Student hopes to kickstart movement dedicated to “Shaping the Future”

“I have an interest in things that can change the world,” said Justin Langfan ’19, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences who is kickstarting a political organization on campus and publishing a weekly entrepreneurship newsletter.  “Politics is frustrating and some might say broken… [but] the question is, how can we empower ourselves?”

As part of Langfan’s movement, “Shaping the Future,” students choose a social media post by a congressman, special interest group, or media platform as well as a question to ask. Shaping the Future posts a comment containing the question and each member of the movement “likes” the comment, en masse. The goal is to bring attention to the topic and push politicians to address the questions. Over 230 people have signed up so far.

Along with his interest in political change, Langfan, who is studying mathematics, is also fascinated by entrepreneurship and has created an entrepreneurship-themed email newsletter called “The Bold.” The newsletter includes business news as well as stories of entrepreneurs and how they overcame the challenges they faced.

Langfan started the newsletter as a weekly report for a guest lecturer in his entrepreneurship class, then realized that others wanted copies, so he started a listserv to send it to other students. Now it’s available online for anyone to view.

Langfan said he first become interested in entrepreneurship after reading “Thank You for Being Late,” by Thomas Friedman, about movements reshaping the world today. “It changed my view of the world and made me realize that it’s changing incredibly rapidly.

“I wanted to be part of the tidal wave,” he said. “I really want to make a difference in the world.”