Coming Together: A Conversation with Rajiv Vinnakota

In this episode, we speak with Rajiv Vinnakota, a pioneering social entrepreneur with a passion for civic education. In past years, he co-founded the SEED Foundation, the nation’s first network of public, college-preparatory boarding schools for underserved children, and then served as Vice President of the Aspen Institute, where he launched and led the Youth & Engagement Programs division devoted to youth leadership development, civic engagement, and opportunity. Today, he is President of the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, leading its mission to cultivate the talent, ideas, and networks that develop lifelong, effective citizens. In our conversation, we speak about a range of issues, from building “unlikely alliances” among funders and the importance of patient philanthropic capital to his vision for how the nation can come together to solve the problems of our communities, states, regions, and nation. We begin by hearing the remarkable journey of his family to the US and learn how reading the paper and debating the news with his father over the dinner table influenced his view of civic responsibility.