Country: Kigali, Rwanda
Organization: Hands of Mothers
Overall, my internship experience with Hands of Mothers (HOM) was extremely rewarding for me. I learned a lot about development at the local level though the lenses of women’s empowerment in business, capacity building, and project sustainability.
Read MoreCountry: Zimbabwe
Organization: TechnoServe
My summer experience as a Blakeley Fellow working with TechnoServe and the African Agriculture Fund (AAF) was nothing less than a “have-it-all-at-once” opportunity. In my ten weeks in Zimbabwe, I was afforded the chance to delve deep into each of my interest areas – small and medium enterprise development, private equity, business strategy and impact investing.
Read MoreCountry: Colombia
Organization: Compartamos con Colombia
My experience in Colombia surpassed every expectation. During my short time there, I worked with incredible colleagues, became familiar with a number of important local players, was introduced to the world of nonprofit consulting, and in some small way participated in important efforts to strengthen the social sector in Colombia.
Read MoreFumi: "The purpose of my summer internship is to earn an experience of working in Africa to find approaches to achieve economic development through business. By working as a mentor and consultant for clients of African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC) in Rwanda, I developed strong interest in working in human capital development for small medium enterprises (SMEs) in the future.
Read MoreNathaniel spent the summer working for Inkomoko, a business acceleratory run by the African Entrepreneur Collective (AEC) based in Kigali, Rwanda. AEC through Inkomoko works with hundreds of entrepreneurs in Rwanda to help them move from start up to fully‐fledged business. They are not specialized in a particular field, and rather reflect the growth spaces of the Rwandan economy
Read MoreAnjali Shrikhande worked as a Social Business Consultant for Yunus Social Business in their Kampala, Uganda office. Her main goal for the internship was to gain a better understanding of market-based approaches to development, specifically the social business model, and to investigate how the model works on the ground in a developing country.
Anjali: “I was able to form contacts through YSB and independently that will also be valuable in trying to find jobs in this field. I found the entrepreneurs that I met and worked with to be truly inspiring and passionate about creating change in their own communities.”
Read MoreOwen M. Sanderson worked in one of the fastest-crowing tech centers in the world: Nairobi, Kenya. He focused his summer on two objectives: supporting Ushahidi’s business development team as they think through their current business model and conducting several in-depth training seminars for a small cohort of young African entrepreneurs at Nairobi’s celebrated iHub.
Owen: “After two months in East Africa, I left feeling every optimistic about its future. I embarked upon my summer with the goal of investigating the unique link between technology and development. My summer in Nairobi underscored the widespread allure of technology and its potential to uplift millions.”
Read MoreHeather Lemunyon’s role at AEC (The African Entrepreneur Collective) was to serve as a Global Business Mentor, or and entrepreneurship consultant who worked one-on 0one with AEC’s clients in business planning financial planning, developing strategies for growth, market and sales analysis, and and strategic vision.
Heather: “In every way possible, my time as a Global Business Mentor with AEC was outstanding. Not only did I fulfill all of my personal goals for my internship experience, I was allowed great opportunities to directly and positively impact the growth of East African companies that I hope will continue to grow, increase employment, and continue to develop this region of the world with such large opportunities and potential.”
Read MoreAnna Valeria joined Andean Innovation Red (AIR) early in the organization’s development. She acted as an advisor, identifying the purpose of every company activity to determine relevance to key objectives. Her main objective was to build a map of the entrepreneurial landscape in Lima. She interviewed entrepreneurs, investors, acelerators and university officials involved in fostering entrepreneurship. As a result AIR attracted for the first time the attention of the community by using a new technological platform (i.e. Google Hangouts) that allowed to reach more audience and to create a virtual platform where entrepreneurs and soon-to-be entrepreneurs can share ideas.
Anna: “Today I feel more prepared and confident that I have been gathering the needed tools, both in terms of the academic work and now during the summer with hands-on experience to start building my own startup with social impact.”
Read MoreJulia Leis was selected to work on the Diversified Agriculture Activity, a $30 million project of the $490 million Millennium Challenge Compact with Burkina Faso, designed to increase rural incomes and employment and to enhance the competitiveness of the rural economies in the Sourou Valley and the Comoe Basin. She completed an extensive value chain analysis of the project’s deliverables, synthesizing different activities along the supply chain within certain sectors, providing insight on the multitude of interventions taking place in the regions over the past few years.
Julia: “Working with MCC and Burkinabé colleagues was an incredible experience. I gained an understanding of the complexity of contract management and program implementation in the field. While I have studied international development during my undergraduate years and now graduate school, it was incredibly valuable to see how complex projects are managed and implemented on the ground, and learn about the importance of partnerships with local communities. I now feel more prepared and committed to pursuing a career in development in West Africa and I’m very grateful to have had this opportunity.”
Read MoreAditya Ashok Kumar worked with the Tony Elemelu Foundation to help African entrepreneurs scale-up and improve competitiveness. He was selected to create products and services fir a struggling financial services company (Financial Trust Company) based in Lagos. Aditya interviewed capital market participants, competitors and regulators to understand the pulse of the industry, conducted primary market research, and held discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commissions for product approvals. His work led to the creation of the FTB Balanced Agricultural Fund, a close-ended NGN 1 Billion fund that invests in agriculture ventures in Nigeria, due to launch early next year.
Aditya: “My objectives for the summer were met and I am lucky I got to do what I wanted. This opportunity helped clearly define and refine both my long term professional and personal goals.”
Read MoreDhriti Bhatta worked as a member of the consulting team at FIT, developing a rollout strategy for FIT’s latest product, FARMIS (Farmer’s Record Management System). She conducted value chain analysis for the coffee sub-sector, wrote proposals for consultancy projects, and conducted analysis for FIT’s trademark product, the Market Analysis Report (MAR) 2013, a comprehensive collection of price information of over 40 commodities from over 35 markets in Uganda.
Dhriti: “This experience was important for me, as I got a a sense of how rural Uganda still is and how difficult it is to operate businesses there. I was pleasantly surprised by the farmers’ groups we came across there. The leaders of these organizations seemed quite entrepreneurial and were excited to test out a product like FARMIS. Overall, my experience in FIT Uganda was quite important to my academic and intellectual interests. I learnt a lot more about how the agriculture sector works, specifically in East Africa. Also visiting a growing East African country gave me a sense of how those markets are expanding and increasingly becoming more important globally.”
Read MoreSarah Ryan focused on the Fundacion’s reading glasses microfranchise and investigated new microfranchise opportunities for FP. She was able to meet with microfranchises, loan officers, and potential suppliers. Her business plan suggesting strategic changes in order to grow sales and expand the number of vendors was presented to the directors.
Sarah: “It was extremely useful to get on-the-ground experience in a developing country… and to understand the cultural differences which impact the speed and implementation of new operational models.”
Read MoreEvelyn conducted field research with World Health Partners in rural India, in support of the social franchise’s efforts to improve access to healthcare using local market forces and cutting-edge technology. Her work in Bihar focused on understanding the organic network of Bihari health providers before the WHP network was to be started. She conducted a baseline survey of existing providers to find out how they were connected to one another, including doctors, pathological labs, pharmaceutical distributors and supply chain components. The goal was to see what gaps, bottlenecks or roadblocks existed. Data included referral practices, impact on patient in terms of cost and patient travel time, cost to patient for four priority diseases so that WHP’s franchise could be as efficient and effective as possible.
Read MoreMeghan conducted the Program Evaluation of a microcredit and sustainable agriculture program in Leon, Nicaragua for SosteNica, a U.S.-based nonprofit that funds sustainable agriculture and development initiatives in rural Nicaragua . As the Evaluation Consultant, Meghan developed and conducted an assessment of the socio-economic and environmental impact of this pilot program on its participants.
Read MoreCheney served as the bridge between Kiva, BRAC, micro-entrepreneurs and lenders to streamline the loan posting process, monitor and evaluate repayment schedules to improve the new and emerging micro-finance industry in Sri Lanka
Read MoreQiamuddin researched the prospects for small renewable energy enterprises and the role that micro-finance can play in providing capital to small entrepreneurs to develop this industry in Afghanistan and provided recommendations to First Micro-finance Bank.
Read MoreRabeh worked at the Lebanese Transparency Association conducting an assessment and developing a business strategy for the creation of a new social enterprise for organic agricultural products with a focus on access to markets for the bottom of the pyramid.
Read MoreKristy was an intern with Catholic Relief Services, working on a cell phone literacy project, focusing on helping rural farmers create improved access to markets and in the identification of avenues for obtaining current pricing of products.
Read MoreMariah developed five program proposals for Eurasia Foundation Central Asia (EFCA) covering the creation of Youth Banks, improving the efficiency of labor markets, promoting education, integrating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into the private sector and building relationships between small business leaders in both countries.
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