{"id":4,"date":"2015-04-17T04:53:13","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T04:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/?p=4"},"modified":"2015-04-26T00:29:40","modified_gmt":"2015-04-26T00:29:40","slug":"journey-to-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/2015\/04\/17\/journey-to-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Journey to Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

My parents and my experiences in a tight-knit Roman Catholic family taught me the necessary value of teamwork. Our family was a unit. And like community lending groups that micro-finance institutions utilize in their practices, if one member was to slack off or default, the entire team would suffer. Whether it was picking up siblings from practice during the week, or attending Church on the weekends, you were expected to be there, not simply present, but participating. \u201cPulling your own weight\u201d was the common term tossed around, which more recently translated into \u201cacting as an asset, not a liability\u201d. As an overly-emotional adolescent I did not like this policy for it tended to invade on my non-existent plans, but during my freshman year in high school I realized how valuable our teamwork would be.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1124\"<\/a>
The whole “team”.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the beginning of my freshman year, I saw the true power of the teamwork they had always expressed. Within the same month, my sister was hospitalized with a ruptured appendix, and my father was diagnosed with bladder cancer. Had it not been for the teamwork that my parents drilled us in, dealing with this would have been far more challenging. From my older brother, to friends we hadn’t seen for months, the amount of support and sacrifice that people made to help us was remarkable and breathtaking. It was this example that first showed me how the idea of teamwork transcended anything taught on a sports field, but rather has the power to transform and help those in need.<\/p>\n

Throughout my high school career I was primarily focused on sports, for I believed that my future would be directly related to my newly discovered talent. I loved the camaraderie and unity of the teams I would play on, something only achieved through sacrifice and collaboration with one another, teamwork. \u00a0As I began to visit colleges and meet with coaches, exploring where I would be playing rugby in college for the next four years, it seemed as if I had it all figured out. That dream I had in my head ceased to exist after sustaining my 6th concussion during the summer going into senior year, as I was forced to revaluate what it was I truly wanted to do with my life.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The glory days.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I began to realize that regardless of my focus on sports, throughout high school I had an innate desire for service. I was actively involved in Campus Ministry, leading retreats and also acting as president for the Sturdy Wings support group at school, a club my older brother, and some friends founded for students with terminally ill family members. Impacting others through Campus Ministry and Sturdy Wings taught me how rewarding that type of work could be.<\/p>\n

\"Untitled\"<\/a>
Rehearsing a skit while leading Senior Retreat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

When it came time to chose a college I followed in the footsteps of my older brother here, to Santa Clara. At this point I was introduced in Environmental Studies while living on the Sustainable Living Undergraduate Research Project (SLURP) \u00a0floor my freshman year. \u00a0After learning more about the future consequences that our world will face together due to our past actions, I found that I could not ignore the facts in which I had read. With my new knowledge I made the decision to double major in Economics and Environmental Studies, for in doing so I would hopefully be able to work in the field of \u201cGreen Business\u201d. I began my first true work experience while interning at CB Richard Ellis where I had the unique opportunity to operate in a corporate business setting . While I liked what I was doing, I realized that if I was going to work for the majority of my life I wanted it to be doing something that not only allowed me to support my future family, but also help others to do the same for themselves.<\/p>\n

This past summer I had an the amazing opportunity to travel to Cape Town, South Africa to volunteer at Chapel Street Primary School. \u00a0The experience that I had in Cape Town opened my eyes to the trivial things that continually \u00a0worry us while we conduct our daily lives in developed countries. Getting angry over whether there was ample cell service, or no traffic on the way to work doesn\u2019t even compare when some of the kids in which I taught were sent to school everyday without a lunch. While I had seen poverty at home, through volunteering at Father Joe\u2019s Village, I had never seen it on this scale. The most remarkable part of the entire journey was that despite these odds, the children never stopped smiling, striving to make the most out of what they had. Even though the experience was life-changing, I found myself wondering how I could apply my skills more efficiently to make a social impact. I felt as if at times I had been hurting more than helping while at the school, and that I truly wanted to make a concrete difference on the people that I worked with.<\/p>\n

\"sa\"<\/a>
Miss Moolman’s Grade R Classroom in Capetown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fast-forward to now, as I am currently working as a Sales Operations Intern at Zuora, going to school, and preparing for an action research project in Uganda and Rwanda. Through my experience working at Zuora, I have been able to see how technology continues to progress, and the endless amount of applications for social impact. In addition to the technology aspect, I was truly shown the spirit of entrepreneurship, something I thought I understood going to school in the Silicon Valley for the past couple of years. After witnessing how a successful high-growth enterprise is operated, paired with the constant innovation occurring in the Silicon Valley I was further convinced that the fast paced startup environment is where I would like to work in the future.<\/p>\n

When my friend, Garrett Eggen, who participated in the fellowship last year, mentioned that I should apply given my past experience, I had to seize the opportunity. It is almost as if this fellowship was designed exactly for people who had had experiences like myself, yet were searching for how they could do more. My desire for making a larger\/concrete impact has been subsided, for the concept of social entrepreneurship will allow me to translate and apply my tangible skills, garnered through internships and school, to aid sustainable businesses that offer solutions which traditional charity has been unable to provide for decades. Poverty is all around us, whether we tend to ignore it or not. That is why it is my belief that through the ability of teamwork paired with innovative technologies we will be able to lift the less fortunate out of their current situations, eliminating the concept of a poverty trap all together.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 My parents and my experiences in a tight-knit Roman Catholic family taught me the necessary value of teamwork. Our family was a unit. And like community lending groups that micro-finance institutions utilize in their practices, if one member was to slack off or default, the entire team would suffer. Whether it was picking up … Continue reading Journey to Now<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":849,"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-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":1,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"avpascale","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/author\/avpascale\/"},"qubely_comment":1,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"\u00a0 My parents and my experiences in a tight-knit Roman Catholic family taught me the necessary value of teamwork. Our family was a unit. And like community lending groups that micro-finance institutions utilize in their practices, if one member was to slack off or default, the entire team would suffer. Whether it was picking up…","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/849"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}