Spring Break
Looking for a Different Summer Experience?
Consider a Social Enterprise Fellowship
Jimmy Tran (OJ), Contributing Writer
Issue date: 2/25/08 Section: Features
For many of you, recruiting week was a blur, but you got through it with multiple job offers. You are ridiculously excited and have your whole summer planned out. In fact, the only thing between you and the summer is finding that perfect apartment in Manhattan on Craigslist, preferably within walking distance to your wonderful internship at Lehman Brothers. Awesome.
For others, recruiting week may have left you a little uninspired, perhaps even a tad devastated. The organizations were not exciting, you could not muster up the enthusiasm, and well…lets be honest, you're pretty darn close to a mid-year RC crisis. Before you go off into the abyss of post-recruiting week MBA depression, there is still hope for you!
Last summer, roughly 50 MBAs [both RCs and ECs] received the Social Enterprise Fellowship. We were a diverse bunch, working at organizations ranging from the Clinton Foundation to the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, in places that spanned from Colombia to South Africa to Louisiana/Mississippi. And we did it with financial and program support from the Social Enterprise Initiative here at HBS. Personally, I spent my summer in Nairobi, Kenya working at TechnoServe [www.technoserve.org], a nonprofit whose mission is to "provide business solutions for the rural poor."
Matched with the Kiriita Sugar Beet Farmers Cooperative in Nyandarua [about 2 hours from Nairobi], I worked closely with the Cooperative to draft a business plan and map out the initial funding requirements for a pilot sugar beet processing facility. Along the way, I met with government officials throughout Kenya, especially those at the Sugar Board, Agricultural Ministries and even some at the Bureau of Standards.
I will always remember my very first business meeting with the members of the Cooperative. Most of the farmers were dressed up in their Sunday best, many sporting blazers and suits. At least half of them had traveled more than 5 kilometers to attend the meeting, no small task in a country where public transport is informal and haphazard at best. The farmers were incredibly grateful, thanking me continuously and praising God for sending a "Harvard" student to help them. In fact, we started the meeting hand-in-hand with a prayer, even before getting on to the "business." That experience was extremely eye-opening and humbling, to say the least.
For others, recruiting week may have left you a little uninspired, perhaps even a tad devastated. The organizations were not exciting, you could not muster up the enthusiasm, and well…lets be honest, you're pretty darn close to a mid-year RC crisis. Before you go off into the abyss of post-recruiting week MBA depression, there is still hope for you!
Last summer, roughly 50 MBAs [both RCs and ECs] received the Social Enterprise Fellowship. We were a diverse bunch, working at organizations ranging from the Clinton Foundation to the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, in places that spanned from Colombia to South Africa to Louisiana/Mississippi. And we did it with financial and program support from the Social Enterprise Initiative here at HBS. Personally, I spent my summer in Nairobi, Kenya working at TechnoServe [www.technoserve.org], a nonprofit whose mission is to "provide business solutions for the rural poor."
Matched with the Kiriita Sugar Beet Farmers Cooperative in Nyandarua [about 2 hours from Nairobi], I worked closely with the Cooperative to draft a business plan and map out the initial funding requirements for a pilot sugar beet processing facility. Along the way, I met with government officials throughout Kenya, especially those at the Sugar Board, Agricultural Ministries and even some at the Bureau of Standards.
I will always remember my very first business meeting with the members of the Cooperative. Most of the farmers were dressed up in their Sunday best, many sporting blazers and suits. At least half of them had traveled more than 5 kilometers to attend the meeting, no small task in a country where public transport is informal and haphazard at best. The farmers were incredibly grateful, thanking me continuously and praising God for sending a "Harvard" student to help them. In fact, we started the meeting hand-in-hand with a prayer, even before getting on to the "business." That experience was extremely eye-opening and humbling, to say the least.
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