Purpose Prize

Marc Freedman Portrait

The Latest from CoGenerate

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

Denise Webb, 20, is a CoGenerate Senior Fellow. She’s a student at Berry College and a seasoned activist, working with organizations including United Way, Partnership for Southern Equity and The Sunrise Movement. She is the co-author of Why Aren’t We Doing This!...

Two Oscar-winning Films Shine a Light on Intergenerational Connection

Two Oscar-winning Films Shine a Light on Intergenerational Connection

Despite the ongoing drumbeat of generational conflict (a hate story), right in front of us is evidence of a new narrative of cross-generational connection and collaboration (a love story).  That love story was on full display at the Grammys, most visibly in the Tracy...

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Roger Campos

US Hispanic Youth Entrepreneur Education Foundation/Minority Business RoundTable
Purpose Prize Fellow 2008

Fostering entrepreneurship, jobs and economic growth for minorities, especially Hispanic students.

Roger Campos was a successful lawyer and executive at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, inspired by his hardworking immigrant father who defied stereotypes and built up a successful restaurant business in California. When Campos was 50, his father’s death led him to search for meaning in life, and he found it in helping other minorities and Hispanic youth in particular become successful entrepreneurs. In 2002, at age 56, Campos founded the Minority Small Business Association to raise the voices of minority entrepreneurs nationwide. Two years later he set up the U.S. Hispanic Youth Entrepreneur & Education Foundation to address high dropout rates among Hispanic youth and to introduce them to entrepreneurship as a career option. Campos’ groups work in partnerships with the Business Roundtable, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Administration and the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, Commerce, Labor and other agencies to secure attention to minority businesses and encourage Hispanic students to finish high school and attend college. His group has enrolled over 300 students and awarded $60,000 in scholarships at the Maryland Hispanic Youth Symposiums. “Youth today need role models and mentors. And people in the second half of their lives can do that. They have the experience; they have knowledge that youth today do not have. They can help refocus young kids’ lives.”