Apollo Talent - the power of music, entrepreneurship and community service

I arrived at Georgetown University last fall with more passion than your average freshman. Sure, I was excited to get to class, meet new friends, and explore what it means to be a college student, but I also wanted to use my time in Washington, DC for something more. The first issue I felt inspired to confront was the appalling nature of the DC public school system. As someone who had grown up singing opera, practicing instruments, and playing in orchestras, I understood that my own education had been largely shaped by musical instruction. Seeing a severe lack of music education in DC schools, I started Apollo Talent, a venture that would support my love for musical performance with my passion for bringing music to DC public schools.

Apollo Talent provides gig opportunities to college performance groups, while connecting the very same groups to partner schools to bridge the musical gap in DC schools. Implementing the business required me to step outside my comfort zone and to learn patience more than anything. I found myself assuming every role from salesman to webmaster, outreach director to business partner. I came to the understanding that the most effective entrepreneurs are the ones who are willing and able to assume any role. To this day, I continue to wear a variety of hats.

Apollo Talent now works with five student entertainment groups in Washington, DC, ranging from string quartets to a cappella groups, and connects them to performance opportunities while simultaneously orchestrating a mentorship program for DC public school students. This venture is food for the soul -- it allows me to continue harnessing my excitement for music and education while enabling me to make a difference.

My story is ongoing, but it has shown me how passion can truly change the world. My entrepreneurial journey started with me becoming part of the Compass Fellowship, a program I participated in at Georgetown, which was founded for just this purpose -- to help students find their passions, understand them in a social context, and ultimately put them into practice. I know that through Apollo Talent, I will be able to be proud of my time spent in DC.

- Junho Lee, Georgetown 2013, Compass Fellow

Compass Partners incubates social entrepreneurial ventures and offers social business training. As an incubator, we provide start-up resources, seed funding, and a vibrant support network to students with innovative ideas to change the world through business. Our main educational program, the Compass Fellowship, exposes 15 college freshmen at each university to the world of social entrepreneurship through an intensive personal development and social business training program. Fellowship modules focus on the different aspects of becoming a social entrepreneur and are led by thought leaders from the community including CEOs, bestselling authors, and start-up innovators.

Our program is full of exciting stories like that of Junho. We are currently training 75 Fellows and are based in five universities. We take college undergraduate freshmen who are interested in social entrepreneurship and help lead them down the path to creating a business. Our program involves the stories of CEOs, entrepreneurs, authors, and other such innovators, who share their advice, inspiration, and mentorship with our Fellows. Throughout the year, our Fellows work on personal business ideas which are guided and strengthened by these mentors and speakers through our program. At the end of two years, our Fellows, at the ages of 19 and 20, are the owners of fully functioning social ventures. Each venture is an incredible story in itself.

Every day we get the opportunity to listen to stories from young social entrepreneurs -- the industry leaders of tomorrow who are finding unique ways to change the world today. Together with CSRwire we'll be sharing these stories with you. We'll be highlighting highlighting an aspect of the social entrepreneurial space and sharing examples of what young social entrepreneurs are doing -- everyone from our Fellows to the leaders of other cool organization we've come across. By putting some of these stories in the limelight, we hope that many more will be created!