Countdown to Bangkok!

As Spring 1 winds down and exams approach quicker than I would have imagined, I find myself getting excited about my next SOM-related jaunt around the world. Over Spring Break, the members of the Global Social Enterprise program at SOM are traveling to Thailand to do pro-bono consulting work for a number of NGOs in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. The great thing about the program this year is that they opened it up to other graduate schools; my team for example is composed of myself, a second year SOM student, an MPH, and a student from the Masters in International and Development Economics program. Our project will have us working with an organization that teaches work skills classes to women in Bangkok. This past term we have been on conference calls and reviewing marketing and financial materials for the organization, getting a sense of both their operational, fundraising, and sustainability needs as well as our ability to fill those needs and provide a positive deliverable when our work is complete. On the side, our fund-raising efforts to support the trip have been great. In fact, we raised over $8,000 in student donations at the annual GSE Date Auction/Singled Out event earlier this month. All in all, I encourage both first years and incoming students in the fall to look into the GSE program- it's a great way to develop acumen in the real problems that affect social enterprise ventures across the world.