{"id":5,"date":"2012-05-24T05:56:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-24T05:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/?p=5"},"modified":"2012-05-29T03:24:16","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T03:24:16","slug":"the-journey-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/2012\/05\/24\/the-journey-here\/","title":{"rendered":"The Journey Here"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you had asked me in high school where I thought I would be in a few years, I certainly would not have guessed that it would be here. When I entered college, I had no concept of vocation. I had attended public school my entire life, and I had internalized the mindset of education as a means to an end. I wanted to achieve a success based on money and prestige. But upon my arrival at Santa Clara, I was suddenly exposed to the idea of working for<\/em> others \u2013 using my own skills for the betterment of society as a whole. I realized that I want to seek a vocation, not just a career. As a student of both business and economics, the field of social entrepreneurship appeals to me immensely. It would give me the opportunity to apply the practical business knowledge I have cultivated to real world issues in a way that affects tangible and sustainable change.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Community Service with CLASP<\/p><\/div>\n

At Santa Clara, I have had incredible opportunities that have challenged my worldview and allowed me to examine my own strengths to in the context of the world\u2019s needs. The initial seed was planted when I joined the Contemplative Leadership and Sustainability Program <\/a>through the Leavey School of Business. As a part of CLASP, I was able to explore how sustainability relates to each major offered within the business school. I was blown away by the wealth of opportunities within the field of economics, particularly sustainable economic development. I became intrigued by the creation and implementation of systems to help the poor, the underprivileged, and the disadvantaged locally and around the world achieve greater economic success while still keeping in mind their own cultural context and the health of the environment. I knew that I had found a field that I could be passionate about, a field where I could make a real contribution.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Trine's Cafe, one of the prominent businesses on South First Street<\/p><\/div>\n

My first step in pursuing work in economic development was to get involved with Santa Clara\u2019s new Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative. The Initiative seeks to create a long-term partnership between SCU\u2019s Leavey School of Business and the struggling business district on South First Street in San Jose. As a part of the Initiative, I visited the community and helped interview business owners about their needs and their struggles. Our next step is to utilize the resources and connections here at Santa Clara to help address the strife within the community. I have been continuously struck with the passion and care that those small business owners put into their businesses. One restaurant owner drives down to Los Angeles every week just to get fresh ingredients in order to preserve the integrity and authenticity of the food he serves. I hope that the experiences I have had with local struggling communities with inform my experiences abroad and vice versa. I expect to find that these communities have more similarities than differences, and I hope that I can work with both to address their needs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I credit my experiences at Santa Clara with exposing me to tangible experiences that have allowed me to explore my own concept of vocation. But there has also been one person in my life that has consistently inspired me to do better and to be better \u2013 my brother. He too is interested in pursuing a career that affects a positive change. At only eighteen, he has been involved in numerous volunteer projects, interned for a youth development non-profit, facilitated the launching of a youth center, and expressed interest in becoming a community organizer.<\/p>\n

While he was interning at a non-profit focuses on youth development for the underprivileged, I once accompanied my brother to interview homeless youth at a transitional house. What was initially shocking to me was that the majority of those youths were younger than myself, and yet they had undergone so much more than I ever had to. I spoke to one boy who had hitchhiked to Seattle from the Midwest. He proceeded to explain to me how to find out which streets were safe for resting or sleeping in when first arriving in a new city. I had never before even considered how it must feel arriving in an unknown city and trying to determine the safest alley in which to spend the night. Their whole worldview was radically different from my own. They spoke of struggling to find food, of dealing with drug-addicted friends and relatives, of being separated from siblings by the foster system. I realized that I would never be able to fully understand these people, because their experiences were so dramatically different from my own. But I had so much to learn from them. Just simply by listening I was able to better grasp their needs and uncover ways to apply my own strengths and assets to address those needs.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, my brother and I had vastly different opinions on what it would take to make a difference in the lives of the people we interviewed. I advocated more direct action such as implementing programming or connecting them to resources. He preferred a softer approach \u2013 first just talking to them and listening to their stories. The first thing they need, he told me, is some sort validation without judgment. They need someone to listen. I agree, but I still believe more in tangible action. We may never fully agree, but my continued dialogue with him has helped to shape and challenge my own concept of vocation.<\/p>\n

The Global Social Benefit Fellowship has offered me the perfect opportunity to explore and pursue my vocation.\u00a0 Social entrepreneurship is a viable avenue towards sustainable economic development, and this fellowship is giving me a hands-on opportunity to be a part of it. To learn what works and doesn\u2019t work from social entrepreneurs in the field and directly from the people they serve is a key step to understanding how to promote sustainable economic development across the world. I look forward to the challenges that this fellowship and my field placement will present me with. I hope to continue my internal dialogue and refine my understanding of who I am, who I want to be, and where I want to go in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you had asked me in high school where I thought I would be in a few years, I certainly would not have guessed that it would be here. When I entered college, I had no concept of vocation. I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":2,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"amandacnelson","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/author\/amandacnelson\/"},"qubely_comment":2,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"If you had asked me in high school where I thought I would be in a few years, I certainly would not have guessed that it would be here. When I entered college, I had no concept of vocation. I … Continue reading →","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5\/revisions\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/amandacnelson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}