Jason Woolf

Jason is the founder of Umbiyozo, a social venture to empower the South African youth through traditional singing and dancing, and through the street-sale of a corresponding DVD of performances. Although he found his deep-rooted desire for morality and justice early on, it didn’t really manifest itself beyond personal interactions until his years at Dartmouth High School. A confluence of factors led him to take action. Frequent trips to Cape Town, South Africa to visit his grandparents forced him to face the gross inequality that still exists in the world. Yet, those trips also revealed to him some of the more beautiful aspects of the human spirit, such as cultural music practices, which really resonated with Jason, who picked up singing and guitar as a major preoccupation. The almost subconscious act of forming and leading a band with high school friends led him to believe in his own entrepreneurial spirit. It was through these experiences — amongst others — that established his resolve to act on issues, and hence find love in social entrepreneurship. His strengths as a social entrepreneur are sincerity, depth and creativeness of thought, amiability, moral courage and persistence. He attends New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and is in the class of 2016.