Press & News # World Studios, Ashoka, and the Watson Foundation launch a global program for young adults ready to make their ideas real Written by World Studios Staff ## “Make What Matters” offers participants the skills, mentorship, and worldwide community to turn an idea into something real — plus seed funding for the most promising September 15, 2026 — Today, World Studios launches its first global program, Make What Matters, in partnership with Ashoka and the Watson Foundation. Make What Matters is open to any young adult ready to build — whether they already have an idea or want to find one by starting. Participants join a worldwide community, take on real projects, and get access to the mentors, skills, and resources to see it through. Young adults already have the ideas and the drive. Make What Matters gives them the access to make them real, wherever they are. “Growth requires risk, and risk needs a supportive place to take it. That is what Make What Matters gives young adults: a project of their own to lead from start to finish, with the skills, mentors, and community to help them try. With Ashoka, we are opening that chance to young people everywhere, whether they already have an idea or want to find one by starting. Give people that, and you do more than teach skills, you grow the next generation of leaders.” — Chris Kasabach, Executive Director, World Studios & Watson "Ashoka was founded on a simple, radical idea: that everyone can be a changemaker. For over forty-five years, the social entrepreneurs in our network have shown us that the biggest barrier to change is self-permission. Change starts the moment someone gives themselves permission to solve a problem they care about. Make What Matters invites that self-permission to young people everywhere. Sharing the skills, the mentors, and a community that believes in them, they will not only build what matters to them — they will move others to do the same. This is how ideas become movements." — Diana Wells, President Emerita, Ashoka ### A new global partnership Make What Matters is a new global partnership between three organizations that have each spent decades betting on young adults — Ashoka, the Watson Foundation, and World Studios. On their own, each model works. Together, they go further than any one could alone. World Studios brings the studio model. It blends the Watson Foundation's decades of international work developing the next generation of leaders and the campus studio structure pioneered by Design for America, behind more than 1,700 student-led projects to date. That model gives participants a proven way to move an idea from a curiosity to impact. Ashoka brings the Challenge. As the world's largest network of social entrepreneurs — built on the belief that anyone can be a changemaker — it gives participants a global stage. They present their projects to a network of social entrepreneurs, institutions, and mentors, and the strongest ideas earn the funding to go further. In its first year, the partnership aims to reach young adults globally and to support a myriad of student-led projects. The most promising teams earn seed funding, mentorship, and a place at a global summit. The goal is simple: more young people turning the ideas and issues that matter most to them into real projects — projects that shape their own futures, and in time, all of ours. ### What the program offers Make What Matters provides: - Skills that transfer. Hands-on training in how to move from curiosity to intentional impact — the practical methods our studios have taught for years. - Mentors who show up. Direct access to mentors, advisors, and practitioners who have built things themselves and will work with participants throughout the program. - A worldwide community. Peers around the world building and learning at the same time, so no participant builds alone. - A place in the Ashoka Changemaker Challenge. After shaping their own project, participants present it to Ashoka's global network of social entrepreneurs, institutions, and mentors — and the strongest ideas will receive the connections, funding, and support to go further. ### Who it’s for If your ambition is bigger than the room you've been given for it, this is for you. More specifically, Make What Matters is for young adults currently enrolled in a college or university eager to pursue an idea in their own community, or anywhere in the world. Maybe you already know exactly what you want to build. Maybe you're ready to find out by building. Either way, there's a place for you here. “For people like me, who have ideas and want to make a difference but don’t always know where to start, having guidance from mentors makes this opportunity incredibly valuable. It’s also a chance to connect with people around the world who share the desire to build a better world and put our talents at the service of others.” — Santiago Grajales Ortiz, Student, Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP), Mexico ### Get involved Ready to build something that matters to you? Here's where to start. - Young people: [Register today](https://worldstudios.secure-platform.com/site) Educators and institutions: Encourage your community of young adults to [register](https://worldstudios.secure-platform.com/site) Mentors, partners, and funders: Connect with World Studios to learn more about [getting involved](/partner). ### About World Studios World Studios is a global community of student-led studios where young adults choose their own challenges and take real risks in a supportive environment to address them. It gives young people access to the skills, spaces, and people to develop their ideas and make them real, wherever they are. Learn more at [www.world-studios.org](http://www.world-studios.org) ### About Ashoka Founded in 1980 by Bill Drayton, Ashoka is the world's largest network of social entrepreneurs. For more than 40 years, it has identified and supported the world's leading social entrepreneurs — Ashoka Fellows — learned from the patterns in their innovations, and mobilized a global community working toward a world in which everyone is a changemaker. Ashoka coined the terms "social entrepreneur" and "changemaker," and today supports more than 4,000 Fellows across more than 90 countries. Learn more at [www.ashoka.org](http://www.ashoka.org) ### About the Watson Foundation The Watson Foundation draws on nearly six decades of partnership with hundreds of higher-education institutions and international partners to deliver programs that expand the vision and develop the potential of the next generation of leaders. The Watson Fellowship community includes international and local leaders – artists, CEOs, community organizers, diplomats, Emmy, Grammy, MacArthur, Oscar and Pulitzer recipients, entrepreneurs, faculty, healthcare pioneers, journalists, lawyers, politicians, researchers, and committed social advocates. Learn more at [www.watson.foundation](http://www.watson.foundation) ## Related stories - [World Studios Launch](/stories/world-studios-launch) - [From a Club Fair to NASA: How Sonia Batheja Learned to Run a Project](/stories/sonia-batheja-nasa) - [Treston Nguyen Brought World Studios to Oregon State. Here’s How.](/stories/treston-nguyen-oregon-state)