Peter Vandor je ko-osnivač Centra za Socijalno Preduzetništvo na Univerzitetu Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien (Vienna University of Economics and Business). Još od najranijeg detinjstva se seća da je želeo da bude profesor i njegovo obrazovanje ga je vodilo u tom pravcu.
U toku studija je razvio i strast ka inovacijama i preduzetništvu što ga je navelo da osnuje SEC i radi na osnaživanju preduzetničkog duha u zemljama jugoistočne Evrope. Svoju master tezu je radio na temu uticaja studiranja u inostranstvu na razvijanje biznis ideja i partnerstava, i tvrdi da ga je iskustvo koje nosi sa studija u inostranstvu i sa gostovanja kao profesor na razmeni na Univerzitetu Stanford zaista promenilo i oblikovalo u osobu koja je danas. Pročitajte šta Peter poručuje u ekskluzivnom intervjuu koji je dao za VIA BLOG. Intervju vam prenosimo u originalu na engleskom jeziku.
VIA BLOG: Write shortly about yourself.
I am co-founder and manager of the Social Entrepreneurship Center (SEC) in Vienna. The SEC is part of the Vienna University of Economics and Business and conducts research, capacity building and consulting on social entrepreneurship, social innovation and related topics. We are mainly active in Central and Eastern Europe.
I am not sure if I had one particular dream profession as a child, but I can remember that at some point, probably at the age of 7 or so, I wanted to go to a costume party as a “professor”. I don’t exactly know why, probably that was triggered by some cartoon character I saw in TV. So, I did, my mother even made me a fancy hat that I could wear, the type you can see in American movies, which graduates throw in the air. So, I guess that dream worked out, even though sadly they don’t have these hats here in Austria.
VIA BLOG: Have you studied abroad? Please describe shortly your experience.
I studied abroad at the RSM Erasmus Universeit in Rotterdam in 2007 and recently had the honor to be a visiting scholar at Stanford University. Both experiences were extremely enriching and important for me personally and professionally, showing me new and different perspectives of the world.
In fact, I later ended up writing my dissertation on the effects of living abroad on your ability to come up with good business ideas. As it turned out, students can substantially improve their ideation skills through exchange semesters, by recombining observations from their host countries and countries of origin.
VIA BLOG: Tell us more about your career at WU University Vienna, and about the university itself.
WU Vienna is one of the largest business universities in Europe and has about 22.000 students and 2.100 staff. It is host of a range of educational offers and research in economics, business, sociology, information technology, languages and law.
I joined WU as student in 2001, wrote my dissertation at the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and later co-founded the Social Entrepreneurship Center here. It’s a very inspiring place to work at, especially since we have moved to a new campus near the Prater. There is a lot of space for students now and the whole atmosphere has become much more open and vibrant then before.
VIA BLOG: Tell us more about the Social Entrepreneurship Center at WU Vienna and previous and future projects that you department is planning to implement?
The Social Entrepreneurship Center is part of the Vienna University of Economics and Business and conducts research, capacity building and consulting in the areas of social entrepreneurship, social innovation and related topics.
One of our most important projects is the NGO Academy, which we operate together with our long-standing partner ERSTE Foundation. It is our attempt to support the civil society organizations in Central Eastern Europe. These organization make crucially important work, yet often have very limited access to resources and know-how. Through the academy, we can provide access to the latest expertise on topics such as leadership, managing hybrid organizations and data-driven fundraising, and help them build peer-networks amongst each other.
We also conduct research in the field. For example, we just finished a study on the challenges and opportunities of civil society in 16 Central and Eastern European countries. It was a quite amazing enterprise, with 27 authors and over 400 experts contributing to it. By the way, Dušan Spasojević wrote an excellent chapter on civil society in Serbia in it, you should probably read it!
VIA BLOG: How students can join the Social Impact Award project?
Our main offer to students is actually part of a program that I founded in 2008 and which is now mainly operated by Impact Hub Vienna and number of amazing partners, the Social Impact Award. It offers training and support for the very first steps as social entrepreneur and guides students along that path. To take part, there are no specific qualifications needed apart from being in student in one of the 18 countries we operate in.
There is an amazing team running Social Impact Award in Serbia as well, so if contributing to society and entrepreneurship are something you find interesting, you might want to check that out as well.
Ukoliko imate pitanje u vezi sa studijama i stipendijama u inostranstvu, pošaljite nam besplatan upit popunjavanjem upitnika ispod, i dobićete odgovor u najkraćem mogućem roku.
