{"id":379602,"date":"2019-05-09T10:41:31","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T14:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=379602"},"modified":"2019-05-13T14:25:45","modified_gmt":"2019-05-13T18:25:45","slug":"muhammad-miqdad-social-entrepreneurship-379602","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/muhammad-miqdad-social-entrepreneurship-379602\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding the \u2018missing piece\u2019 in social entrepreneurship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making Their Mark<\/strong><\/a> is a Newscenter series of profiles celebrating members of Rochester\u2019s graduating class of 2019.<\/em><\/h4>\n
\n

Three questions
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Favorite class?<\/strong> \u201cPrinciples of Economics with lecturer Michael Rizzo. \u201cHis lessons from economics helped me become a better engineer, and a better businessman, and a better everything. You will probably not get an A in the class but will cherish this class for the rest of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Favorite tradition?<\/strong> \u201cSinging ‘The Genesee’. \u201cI don\u2019t know all the words, but every time I sing it, I want to cry. It\u2019s like being home for me..\u201d<\/p>\n

Favorite spot on campus?<\/strong> The Barbara J. Burger iZone. \u201cIt\u2019s a new space, but it means a lot to me because of the people who run it and how they run it, and what it means. Having a place dedicated to innovation helps people be more innovative.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Muhammad Miqdad is graduating from the University of Rochester with a degree in chemical engineering<\/a>. But in many respects, the degree is the least of the many things he\u2019s gained during four years as an undergraduate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been my home base,\u201d says Miqdad. The students he\u2019s met from diverse cultures and backgrounds, the faculty members and administrators who have inspired him and taken a personal interest in him, the social issues he\u2019s engaged in\u2014all of that, in addition to the engineering skills he\u2019s learned, have helped \u201cshape me as a person,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s ready to tackle the world.<\/p>\n

He displayed a knack for recruiting volunteers and fundraising. But he also discovered the limitations of the nonprofit model; once he left a project to try something new, it would start to falter. He wanted to learn whether for-profit ventures could provide the \u201cmissing piece\u201d of the puzzle, furthering social good in a more sustainable way. And he wanted to master the skills that would be required.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s found his answers at Rochester. The University provided Miqdad with a Renaissance Scholarship covering his tuition for four years\u2014and with an open curriculum that enabled him to explore social sciences in addition to engineering.<\/p>\n

An introductory class in economics taught by lecturer Michael Rizzo \u201cfundamentally changed the way I look at the world,\u201d Miqdad says. He took more economics classes to hone his grasp of what drives people and socioeconomic growth, especially on a global scale.<\/p>\n

Miqdad was serving as a technical advisor for a University of Rochester team competing for the Hult Prize<\/a>\u2014the world\u2019s largest social entrepreneurship contest\u2014when he heard about \u201can amazing, mysterious team from Pakistan\u201d that bested over 40 teams from around the globe with a project aimed at alleviating the global water crisis. He contacted the CEO of the organization, PakVitae, to offer his congratulations and learn more about the startup\u2019s innovative filtration technology, which could provide clean drinking water to families in developing countries at less than a cent per liter.<\/p>\n

It was the \u201cmissing piece\u201d Miqdad had been looking for. By the end of the conversation, Miqdad was hired at PakVitae and is now the company\u2019s business development executive.<\/p>\n

After graduating Miqdad\u2019s schedule is pretty much booked for the next two years.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be focusing on expanding PakVitae to new markets in East Africa and Southeast Asia while collaborating with international relief organizations to find ways to serve those in need. \u201cI see myself as the lunar lander for the company, exploring uncharted territory, engaging with different communities to identify their pain points, and then relaying that back to my team. That is basically my job, connecting dots with technology and an end product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond two years?<\/p>\n

Eventually, Miqdad wants to work in \u201cimpact investing\u201d\u2014securing capital for companies with a high social impact so they can grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to stay engaged with young entrepreneurs who are really smart in their own areas,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

First, however, Miqdad may return to Rochester to get a master\u2019s degree from the Technical Entrepreneurship and Management (TEAM) program<\/a>\u2014and get to know his \u201chome base\u201d even better.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that I\u2019m leaving, I\u2019m realizing how many other resources there are here that I didn\u2019t even know about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Muhammad Miqdad is graduating with a degree in chemical engineering, but his four years at Rochester are leading him to a future focused on connecting the dots between technology, business, and social good. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":379612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[26692,18842,18632],"class_list":["post-379602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-class-of-2019","tag-department-of-chemical-and-sustainability-engineering","tag-hajim-school-of-engineering-and-applied-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFinding the \u2018missing piece\u2019 in social entrepreneurship<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Muhammad Miqdad's four years at Rochester are leading him to a future focused on connecting the dots between technology, 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