![\"With](\"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/gsbfswanson\/files\/2015\/04\/3Generations.jpg\")
<\/a>With my Father and Grandfather on Easter<\/p><\/div>\n
The summer between freshman year and sophomore year of college, before I was ever introduced to social entrepreneurship, I worked for my grandfather at his non-destructive testing facility for airplane parts. My job for 7.5 hours of the day was to stand in the back of the factory and when parts were done being tested I would put them back in their cartons, wrap the cartons in Saran wrap, and stack them to be shipped back to the customer. The last half hour of the day I got to go up to my grandfather\u2019s office and talk with him about life and often about his business. He would try to relay as much about running a small business as possible; how to keep employees loyal, how to manage the finances month to month, how to deal with workplace politics, and other lessons learned from hard earned experience. One lesson in particular was emphasized repeatedly, how certain government interventions were making doing business incredibly difficult. Policies were intended for excellent reasons, such as ensuring workplace safety standards and protecting the environment, and there were certainly cases where these policy intentions equaled the policy outcomes. However, there were other cases where the policies resulted in his small company paying thousands in legal fees fighting frivolous lawsuits filed because of loopholes in legislation, or not being able to lay off particularly poor performing employees and hire better staff because of concerns about wrongful termination lawsuits. The policies had noble intentions, but the execution was often inefficient because the government did not fully understand at the local level what was conducive to small business growth in Sunland, California. It echoed aspects of what I was learning in Political Science about the developing world. International Organizations like the World Bank and the IMF wanted to tackle noble goals, like reducing poverty, but the execution was often lacking. A research project I did in a class on International Organizations looked specifically at World Bank lending to Africa. While extensive resources were being spent, the desired effects were lacking as the World Bank tried to implement economic policies that succeeded in the West, in African economies that were incredibly different. Like the red tape my Grandfather lamented over, these policies sounded good in theory but in practice were inefficient because of a lack of information about what was needed in the local context.<\/p>\n
The Catholic Confirmation Ceremony<\/p><\/div>\n
Still, efficiency is only useful when applied with the right purpose and a vocational calling is not something I developed over the course of that summer. Instead, what makes me so intrigued in the idea of applying efficient solutions to social justice issues was developed a few years prior, during the Catholic Confirmation process. What I gained through being both confirmed in the Catholic Church my sophomore year of high school and then serving as a Youth Confirmation Leader my senior year of high school was that the aspect of spirituality that most appeals to me is giving back and being mindful of the condition of others who are less fortunate. Like most Catholic retreats, the retreat I helped lead my senior year culminated with a reflection time where those on the retreat could share their darkest moments. What made the deepest impression about these stories was how many people were put through a daily hell because of a lack of mindfulness. Their friends, classmates, and family were ignorant that their jokes, or their comments, or their actions, were causing someone they cared about to suffer. It was a resounding call to go back into the world cautiously, pausing to reevaluate if our daily actions were causing unintended harm that we were oblivious too. Now, over three years later in my junior year at this University I\u2019ve come to realize that a large part of this Jesuit education is globalizing this mindfulness. Not only can our carelessness hurt those around us, but our lack of caring can cause others around the world to suffer in perpetuity. We do not need to have the solution for the problems of the developing world but we also cannot be indifferent and just accept the status quo.<\/p>\n
The CSTS Staff at the GSBI In-Residency<\/p><\/div>\n
Still, it took a series of fortunate breaks to learn how the lessons of my grandfather and the values of the church\u00a0could ever be linked. That first break came in the Spring of freshman year here at Santa Clara University when I received an email that changed the trajectory of my college experience. It was an email from the University Honors Program office offering an opportunity to request to join the program. I followed up and sat down with the program director who outlined what it meant to be an honors student at Santa Clara University. Among various opportunities including Q and As with guest speakers and potential fellowships abroad was the requirement to take an Honors 20 class. The classes were taught about a variety of topic ranging from Stem Cell research to the War on Drugs and <\/i>I chose in the Winter quarter of my sophomore year to take Technology for Social Justice. How social justice\u00a0related to the innovations being made in the surrounding Silicon Valley was of interest to me but I had little idea what the class would be specifically about. Technology for Social Justice ended up being focused on social entrepreneurship. The subject matter which seemed like an intersection between financial ingenuity and a social science approach to tackling developing world problems was extremely interesting because it seemed to break away from the ineffective solutions I was learning about in Political Science. After a quarter of analyzing treadle pump distributors in Africa and India I was lucky enough to have my curiosity and interest in the subject garner an opportunity to work for the Center for Science, Technology, and Society, the home to the GSBI. There I got to take what I had learned about in theory in the Honors 20 class, and see how it was being applied daily in practice. Now almost exactly one year later I embark on this Fellowship, seemingly a culmination of this journey, where I can experience firsthand what I first learned about in Honors 20 and then saw in the GSBI.<\/p>\n Current GSBF Headshot<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is hard to explain a calling to the GSBF because what underpins the entire social entrepreneurship sector seems in part to be a contradiction. There is a focus on efficiency and in many cases profitability but, at the same … Continue reading <\/a>