Early on in her career, Poonam Ahluwalia adopted an enduring philosophy inspired by her mother’s words: To leave every place where she worked in a better place than when she entered it. With her social entrepreneur mindset, she founded two non-profit organizations dedicated to promoting youth entrepreneurship and shaping international youth employment, namely:
• Established in 1998, the YES Campaign has helped in placing youth employment and entrepreneurship on the global agenda. In the 14 years of its existence, it organized 5 Global Summits, 5 Regional Summits, and numerous in-country forums as well as encouraged young people worldwide to implement over 400 projects. Its innovative low-touch, high-impact approach was instrumental in its success.
• YouthTrade, which was inspired by the conscious capitalism philosophy, adopts a three-pronged approach to youth entrepreneurship – certify businesses managed by youth entrepreneurs, provide them access to markets, and build demand for their products and services. Today, YouthTrade products are available at Nordstrom and Whole Foods Market while its present headquarters, the YouthTrade Innovation Studio, is located at Babson College.
Before establishing these youth entrepreneurship-focused organizations, Ahluwalia started her advocacy by teaching basic hygiene in communities after her high school graduation. She completed her master’s degree in political science at Rajasthan University in India and her master’s degree in mass communications at Boston University in the United States.
She worked for various organizations related to her advocacies. She continues to be a member of the Hunger Project, which she joined in 1984, wherein she raised funds, increased awareness, and organized activities for the organization.
She worked for the State of Massachusetts’ Welfare-to-Work programs in the late 1980s and with the Education Development Center (EDC) in 1997. In her EDC work, she created workforce development workshops with the goal of promoting global education and health.
Ahluwalia has been recognized for her work in youth entrepreneurship by various organizations, such as the Indian-American Trade and Commerce and the Legislature of the State of California as an outstanding youth community leader.
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