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Before the Enlight Fellowship, Gabrielle Moussas felt stuck. With a big idea in mind and a clear desire to make a difference, she wasn’t sure how to move forward.
“I was unsure about how I would take this big idea and make it something that’s real.”
That changed when she joined Innovate@BU’s Enlight Fellowship, a ten-week summer program that pairs BU students with local nonprofits while supporting them in developing their own social impact ventures.
Gabrielle, a student in Sargent College, came into the program with a bold concept: a nonprofit initiative grounded in faith and aimed at addressing social anxiety and depression among middle and high school students. Inspired by her own observations and driven by a desire to improve life outcomes for young people, Gabrielle designed her venture, Chosen Youth, to be both empowering and transformative.
“The environment we grow up in strongly influences the way we see the world,” she says. “I want to make sure youth get the most positive experience they can.”
Through Enlight, Gabrielle was placed at Union Capital Boston, a nonprofit focused on building social capital in underserved communities. The experience gave her a front-row seat to what it takes to run a mission-driven organization: event planning, resource management, funding strategies, and collaborative decision-making.
“It was a very different experience from what I’m used to,” she says. “As a STEM major, going to a nonprofit that’s dealing with social capital was eye-opening.”
The program didn’t just expose Gabrielle to nonprofit logistics—it also gave her a tight-knit cohort of ten fellow student innovators. Though each participant came from a different background, the group quickly became a resource and support system. They shared interview contacts, offered feedback, and pushed one another to keep growing.
“Being surrounded by a cohort of people who had huge ideas that needed support really pushed me in a multitude of ways.”
She also credits the program with helping her build confidence in networking and entrepreneurship—two areas she hadn’t explored much before. By the end of the summer, she had conducted multiple interviews, refined her venture concept, and, most importantly, found momentum.
“After the Enlight program, I realized there are so many opportunities to innovate, to continue to push on this idea and grow it, even post-graduation.”
With renewed clarity and a network of support behind her, Gabrielle is moving forward with Chosen Youth and thinking big about what comes next. The Enlight Fellowship gave her more than a summer project. It gave her the belief that her ideas can take shape, gain traction, and create lasting impact.
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