a global network of entrepreneurs. GiveBackHack is excited to be connected to the Summit through Suzy’s enthusiasm and passion for bringing social enterprise to young people worldwide.
Anooj Bhandari
Anooj has worked for more than a decade facilitating workshops with high school students, including community organizing more recently. He currently works as the Restorative Justice Coordinator with Make the Road New York at Bushwick Campus Community School, and on the education team at The Moth as a storytelling teaching artist. He works alongside VideoOut to elevate community voices using an intersectional framework
Yasmine El Baggari
A native of Morocco and San Francisco-based, Yasmine launched Voyaj, a platform that connects people for meaningful exchanges to foster global understanding. She has worked with the World Bank, researched at Harvard, and served the U.S. State Department as an Engage America Ambassador. Yasmine has spoken at the World Economic Forum, the Middle East Studies Association, and Obama’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit. She has been featured in National Geographic, Forbes, and the Huffington Post.
Dalia Kamar
Dalia Kamar is the Chief of Product at Founders Media, which showcases real stories about entrepreneurial culture, people, power and the future of the Middle East. She previously managed RiseUp Summit as a university student and created its core brand identity, rebranded it, and strategically positioned RiseUp as it scaled from a volunteer-run event to the globally-recognized gateway to the MENA startup ecosystem. Dalia was recognized among the “25 Under 25” youth of Egypt in 2017.
What Students are Saying About Rustic Pathways Critical Issues Programs
Student Feature: Creating Education Equity
After her experience with Rustic Pathways in Morocco, Josie Rey said she felt empowered to make a difference.
Josie, who’s in her first year at Stellenbosch University near Cape Town, wants to address “one of the biggest problems we have” in South Africa—the high school pass rate.
Only 37 percent of South African high school students complete exams that allow them to graduate, she said. When Josie returned from participating in Rustic’s Critical Issues program Peace, Wonder, and Understanding Islam, she started creating note packs for other students.
“It made me realize that I need to be in a career, in a position that enables me to create more positive change,” Josie said about participating in the program.
The note packs are adapted from Josie’s own study notes. They’re organized by subject and include summaries, study resources, past exams, and tips for how to succeed. Her business is called EduBuntu, a blending of the words education and ubuntu, the Zulu word for humanity.
Josie entered a few innovation challenges and won one, which provided some initial funding to create and distribute the note packs. EduBuntu will eventually become an online study hub where the subscription fees from affluent students would cover the cost for their less fortunate peers.
She said her goal is to “create education equity.”
According to the Global Partnership for Education, more schooling can reduce poverty, increase income, and promote gender equality, among other benefits. Josie’s starting with education, but she wants to do more to promote social entrepreneurship in South Africa.
“I think that all goes down to being inspired to be a change maker from last year,” she said. “I think I’ve always been driven to help people but I think Morocco was the catalyst for action.”
After my service trip, I realized that I don’t need to travel to far away places to help, I can also do that within my community and country. I now am more aware of what issues my own community is facing and how and what I can help with. I volunteer and fundraise even more now in my community and hope to continue to do so.
Quote by: Bronte Grimmer | Beijing, China Life in the Bateyes in the Dominican Republic, 2017
As a Muslim woman I felt that growing up I would surround myself with other Muslims because I thought it was more safe for me, but I was also always eager to talk to non-Muslims in my community about their perspectives on Islam and to change the stigma around it, but I was not quite prepared to do so yet. With the Peace, Wonder, and Understanding Islam program I was given a safe environment to learn and attain the skills I thought were necessary to bring back to my community in order to start dialogues on Islam and hopefully remove the stigma surrounding it—which I have been doing!
Quote by: Sulwan Ahmed | Portland, Oregon Peace, Wonder, and Understanding Islam in Morocco, 2017
My experience on the program was amazing and exceeded my expectations. On my trip, I learned just how reliant marine life is on the coral reefs and their ecosystems. We discussed the effects of rising waters, warmer water temperatures, and impact on the animal populations, and deforestation. Ultimately this is an issue that impacts all of us, particularly the poorest and most fragile amongst us. It was on this trip that I realized that my individual actions can create global change.
Quote by: Quentin Collins | Remsenburg, New York Impact of Climate Change on Marine Environments in Fiji, 2017
Enroll in a Critical Issues Summit Track
If you want to join the next generation of change makers but still have questions about the Critical Issues Summit, call 800.321.4353 or email rustic@rusticpathways.com to speak to one of our Global Program Advisors. Or click below to schedule a call.