It is very strange to think how “social entrepreneurship” has become so prominent in my life. Prior to this fellowship, I hadn't really heard much of social entrepreneurship, nor did I understand what it meant. The term itself is enticing and engaging, taking entrepreneurship, a term most people relate with innovation and silicon valley, with “social” implying some aspect of social good. Long before this fellowship, in my early days at Santa Clara University, I believe I have always been drawn to social entrepreneurship, I just did not know it yet. I craved international work experiences where I could connect with communities and individuals on a human to human basis, putting aside our clear differences in language, culture, and socioeconomic status. At the core of this type of connection, stems a value exchange like no other, one that is powerful and insightful, leading to bottom up, community-driven solutions to difficult problems in our world. I think this is why social impact work is so exciting for me because at the end of the day, I get to engage with new cultures, peoples, places, make real connections, and put myself in the shoes of those in the heart of the problem.
This bottom up approach to solving the world's most pressing issues is necessary and useful. Throughout the course of this fellowship we have learned a lot about what makes a successful entrepreneur and enterprise. In almost all cases of success, there are deep community ties and trust between the SE and the community. NUCAFE, for example, was started by a Ugandan named Joseph Nkandu, who was born and raised on a coffee farm, his parents were coffee farmers, he was a coffee farmer, and the communities he interacted with were all centered around coffee. From this deep understanding of the coffee sector, he saw an opportunity to lift his fellow farmers out of poverty and take agency over their own futures. In other cases, entrepreneurs have found success even when they are from a different country they are operating in because of the trusted relationships they worked so hard to create. Personally, I would not even consider starting a social enterprise until I had at least 5 years of experience working and living in the community I planned to work in. At the end of the day, one could have the best idea for solving an issue, but if the community does not stand behind you, your organization, and your idea or product, it will not be successful. I cannot seem to write a reflection essay without mentioning my time in the Bahamas, but I have come to use this experience as a baseline for reflecting and interpreting my other experiences. Living on a tiny island that could be walked across in about 3 hours, with a total population of just over a thousand people, I became pretty close with the community. I really loved this aspect so much; I think the idea of living on such a tiny island would freak people out, but I absolutely love it. The sharks were great, the ocean amazing, but I loved the local people. I felt so safe, welcomed, and apart of the community. Everywhere I walked or went, I knew everyone and they knew me, when someone in the community needed help, we were there without hesitation, and vice versa when we were in need of a mechanic or an electrician. I think this experience is a snapshot of what type of social engagement best suits me. I thrive in uncomfortable and difficult situations, I make uncommon connections, and I love the challenge and excitement of figuring a place out, and everything that comes along with it. As a result of this fellowship, I applied for a Fulbright to return to Uganda for 9 months to conduct an independent research project to uncover the best method for training on climate resilience for female coffee farmers in Uganda. If you told me this a couple of years ago, I think I probably would have laughed. Uganda? Coffee? Women? Why? I also never would have even thought about applying for a Fulbright; I saw this opportunity as way out of my league, only for the brightest of the bright, the overachievers of our competitive society. I still think Fulbright is over my head and my chances of receiving one very minimal, but the process of completing the application was rewarding and challenging. Having to design and propose a 9 month long research project confined to 2 pages and a personal statement was no easy feat. The class in the spring, where we had to design our own action research projects was extremely useful. Although at the time it felt overly difficult, considering most projects never go according to plan, I do understand the purpose now, even more so then when we completed it. I cannot only thank the fellowship for preparing me for applying for Fulbright, Dr. Bacon’s capstone class was also extremely beneficial. Similar to GSBF, we had to design a research project, however the entirety of the project was confined to 10 weeks, from start to finish. Back to the actual proposal, applying to work exclusively with female coffee farmers was not something I probably would have done if I had not completed this fellowship. Women are the key to the future; especially in the developing world! In Uganda specifically, women make up the majority of the agricultural labor force, are eager to learn about entrepreneurship, and tend to spend their income on bettering themselves and their families. I think it would actually be weirder if I did not want to work with women after learning so much about women's economic empowerment and the social enterprises that are exclusively targeting women; there a reason for this! This is definitely a belief that has changed in me as a result of this fellowship. Before I was by no means anti-women, I think now I just see the world and the positive impact that everyone can have, if given equal opportunities, more clearly. While in Uganda, the women coffee farmers were the obvious choice to work with. In general, the women were way more interested in engaging with us, our research, and opening up to us. You could really tell that they cared about our project and wanted to be apart of it anyway they could. Without ever traveling to Uganda and experiencing this first hand, I never would have had this crucial insight that would shape my future and understanding of where to focus efforts to make the world a better place. On a completely different note, I have learned that everyone should find what makes them happy and stick to it. Through the vocational exercises in this class, I have thought deeply about my past, present and future. I am happiest when I am in or near the ocean. This is interesting because Uganda is completely land-locked and the thought of living 9 months there really freaks me out. However this is a sacrifice I am willing to make because I saw an opportunity where I could have a positive impact on the coffee farmers there. But yes, the ocean is where I want to be. I feel the best when I am sharing my passion with others. I think there are some people in this cohort that could attest to my love for talking about diving, surfing, or fish. It's kind of funny but no matter the time of day, my mood, or who I am talking to, I instantly light up with excitement. If only I could make a career out of this, I would be set. Although I am graduating in a couple of months, I am not nervous about my future. I believe I am as prepared as possible as a result of my time at Santa Clara, this fellowship, and other experiences I have had. This thought drives some of my friends crazy. People want the best possible job right out of college but is that what's going to make you happy? I do not know what my future holds but I am excited and ready to roll with the punches and go with the flow wherever that takes me. I have always been afraid of interviews, networking, and making small talk with strangers. Although I still do not love it, I have had many opportunities to practice as a result of this fellowship. Through one on one conversations with Miller Center advisory board members, Ignition Fellows, and various informational interviews, I feel more confident every time I am put in these situations. I had the opportunity to talk to Jeff Miller, one of the early founders of the Miller Center and the head of the advisory board a couple of weeks ago. After getting over my initial nerves, I felt confident when talking about this fellowship and my future career plans. This would have never been possible without the professional development of this fellowship. I have found the informational interviews to be extremely helpful in vocational discernment. I have had interviews with a variety of different people, all different ages and backgrounds; every conversation has been informative. One conversation that stands out in my mind was with Shannon Cosentino-Roush; a graduate of Santa Clara and the Director of Global Policy and Campaigns at Sustainable Ocean Alliance. She was tough on me and pushed me to think critically about what I was looking for in a career. She has been in the field of ocean conservation for a long time and when I confessed my interest of ocean conservation as a future career, I think she laughed a little. She quickly countered by saying ocean conservation is too broad to say something like that, and question after question she probed responses out of me, where do you want to work? Science, education, or policy? Future goals? I have never had a stranger dig so deep into a simple comment about my future. Although a little daunting, I needed this and she told me that she wished she had this conversation when she was my age. I walked away with a new sense of vocation and am more confident about the specifics of my future career aspirations. For me, the best part of this fellowship has been the people involved in it. It has been such a pleasure and life changing experience to be able to interact with the other fellows and Instructors. After taking off a year off school, I was really worried this year to return to Santa Clara with limited friends as most of my close friends graduated. I am so thankful to be able to call each and everyone of the fellows my friend. From interacting in classroom settings, to seeing everyone in the library working on their deliverables, to going to GSBF parties; I have loved every opportunity engaging with this group of kind and driven people. I have learned more about myself over the last 9 months than I have collectively over my whole time in high school and at Santa Clara. I have never been around so many people that force me to question, think critically, and be more spiritually and mentally in tune. This newfound support system of friends has been such a joy to experience. I have never been one who struggles to make friends, but I believe I have found something very special with this group of people; I feel free to be myself, let my inner nerd out, and really have fun doing what I am passionate about. We all come from different backgrounds, places, majors, but we all share a common drive that pushes us to have a positive impact on our common home. This has truly been a life changing experience for me and I cannot thank Santa Clara University, Miller Center, and the other fellows enough! I am sad that this chapter of our lives has ended but I am excited to see what the future holds for this inspiring group of human beings!
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10/13/2019 0 Comments Summer Field ReflectionEvery past fellow I have talked to says that this is the most impactful and meaningful experience they have had in college. For me, I have been fortunate to have many impactful and formative experiences throughout my college career, but I do believe that this fellowship was the cumulation of all these experiences. I wouldn't say that I had that ah ha moment this summer or after I returned home where I thought this really changed me. I can see this in some of the other fellows I have talked to about their experience this summer, and it is obvious that they were really changed as a result of this fellowship. I would say that this fellowship changed me in ways that I was not expecting and I am thankful for this. When I compare this fellowship to my experience working at a shark research lab in the Bahamas; the Bahamas really changed me! I know this because I changed my life and my values after I returned pretty dramatically. Even though it has been two years now since I was in the Bahamas, I still talk about it all the time. That experience really changed me, the sharks were great and so were the people, but it was much more than that; I learned how to be a strong leader. Comparatively this experience was also a full year versus only two months in Uganda. I think because of these prior experiences however, I felt very prepared and comfortable living and conducting field work in Uganda.
In a conversation with another fellow in class yesterday, we discussed what we learned from this fellowship and how it changed us. She knew what my experience was like this summer and she knew that I learned how to be emotionally vulnerable. I was not really planning on sharing this in this essay but I feel it is fitting based off of my experience this summer. So here it goes! Growing up as the youngest of three siblings, I was forced to be tough and defend myself, both physically and emotionally. As I got older I would also view myself and tell other people that I was not very emotional and it was always hard for me to make emotional connections. I was never the crier at the movies, or the one holding my friends hand as they faced their fears. To be honest, I never really viewed this as a problem up until last summer. Part of this stems from the stereotypical male persona that is drilled into us when were younger. Men cannot show their emotions, or we need to be tough was pretty common to hear. This summer changed this in me, but not in the way you would think. I think for a lot of people, the thought of spending 2 months in Africa freaks them out. I will go more into the connotations behind this later but for me, I wasn't too worried. This summer, it was more about the people I interacted with than the place itself that made me more vulnerable. The mains reasons I became more emotionally in tune and vulnerable was because of my partners. We were literally with each other all day every day for 2 months. We ate every meal together, we worked together, we traveled together, and we partied together. It was really nice to get to know both of them so well. Part of what makes the fellowship unique is that you are paired with one other person (in our case 2) and you are stuck with them for the duration of the fellowship. I will never forget those long car rides together, cramped in the back of a pick up truck like sardines, sweating, dirt covered faces, knocking into one another on every bump. I don't think Ive ever laughed as hard or wanted to get out of a car as bad as I did in that Toyota Hilux truck. Africa Stereotype Upon leaving for Uganda and after I returned, everyone I talked with had an interesting view of how “Africa” will be. For starters, most people do not see Africa as very many different countries, all with unique geography, culture, politics, language; the majority just see one large continent that seems so far and foreign from what we are used to. Comments like, “wow that must have been hard,” or “what are you going to eat” were pretty typical. Before leaving, I too did not really know what to expect. Depictions of African countries are typically one of extreme poverty, famine, and civil unrest, with the occasional animal documentary to take everyone's attention off of what is actually happening. Contrary to popular belief, we did not live in mud huts or have no access to wifi, in fact, for most of the time in the field we were staying in Kampala, the capital city. We lived a mile from a large mall with KFC and every store you could possibly need, and although there were many differences in city transportation, culture, and building codes, it was a comfortable living environment. The people that inhabited the city were also just people, like you and me, trying to make a living and support a family. This was something that I think I carried with me over the long journey to Uganda from the US, a preconceived idea that people were going to be less educated and I was going to seem very privileged ( I am privileged), almost distant from Ugandans. I think I even felt this way about NUCAFE staff, not really knowing what to expect from the brief 10 minute skype call we shared before the internet cut out in the spring. This way of thinking stems from the white savior, Africans need help kind of way of thinking that is very dangerous. A toxic way of thinking that can really only be understood after spending time in Africa. When we arrived in Uganda, and after spending a couple of weeks with NUCAFE, interacting with coffee farmers; I quickly realized that I was out of my element and I felt incapable of adding value. As a research assistant working on a coffee project in Nicaragua and a coffee aficionado myself, I thought my somewhat decent background knowledge and understanding of coffee was going to be sufficient, I was wrong. Furthermore, as an environmental studies major, I was hoping to bring useful insights into agroforestry and sustainable farming practices; I was also under gunned. This was hard to wrap our heads around at first, and we all felt like we were not going to be able to add value to NUCAFE’s current operations. As the field work began to heat up, I tried to forget about this and just focus on interacting with the farmers. We visited eight cooperatives in diverse regions around Central and Western Uganda. I really enjoyed the field work, traveling to different areas, meeting with cooperatives, learning the impact and NUCAFE’s role in bettering their lives. It was not until we visited a congregation of catholic sisters, the Gogonya Sisters, until I fully realized what I can add to the table. After we realized that observing trainings was not going to be an effective use of our time, we started to conduct focus groups with farmers. Although language barriers were tough, we persevered and started to collect interesting data to support our deliverables. I usually felt a little uncomfortable and vulnerable conducting this focus groups, often alone with 10-15 farmers. Once we were able to figure out translation and do a couple of icebreakers, the focus groups became very comfortable and valuable. It was in these group discussions where I experienced that greatest value exchange. Typical focus groups consisted of mostly older men, with the occasional young man or woman thrown into the mix. With the sisters, this was obviously different. It was a nice change of pace to interact with coffee farmers my own age, especially women! As I sat around a circle with eight novice sisters hoping to become coffee farmers, I couldn't help but think how strange this was. I was the one leading the focus group yet I seemed more nervous than everyone else. Part of what makes this fellowship special is the interesting places and positions you find yourself in. I believe that these experiences in Uganda have shown me another side of field research; an approach that is community centered and bottom up. Yes I was the researcher, but I felt like I was able to connect with the coffee farmers on an equal to equal level; human to human; unlike other research experiences I have had. These women were around my age, and I felt so inspired to be in their presence. They were some of the smartest and nicest people I have ever met, all of the sisters opened up their arms to us. As someone who grew up with no religious background or connection, I was hesitant at first to work with a religious group. You see, growing up on the East Coast of the United States, I viewed religion as somewhat foreign and distant. This could not have been farther from my experience in Uganda; from what I observed it was much less about the religious aspects, and more about the community. As for all of my experience with religion in Uganda, it was just different from what I have experienced in the US and I actually really enjoyed learning more and participating. After we finished discussing why the sisters wanted to farm coffee and hearing about their experiences with farming, I opened it up for comments and questions. They looked at each other giggling and nodding; I was confused and felt a little left out, was I the center of their joke? The youngest one, 21 years old, mustered up the courage to express how thankful they were for having the opportunity to talk with a young person from the US interested in coffee farming and agriculture. In this moment, I had my realization of why I was sitting around a circle with women coffee farmers in Uganda. We all just sat there looking at each other in shared inspiration; I will never forget that moment. As a started to reflect on the long bumpy truck ride home, I started to reflect on previous interactions with farmers. They were all so grateful and happy to work with us. In the first couple of weeks in the field we attended a traditional introduction or engagement ceremony (kinda like a wedding). I could write a whole reflection about this experience but long story short, everyone wanted to take pictures of us and they were all so happy we were there. I asked Charles why this was, and he said that it is such an honor to have white people travel all the way to their tiny community and attend an introduction and celebrate their cultural traditions. Part of me immediately thought of the whole white savior cliche, but I think it was much more than that; it was about cross cultural value exchange and honoring traditions. All Ugandans are proud of their culture, language, geography, food; and they love to share it with the outside world. Thinking back to those interactions with farmers, I think the same idea applies. For someone from the US or outside of Uganda, to show interest and care about smallholder coffee farmers makes them feel proud. I think this is why our training videos were so successful with farmers; it was special to see coffee farming on new sources of technology. I got a lot of comments about why do you have to travel all the way to Uganda to do research and consulting work. Don’t you think you could add value by working remotely? I thought long and hard about this question prior and during my time in Uganda. It wasn't until I experienced the country first hand: the barriers, the culture; the way business is conducted, the way NUCAFE operates, how the farmers are, the list could go on and on. I think this is why the fellowship is so unique and special for both undergraduates and social enterprises because at the end of the day most people would assume that college students can not add real value to the enterprises. I thank the Miller Center for believing in us and giving students the opportunity to prove time and again that this unique value exchange can be very beneficial. |
Summer Field Reflection |