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Cross career boundaries: Difference-maker Orlando Bowen, from NIU to pro-football player to social entrepreneur

January 17, 2022

Patrick Stephen (left) with Orlando Bowen (right)

After completing his master’s degree, Orlando Bowen felt like he had arrived.

Bowen earned his B.S. in marketing in 1998  and his M.S. in management information systems in 2000, both from the NIU College of Business. He was working as a consultant for a boutique technology firm in downtown Chicago. He felt blessed to have a successful career in a field he was passionate about. But something was missing.

“It was the opportunity to help other young people, especially people of color, understand that they are not their circumstances,” Bowen said.

Before the year was out, Bowen was offered a spot in the Canadian Football League. The former Huskie linebacker spent the next four years playing professional football. Before making the move, he made sure the team would support his desire to serve the community.

“I saw young people who had so much talent and potential giving up on life because they didn’t feel connected. They didn’t feel valued,” he said. “I thought, if they only knew! If they only knew what was possible. If they knew that despite where they come from, what their parents did, what their older siblings did, they can do amazing things and redefine possibilities for themselves and the next generation of their family. If we can give them that opportunity, maybe they would make different decisions.”

Between 2001 and 2008, Bowen drew on his passion for inspiring young people to develop One Voice One Team. When injuries sustained in a brutal encounter with police ended his football career, Bowen threw himself into the work full time. The nonprofit is dedicated to helping youth use their gifts to improve the world around them.

The arresting officer in Bowen’s case was later arrested and all charges against Bowen were dropped.

The lessons Bowen learned at NIU gave him the foundation to launch a nonprofit that runs like a business but is “focused on the mission rather than the bottom line.”


“When I go into high schools and talk about making a difference, young people look at me and say, ‘Sir, you don’t know where I’m from. I don’t have things I can use to make a difference.’ We challenge that thinking,” he said. “We help them understand they are a gift, and they have gifts to give.”


To prove it, young people in the program are invited to service opportunities. They build houses with Habitat for Humanity, feed the homeless, and plant trees. Through serving others, youth begin to view themselves as someone who can make a difference.

Graduates of NIU’s entrepreneurship program are increasingly using their business skills to create social impact. When donors Dennis and Stacey Barsema created the Barsema Professorship in Social Entrepreneurship in 2018, they said social entrepreneurship is critical to solving the pressing issues of this century.

“Solving social issues through the innovation and creativity of students is paramount to a successful world,” Dennis Barsema, ’77, said. “We are proud that NIU has world-class faculty dedicated toward the education and motivation of our students in the field of social entrepreneurship and responsibility.”

The professorship is held by Department of Management Professor Christine Mooney, a leader in the field of social impact through business enterprise.

Bowen said his NIU education went much deeper than the nuts and bolts of how to launch and run a company. The experience he had can’t be summarized in any text.


“NIU gave me perspective in terms of what’s possible,” he said. “I bring those ideas of pushing through challenges, accountability, and commitment to something bigger than myself to my roles every day. I knew those concepts before, but it was my experiences at NIU that made them part of my DNA.”


College of Business Dean Balaji Rajagopalan said donor support is key to providing students with the tools to lead. Donations such as the Barsemas’ allow faculty like Mooney to pursue research that builds a richer curriculum.

“A curriculum informed by research in areas like social entrepreneurship is critical for preparing students to lead in shaping a better future for generations to come,” he said.

This article originally appeared in Northern Now.