Cyrus Boga ’90 recently returned to Hamilton College to speak to students as part of his Levitt Center Workshop series, “Novamaya - Designing a Social Innovation Project.” The workshop offered students a guide to creating a sustainable, effective and well planned social innovation project.
Boga began by talking to students about his experiences at Hamilton College, and his professional journey from investment banking into social-entrepreneurial work, founding Novamaya as a for-profit enterprise serving college students.
Major: Chemistry
Other Degrees: Johns Hopkins University, Master of Arts
Boga said that the biggest problem he’s seen in social innovation is that well-intended individuals do not always prepare their entrepreneurial projects in a sustainable and institutionalized way. To help students get their feet under them and avoid those common mistakes, Boga presented students with a roadmap that he calls the Boga Model.
After presenting the model, Boga talked to students about what innovation is and ways to innovate by looking at budget plans, financial models, supply and demand, and cultural feasibility. He told students that, “social entrepreneurship is the best thing anyone can do, and if I were as smart as you all are, I would’ve started it as soon as I left Hamilton.”
