{"id":58,"date":"2016-11-21T20:31:34","date_gmt":"2016-11-21T20:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/?p=58"},"modified":"2016-11-21T20:31:34","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T20:31:34","slug":"the-last-leg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/2016\/11\/21\/the-last-leg\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Leg"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I first started in the Global Social Benefit Fellowship, I don\u2019t think I knew or could imagine how much of an impact that it would have on me. Now that I am on the last leg of this fellowship, I understand that this fellowship is so much than just an education in social entrepreneurship or action research in the field; it is an alteration of perspective; it is a radically different viewpoint of the world: The world and environment is hurting; people are hurting, and we are in a unique time and position when we can address the most pressing issues in world through social entrepreneurship to benefit people and the world in a sustainable, lasting, and deeply impactful way. As I look back on my time in Nicaragua, I know that for me, being able to offer something useful was one avenue of social engagement that was meaningful to me; this could be anything from knowledge to a skill and even to a task. On the day to day scale, this meant going out in the field and obtaining information to inform ASDENIC on things they may not possibly know already.<\/p>\n

\"The

The beautiful greens of Nicaragua.<\/p><\/div>\n

However, many times it felt like we were not the ones providing but the ones needing the help; I remember one example was with Santiago, an ASDENIC employee who accompanied us on all our community visits, when he would speak to all of the community members present for interviews about social entrepreneurship and on behalf of us.<\/p>\n

\"Aidan

Aidan and Santiago<\/p><\/div>\n

By speaking on our behalf as a recognized employee of ASDENIC, he gave us credibility and established a level of trust between us and community members\u2014something we would never have been able to do on our own. For me, that meant a lot. Learning from community members and from members of ASDENIC was equally important as being able to offer something in the sense that they contributed to my knowledge, character growth, and cultural awareness. It is a give and take that I hope will only grow bigger in the future as I hope to apply my further education and experience in the scope of social development whether that be in social entrepreneurship or not.\u00a0 If I could speak for myself in future, I would say that I would absolutely go into social entrepreneurship in some aspect especially in social enterprises that are involved in healthcare and medicine. I want to, after obtaining a medical degree, directly participate either as an employee of an enterprise or as an aid to the enterprise much like what the executives do as GSBI mentors. Regardless, this fellowship has implanted social entrepreneurship into my mind so much so that I know that I want to someday be directly involved with a social enterprise.<\/p>\n

\"A

A focus group with community members in Daraili.<\/p><\/div>\n

As a I think about what the Global Social Benefit Fellowship means to me, it\u2019s hard to articulate exactly why I feel so different. If I can\u2019t use words, I know that I feel <\/i>different in the sense that I have a direction. I don\u2019t know the exact path, but I have the general direction. I feel a sense of urgency, a yearning, even a sense of obligation that we have to\u2014we need to do something to help alleviate the suffering of people and the world. If I had to use words, I would say there are three of the biggest takeaways of how this fellowship has impacted my worldview.<\/p>\n

\"A

A girl holding a jug of juice.<\/p><\/div>\n

1) Social entrepreneurship is the key to the world\u2019s most pressing issues. It is an entrepreneurial, radically innovative mindset to a business deeply imbedded with a social mission. It is sustainable, lasting, and impactful. I love that philosophy.<\/p>\n

2) As a society, a culture, and as a collective whole, we can no longer proceed as we have done so far. There is an indebtedness that we own to make a change in the world for the better.<\/p>\n

\"A

A water storage tank for irrigation.<\/p><\/div>\n

3) Personally, I feel an enormous tugging. I believe I am truly blessed and fortunate. My talents are not my own. My worldly possessions are not my own and to who do I owe everything? I owe it to God. I cannot imagine myself, at the end of my life, knowing that I lived my life only having served myself. Knowing that I am so blessed and fortunate to be where I am, to have what I have, to be who I am, and to have people that I have around me, I know that I must use everything given to me to contribute to this world and to be in service to God. As to what exactly this means, I am not entirely sure\u2014maybe it is the philosophy of the early members of the society of Jesus in \u201chelping souls\u201d. Where education was a key expression of that philosophy, I believe medicine to be where I can best be utilized. Then again, I do not know what God\u2019s plan is for me, and if I am called somewhere else, then I will go there. But for now, I know one thing, that time is moving by incredibly fast; we must do everything we can before we are no longer on this earth.<\/p>\n

\"Elia,

Elia, Aidan, and I enjoying the beauty of a waterfall.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I first started in the Global Social Benefit Fellowship, I don\u2019t think I knew or could imagine how much of an impact that it would have on me. Now that I am on the last leg of this fellowship, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1602,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"davidhong","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/author\/davidhong\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"When I first started in the Global Social Benefit Fellowship, I don\u2019t think I knew or could imagine how much of an impact that it would have on me. Now that I am on the last leg of this fellowship, … Continue reading →","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1602"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/davidhong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}