As the fellowship comes to a close I’m left with more questions than answers. How do I take what I learned from an amazing entrepreneur like Operation ASHA country director Jacqueline Chen and apply it to my own career? How do I find a career that makes me as passionate as the entrepreneurs-in-residence were this past summer? How do I use the talents I have to positively impact the global community that I became more connected with throughout this entire process? This entire journey has been an exercise in both trying to answer these questions and also realizing that I will spend my entire life trying to answer these questions. However, while I will always have questions, I know a lot more now about what kinds of social engagement inspire me, what I think the next steps are that I will take, and what has changed about my perception of the world.
The 2015 GSBF Fellows at Magis
When it comes to social engagement, I don’t think the field of social entrepreneurship is what I feel most called to right now. The entire social enterprise sector I find incredibly inspiring but I don’t think being on the ground in the developing world with just myself plays best into what I’m skilled at. For now I want to instead bring the entrepreneurial skills learned in the fellowship to a larger organization focused on shaping policy. I learned from being around Jacqueline at the office at Operation ASHA about the value of creativity and thinking outside the box. I learned from reading Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney and then hearing him speak in class the necessity of inspiring others to be leaders and leading with love. These lessons are a toolkit for future endeavors and future leadership opportunities in a larger organization.
The desire to work at an organization focused on government policy is reflected in the next step I want to take. I have applied to law schools and plan on attending one next fall. Most of the time when I say this around people in the social entrepreneurship industry I hear at best an “oh” and sometimes even outright dismay. Yet, what has continued to inspire me is public policy and government. Structuring the large aid projects in an NGO like USAID or working towards making a fair playing field for everyone through work in the Department of Justice are all pursuits that inspired me when I first became a Political Science major. Silly as these small examples may be, I saw this in Cambodia too. The conference we went to on the relationship between Diabetes and TB that brought together different government players around the country, briefly meeting the head of the WHO’s TB program in Cambodia, and researching what political factors influence how NGO’s get funded in the country were all experiences I really enjoyed. It is very possible, and in fact likely, these experiences will not be my entire career. I could see myself working at a small legal aid firm or even something entirely different like impact investing. This reflects another great lesson of the fellowship, even the best laid plans will change and the ability to adapt to change leads to a more fulfilling experience.
Phnom Penh Conference on TB and Diabetes
One thing that will govern this entire vocational journey is the new global perspective I have after this experience. I knew through coursework as a Poli Sci major and just by staying up to date on world news that there is poverty and turmoil in other parts of the world. However, before the fellowship this was always framed as an “us” versus “them” dynamic. The “us” were the “1st world” countries generously doling out aid while the “them” were the “third world” countries stuck in poverty. This fellowship drives home that there is no “first world” and “third world”, there is one world where we all share far more in common than we have differences. The ingenuity in the developing world to solve complex problems is staggering and the amount we share in common with members of these communities can only be fully appreciated through a fully immersive experience working there. Going to Cambodia was my first time outside the United States and while I though I was well informed about world affairs I lacked a kinship to fellow global citizens not in the United States. That newfound kinship comes with a price. That price is likely feeling drawn my entire life back towards these problems and solutions we got to participate in so closely. That is a price I am so thankful I get to pay going forward.
Moving on to the Next Challenge