My most influential, life changing experience: Social Entrepreneurship in Cape Town
By Eimear Costigan
We recently caught up with five alumni of the Social Entrepreneurship Study Abroad Program offered by Connect-123 in partnership with the University of Cape Town and we asked them about the impact this experience has had on their personal and career development. But first – let’s introduce them!
Hugh Moore, University of Georgia 2011, SEP participant 2010
Lorraine Chilimanzi, Hampshire College 2011, SEP participant 2010
Brent Shively, Belmont University 2012, SEP participant 2011
Eric Taft, Belmont University 2013, SEP participant 2011
Kathryn Arthur, University of Redlands 2012, SEP participant 2011
Q. What is your current position?
HM: SAP Business Intelligence Consultant with CapGemini
LC: I am the programs director of Hands On Zimbabwe. I help to facilitate internship and volunteer experiences for university students from all over the world in Zimbabwe. I also work for Oasis International where I work with rehabilitated street girls, to help them create income generating projects that can support them and their families.
BS: Currently, I am interning with Jagran Jan Vikas Samiti, a NGO based in Udaipur, India. My responsibilities are to locate funding sources for the numerous programs Jagran runs, and then prepare proposals to those funders, in order to expand the program’s capacity.
ET: I am currently working as the Chief of Development for a start-up mattress recycling business, which has disassembled and repurposed the component parts of over 12,000 mattresses in just a year. More importantly, we are employing men recently released from prison and helping them get back on their feet and reintegrated to society. Next summer, I will leave this project to move to rural Guatemala to work on community development there.
Q. Did your participation in the Social Entrepreneurship program influence your career path and if so in what way?
HM: Definitely! Although my current position is not directly related to the Social Entrepreneurship Study Abroad, it gave me the skills, confidence, and experience to apply to any job situation. Looking back, I draw from my experiences in South Africa almost every week. In terms of direction after the program, the experience itself definitely shaped my views and aspirations and will continue to influence the type of career choices I make along the way.
LC: It definitely did! After I finished college and came back to Zimbabwe, when I thought back to the best and most valuable times of my college years, it was the SE program! So I decided that I wanted to give other people the same chance to experience in Zimbabwe what I experienced in Cape Town. This is what I do now.
BS: My experience with the Social Entrepreneurship Program made a major impact on my decision to come to India. The exposure to different methods of development, a new culture, and interactions with the local people caused me to realize I was passionate about international development and had to do another internship abroad. As I was coming to India, I had a feeling of ease due to my experience with interacting with people who lived in the township, working within a proper NGO structure, and knowing the best way to help is by listening.
ET: SEP has influenced all of my career decisions, and forces me to think about what organizations I will support with my time, energy and skillset, knowing that I want to be a responsible member of humanity and give back to the world in any career I pursue.
KA: During the spring of my senior year of college I was interning with the University of Redlands Marketing Department and with Intrinsic which empowers artisans in Kenya and provides a market for their goods in the US. Since then I have been in the midst of the job search but I have found myself considering many different roles including mission work back in South Africa, marketing roles with tech start ups, and working with other internationally focused companies and non-profits. In other words this experience has made me want to return or do other internationally focused work.
Q. What skills did you develop on the program that are valuable to you today?
HM: Teamwork; facing and overcoming unknown situations/challenges; project management; public speaking
LC: I learned to work in a team which was very important on the projects I worked on, and to have SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time related) – Stuart would be so proud! Working in this way has helped me to set goals for my life and follow through on them. It was a great lesson.
BS: This program exposed me to many different types of skills, and some of them were things I never thought I would have the chance to learn. From the e-marketing class that gave a thorough overview of how to make your organization become more visible online to learning how to effectively engage a community. The latter experience was particularly insightful and has been something I have repeatedly used in various work environments. Understanding the importance of taking the time to engage with the leaders in the community and knowing to be intentional about community involvement in any process have been important concepts to focus on while working in a community development scenario.
ET: I mastered key entrepreneurship and business skills that have honestly put me in a class above my university peers. Those skills include time management, business modeling, understanding market forces, project development, cultural integration, community development, writing, presenting, speaking, critical thinking, networking, marketing, fundraising, and probably a few more. I use all of these in my daily life with a level of mastery that other students don’t have because 1) they haven’t been exposed at the level I have and 2) they weren’t forced to discipline themselves to learn them thoroughly.
KA: I learned leadership skills and how to work with uncertainty and still be successful. This program also expanded what I believed to be possible and now as a new graduate I am considering different roles than I would have otherwise.
Q. What lessons did you learn?
BS: The education I received in Cape Town came from so many different sources and in such powerful ways that it is difficult to describe them all, especially when the subjects are so varied. A common theme through the courses at University of Cape Town was the importance of stakeholders. This idea was represented in so many different ways from looking at the future of South Africa shown by the concept of Walking Together in the Dinokeng Scenarios to the significance of businesses looking at a Triple Bottom Line, as opposed to a strictly financial line.
One of the most important lessons I learned about development was the importance of empowerment. The current NGO sector is in the process of realigning their missions to involve empowerment because there seems to have been a recent realization that the most effective way to help a person is to provide them with an opportunity rather than something that will meet their temporary needs. Additionally, this is one example of a greater lesson I learned, the importance of sustainability throughout an organization and their programs. The potential impact increases exponentially when you are able to provide skills to people who are then able to teach those same skills to their local community.
ET: I learned about what it means to be a responsible member of society, which means using my skills to positively impact the lives of everyone around me. I learned that South Africa is a special, beautiful, unique place in the world that has seen the hopeless pits of darkness in its past, but is creating a bright future that the rest of the world will marvel at as they try to keep pace with the creativity and innovation coming from a smart and determined new generation. I learned that the world needs more young minds creating solutions for the problems we have bestowed upon ourselves, and if we don’t come together to fix social and environmental failures, we are going to reap the punishment for that very soon. I learned that everyone is smart enough to accomplish anything they devote their mind to, as long as they have loving and supportive people around them that are along for the ride. Find those people, hold them close, and then you can change the world.
KA: I learned independence and how to rely on myself for answers because often there was no clear way of getting an answer. I also learned how to lead others and motivate them to do their best work. I learned more about myself, my passions, and what I want to do with my life. My world view also expanded far beyond what I had before I left and I now feel connected to the rest of the world. I could go on and on about the lessons I learned but there are too many to count.
Q. What advice would you give to students thinking about joining the program?
HM: Do it! It will be the most influential, life changing experience you could ever take part in. Cape Town is a beautiful city and such a great place to study abroad, especially since they speak English! Connect 123 has great housing in the middle of downtown Cape Town so it really couldn’t get any better. The Social Entrepreneurship Program is a perfect blend of culture, fun, teamwork, new life experiences, hard work, and training. On a career note, talking about my time in the program is a home run with any employer. Don’t shy back because of the length of the program or distance from home either, you will not regret your time!
LC: I would say be ready to work hard and play hard! Connect 123 did not provide the average study abroad experience at all! We worked very hard on very real projects and real stakes…and it was great! It’s a wonderful experience and a great way to explore social entrepreneurship for those who are interested. Good luck!
BS: If you are considering taking part in the Social Entrepreneurship Program, I would suggest researching a bit about South African history and some general concepts around international development. These are two things I wish I had done beforehand because those two components played a significant role in many of the interactions I had with people in the townships and SASDI. Most of all, I would recommend to any student who is considering this program to stop thinking about it, and just do it. Note: SASDI is the non profit organization that facilitates the experiential component of the program.
ET: This program will change your life and equip you to be a highly effective individual that has the power to create sustainable change through business. If this is something you are interested in for your life, fully commit yourself to this program and take advantage of every opportunity that you can. If you devote yourself to this curriculum for just one semester, you will leave South Africa a completely different person that can accomplish anything and will shine brighter than all of your peers when looking for a job or applying your new skills within your profession.
KA: I would recommend that they consider whether they are ready for a life changing experience because it will change your life. Students should be willing to work hard, learn new things, and be willing to learn and understand the complicated history of South Africa.
Understanding why people seek new and meaningful experiences overseas is easy for Eimear. While completing her languages degree at university in Dublin, she spent summers working in France, Spain and the UK, and studied at the University of Bordeaux for a year. Her previous role as an international Marketing Manager for a US multi-national took her to North America and all over Europe, while her itchy feet took her to Central America and Japan in her spare time. Eimear gets a real kick out of matching the right person to the right opportunity and loves seeing interns fall under Cape Towns spell, just as she has done.