Bruce Manciagli writes a letter of recommendation for Fiorella Riccobono's application to the Moellership Program. He describes Fiorella as an academically strong student who performed among the top in his social entrepreneurship course. Fiorella is also actively involved as an officer in the university's social entrepreneurship student organization and interned with the Florida League of Cities, where she was selected among a competitive cohort. Fiorella changed one of her majors in order to focus more on social entrepreneurship, demonstrating her passion and commitment to addressing social problems through innovative solutions. Manciagli fully supports Fiorella's application to the Moellership Program.

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College of Social Sciences and Public Policy!
Interdisciplinary Social Sciences!
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Bruce Manciagli
Social Entrepreneur in Residence
Interdisciplinary Social Science Program
College of Social Sciences and Public Policy
Florida State University
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January 1, 2016
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Jillian Volpe White, PhD
Moellership Program
Center for Leadership & Social Change
Florida State University
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Dear Dr. White:
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This letter is in support of Fiorella Riccobono’s application to the Moellership Program.
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Fiorella was a student in my Foundations of Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation course last
semester. She is an academically strong, thoughtful student with a keen intellectual curiosity. As
a first-year student among mostly juniors and seniors, Fiorella was one of the top performers.
More important than her grade was the level of thoughtfulness and degree of passion for the
material she exhibited.
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I also know Fiorella through other contexts, including her involvement in the FSU student
registered organization “Social Entrepreneurs and Innovators,” for which I serve as the advisor.
As an officer, she has been instrumental in helping to get the new organization off the ground
and focused on making the organization relevant to students as well as creating real impact in the
community. She also was a intern for the Florida League of Cities’ MuniMod program last
semester, which is hosted at Domi Station. The program engages a diverse group of higher
education students in creating innovative solutions to civic problems. She was the youngest
member of a 20-student cohort of highly creative and committed students competitively selected
from FSU, FAMU, and TCC.

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When Fiorella first came to FSU at the end of last summer, she sought me out after hearing of
the social entrepreneurship and innovation (SEI) program I am helping to develop. She had been
involved in a fair trade, social entrepreneurship initiative in high school and was eager to
continue to her involvement and growth in this emerging field. After sharing her passion with me
and learning more about SEI opportunities at FSU, she changed one of her two majors so that she
could focus more intensely on social entrepreneurship. Her passion for, and commitment to,
addressing social and environmental problems through social enterprises and other mission-
based organizations is clearly evident.
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The scale and complexity of the social and environmental problems we face demand the best
thinking and practices from across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Potential solutions
become more viable when the nonprofit sector's strengths of pursuing a social mission and
creating social impact are married with the sustainability models and ability to scale of the
corporate world along with the vision and policy support of the public sector. We need our best
minds focused on these issues, understanding and leveraging these interrelated systems, and
helping to create innovate ways of addressing our most urgent problems. Fiorella’s experience
through the Moellership Program, working on building the capacity of social enterprises while
continuing to develop her own skills and knowledge, will allow her to become a more effective
changemaker. She is also well-positioned to share her experience with her peers when she
returns, creating a positive ripple effective through the many students on our campus that are
committed to social change.
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I support Fiorella’s application without reservation. Please let me know if I can provide any
additional information.
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Sincerely,
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Bruce Manciagli
Social Entrepreneur in Residence
Interdisciplinary Social Science Program
College of Social Sciences and Public Policy
Florida State University