Blog

How can a social enterprise engage effectively in founder succession planning, and what are some of the benefits that may occur when a founder is able to share the ownership, control, and culture of the business with a successor, or even a wider group of social leaders? This was one theme of a plenary session at this year’s annual Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP14) in San Francisco. Benetech CEO, Jim Fruchterman, and VP of the Benetech Global Literacy Program, Betsy Beaumon, joined moderator Penelope Douglas, SOCAP Board Chair, for a dynamic conversation titled “Make Yourself Invaluable, Not Irreplaceable.”

This summer, for the third consecutive year, we partnered with Google Summer of Code. We had the pleasure of working with computer science student Joe Maag, who helped create an iOS app that aids the transcription of (inaccessible) math images into readable and accessible math notations, to utilize Benetech’s MathML Cloud tool and advance math accessibility for all.

We’ve just wrapped up a second successful year of Benetech’s Summer Internship Program. Today we’re pleased to introduce you to three excellent interns who worked with our Bookshare team: Priyanka Amin-Patel, Derek Slone, and Tara Singh. Their efforts went towards getting the word out about Bookshare and expanding the collection.

This is the second year of our formal Summer Internship Program. Once again, it’s been our pleasure to work with a group of fantastic students who have supported multiple teams across Benetech’s programs. Today we’re pleased to introduce Pascal Pepin, who has agreed to share with us highlights of his internship experience and biggest takeaways.

Across the U.S., thousands of students with print disabilities will start their school year without the textbooks they need for class. These students need their books converted to accessible formats. To meet that need, the Benetech Volunteer Program is launching a new project for the 2014-15 school year, Team-Up for Textbooks, to recruit volunteer teams to proofread student requested textbooks—and we’re inviting you to join us!