Who’s Behind DANSIC

Hello there,

We thought it was time to write a post and explain who we are at DANSIC and why we are doing what we’re doing as a team. We’re talking about the organisation as a whole, our wonderful volunteer members, and most importantly, the common mission that binds us all together. We’re constantly evolving, so bear in mind that parts of this post are specific to our 2021 team.

You might have already guessed it from the abbreviation that we are a social innovation club. Now, you may ask what that actually stands for? Let us clarify it for you a bit.

Social innovation, in general, is the process of developing novel practices and solutions that can tackle large, even systemic social issues. These new methods aim to meet social needs in improved and better ways than previous solutions have. Social needs can be anything from education, healthcare to community development or similar. Different organisations apply different definitions, but most of them revolve around a sense of ‘newness’ (innovativeness), and the importance of social objectives, actor interaction and diversity.

Effective solutions that social innovation is built on include innovations with a social purpose such as distance learning and virtual volunteering. And that’s where we come into the picture.

Our role as an organisation in the rather complex territory of social innovation is best described in our vision statement. The overall vision of DANSIC is to contribute to the creation of a society that is socially, environmentally and economically sustainable. We know that these are loaded words, however, we are really trying our best to bring this vision to life by embodying it as a student-led organisation and by fusing it into all our activities.

The way we do it is pretty simple. Each year, we organise an event around a specific theme that aims to raise awareness and investigate that topic. The larger goal of the investigation is to find potential solutions for challenging systemic and environmental issues by mobilising students and other actors. Previous themes included sustainable travelling, the intersection of mindfulness and sustainability, and other wonderfully diverse themes. The format of the events can vary as we like to keep things exciting and, you guessed it, innovative in some way. Think case competitions, workshops, panel discussions and the like.

Behind the scenes, we have our brilliant team of student volunteers, who put in all the hard work to make these events happen. Our team changes almost entirely each year to start every new project with a fresh set of volunteers. For this reason, the answer to the question of ‘Who are we?’ is actually quite diverse. So are we as a group. We asked our current team to explain it from their personal context why they joined DANSIC and what their experience have been. This is what they said:

Tuuli (Marketing Director)

“I wanted to experience organisational work and also network with other young professionals/students who are interested in social, environmental and political issues around the world. The work has its challenges, especially when we are all stuck at home but it’s very rewarding when all the pieces come together. It will be exciting to see the end product!”

Rita (VP - Communications)

“I joined DANSIC because I wanted to do something that had an impact on the world. I wanted to use my knowledge and time to develop something that would potentially change people’s lives. Turns out, it changed my life. Being surrounded by like-minded people from different backgrounds and paths in life opened the door for mindful discussions that often change our perspective of the world.”

Hugin (Fundraising Coordinator)

“I joined because knowing how fortunate I am to have been born and raised in Denmark, I want to help the less fortunate. I thought it would be fun to gain experience within fundraising and creating a case-competition from scratch. All in all, I believe this volunteer opportunity to be a meaningful experience, where work actually changes the world for the better, even though we are “just” students.”

Nikoleta (HR Director)

“It has been a long-held dream of mine to engage in a fresh student initiative and to associate with young professionals from all sorts of backgrounds. Being a Psychology student and having worked mainly in settings involving trauma in the past, this time I wanted to try something new and put my skills into practice within the field of human resources and organization. DANSIC gave me this great opportunity, which has already increased my possibilities for a fulfilling future career.”

If some of this piqued your interest and you would like to get involved, whether you’re a student, recent graduate, passionate fellow, business or other organisation, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. That’s it for now — we’d love to hear from you.