Dr. Kristin Joos is the Director of the Young Entrepreneurs for Leadership & Sustainability High School Summer Program at the University of Florida, the only summer program in existence where college bound high school students learn and practice the skills of successful business and community leaders, while being inspired to solve social, environmental, and economic  problems.

In 2005 she brought Social Entrepreneurship to UF and founded the Innovative Sustainability & Social Impact (ISSI) Initiative in the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation in the Warrington College of Business at UF. Her research and applied interests center around  social entrepreneurship, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, service learning & community service, civic engagement and creating positive social change. Kristin is passionate about teaching and empowering students to use the skills & strategies of business to create innovative & sustainable solutions to social, environmental, and economic problems locally and around the world.

In 2006 Kristin was named Service Learning Professor of the Year at UF, because of the community service she requires her students to do. In fact, in 2012 her students used NobleHour to track more than 11,000 hours of service totaling more than 2/3 of President's Goal of 1 Million minutes of service for all UF students. She is the author of Don't Just Count Your Hours, Make Your Hours Count: The Essential Guide to Volunteering & Community Service. For the 2011-2012 academic year, Kristin served as a Sustainability Fellow at UF. In 2013 she was awarded the UF Sustainable Solutions Award for Academics (i.e. Sustainability Professor of the Year).

Kristin partners with Ashoka's Youth Venture, the Echoing Green Foundation's Work on Purpose project, and B-Labs, the organization behind B-Corporations to create opportunities for students.

About Youth Venture

Ashoka’s Youth Venture aims to help an entire generation of young people develop as changemakers who will improve their communities now and throughout their lives.

Youth Venture inspires and supports teams of young people to launch and lead their own civic- minded organizations and businesses. Youth teams access workshops, tools, adult allies, a global network of like-minded young changemakers and seed funding to establish their own ventures that solve problems around them. Youth Venture was created by Ashoka, the global pioneer of the social entrepreneurship sector and the world’s biggest network of changemakers.

We believe that the greatest contribution we can make to the world is to increase dramatically the number of changemakers today and in every future generation. This is the key factor for success for every part of society, from a school to a company to an entire country. Ashoka’s Youth Venture operates in 18 countries and online at www.GenV.net.