By Chen Yingwei

There is a lovely harbor in every people’s minds about what kind of life you are creating is what kind of world you are making. Just like Gandhi said, “be the change you want to see.”

From June 25th to 29th, 2019, the fourth season of Journey of Social Witness on the sea which was supported by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited and the SE Star competition which was co-founded by NPI Charity Organization’s Development Center and YouChange China Social Entrepreneur Foundation. It was a learning and growing experience of social innovation on the sea created by witnesses, mentors and fellow travelers to re-recognize life and career; generate more great actions which will benefit the society; show people that they have brought change to the world and people around them; and witness the final competition of the annul SE Star competition and the birth of its champion.

Kang Yu, who is the president of Shiguang Seasons Poetry Teenage Service Center in Kunming, made judges and audiences understood how the education of literature could change the future society via her theme speech —— Children Who Write Poems Will Not Smash Glasses, They Are Light, and everyone on the scene felt the meaning of letting children writing poems. She won first place in the end.

The SE Stars who bored the ship came from all around China, they accomplished self-surpassing and made warm connections. Just as Jing Guoyu, who is the inheritor of Beijing embroidery, said, “stars only can be found by navigators and guide directions when they formed constellations.”

SE Star, the civilian charity version of Win In China

Looking back, the luckiest thing that happened to me was that I drew the straw to go to Peking University’s chemical major when I was seventeen. A girl who dreamed of being Madame Curie change after went through a year of military training in Shijiazhuang, she participated and founded Peking University Girl without knowing anything, and transferred to the psychology department.

In 1998, I participated and founded Digital Youth Weekly of China Youth Daily, and witnessed the commercialize and socialize process of the Chinese internet. The first group of internet pioneers has become famous and wealthiest achievers who the public look forward to becoming.

In 2006, I joined the producing team of Win In China and saw many companies steered away from their core value because they wanted to profit fast, which led to their demise. What’s the purpose of a man living on this planet? Why do people start their own companies? What does money mean? Those questions made me think.

In 2007, under the influence of Lü Chao, the founder of NPI Charity Organization’s Development Center, I devoted into charity and founded Social Entrepreneurs magazine, then I found answers: personality is the product, the one should start-up business for the sustainable development of the society.

Now, many large enterprises talk about social responsibility after they succeed. Can we inject the gene of social value since the beginning and encourage them to develop more healthily? Since 2012, we have been looking for SE Stars who have merged the social value into their main business since the early period of their start-ups and included the relevant parties’ point of view into their decision-making system.

For seven years, we have found 346 SE Stars with talent scouts and friends of regional competitions from mainland China and Taiwan. The SE Star is like the civilian charity version of Win In China, we gather hundreds of mentors from all over China to give strength to the stars and cheer for them.

Though they are at the start point like the pioneers of the internet were back then, they no longer need to worry about profiting. Instead, they can consider the problem of society’s sustainable development, the mission will be their primary drive.

How does the SE Star competition help people grow

In the 1980s, one Japanese boat, PeaceBoat, spent hundreds of days around the world, and people discussed social issues and promoted organizational development in a closed space. In 2003, a transcultural college on the sea was born in America. They encourage people to learn and absorb as many cultural knowledge as possible in a movable confined space to generate more good actions which will benefit society.

From July 18th to 23rd, 2017, the SE Stars co-founded the first season of the Journey of Social Witness with China Initiative of Social Finance, Shenzhen Charity Foundation, NPI Foundation, Z.H.ISLAND Foundation League and other groups. This year was the fourth season.

How to change the boat, which is the epitome of the society into an ideal boat of social entrepreneurs?

Since we moved the competition of SE Stars on the boat in 2017, SE Stars and witnesses of their territories have been creating a scene: on the giant boat sailing on the sea and in the mini-society, they promote the relationship between people, between people and the environment, and between people and themselves.

The competition of SE Stars is not to measure one person is good or bad, right or wrong with a ruler, it’s to let people see each other, realize themselves and their careers through real experience. Especially during heated competitions when you know you may lose, while challenging your limitation, you will find your advantage and restriction, and your heart will be trained through matters.

The core of SE Stars competition is to serve the start-up stars of society and mainly to serve the social entrepreneurs who join the competition. We pay attention to the growth of people, not who’s project is the best.

Therefore, after five or six days of being together and collide in a rather confined space, such as the cruise where you can’t call and has unstable Wi-Fi signal, stars, their peers and mentors had more time to communicate, study and improve with each other. They can contact and work with each other after they got off the boat.

Meet good teachers and friends on the cruise among the vast earth

It takes a hundred years of hard-working to be on the same boat. In five days, the best reward to contestants was that they met good teacher and friends.

Looking back, the SE Stars who had boarded the ship felt the most are connection, astonishment, and shock. Because communicating and colliding in a closed space even change people’s temperament and future direction.

The entire trip was like a giant touching party, most contestants’ feedbacks were that they were going to come again. Especially those who were initiative gained the most. Junjie, a contestant from Taiwan, came here for fun. But he believed that he had never seen any mentors who were as devoted as they did in Taiwan. You can’t escape it in a space like this, so it was rewarding for him, and he wanted to come back next time.

The broadness of the sea made people relax completely. A contestant from Yunnan, who owns an organic restaurant said that the time on the ship was her most challenging time because all the good teachers and friends resolved the pain in her, she felt healed, and when she got off the boat, she seemed to find herself and determined her future direction.

Some found business partners on the ship, some changed directions, some knew themselves better. And when they got off-board, the witnesses’ company and first-time CEOs’ mutual assistance made social start-ups gain unlimited growth and wisdom.

“Come here is like meeting a long-lost friend. Everyone is enthusiastic and familiar.” Cheng Baojun from He’ nan share this, and during this trip, he found out that he had a lot of insufficiencies and problems. He gained clarity of himself and developed directly from the bottom of his heart, and he thanked the mentors’patience, passion, sincerity, shares of their expertise, and everyone’s experience.

Liu Ying, who was a SE Star, developed many city partners after he boarded the boat. In addition to that, CC Talk discovered more social innovation speakers, every year, the winner of SE Star competition received over seventy thousand yuan of speech profit from them to make their patterns more clearly, better at telling their stories and more influential to the public.

Who are witnesses? They witness the growth of SE Stars. When they are off the ship, our witnesses need to donate twenty hours to their proteges to accompany their growth. Such as in 2017, Mr. Wang Hangzui who was the CEO of CD Finance spent nearly 40 hours with Su Jiancheng, a star farmer, who worked in soil improvement to support him through the most challenging period of his start-up.

Of course, SE Star created an opportunity to go through all the good projects and founders in five or six days, more and more social investors are interested in this chance. At first, people think it is hard to squeeze five or six days, but once they are on board, it saves a great deal of time and costs.

Next summer, let’s witness a new season of miracle

The Journey of Social Witness is evolving every year and every season.

This year, organizers from eighteen provinces, municipalities, and Taiwan included had great observations, discovered seventy-two social innovation representatives, in the experiment of four nights and five days and under the guidance of witnesses, we created a boat of miracles of life, growth, and career.

This year, we followed the mode of letting the witnesses passing on the journey to the private board, the mentors chose their proteges on the ship, in the meantime, the top social company starters from all over the nation got to tell their social innovation stories in front of more people. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to open their eyes, everyone gave each other powers, learning from each other’s shortcomings and advantages and connect.

This year, we hired a psychology mentor—— Jin Xiangqun, the dean of Happy School, to help everyone to break their values( life value, money value, and world value), and the judges of the final who have an authentic experience in start-up and social sentiment will surprise everyone.

After a year’s prepare, in 2020, what kind of score sheet and amazing contents will we present? Let’s wait and see!

(The boat of social innovation is ready for signing up, and you can have a special discount. The hotline is 010-86461629)

Special acknowledgment: photos are supported by Wu Yang from Rice Grain Fragrant, Free Image, Yirenlu, and others.