My name is Alex Cabral I am a rising senior at Santa Clara University. My partner-in-crime, Kiara, and I have been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to complete a 9-month fellowship through SCU’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society’s Global Social Benefit Institute.

If you’d like to find out more about how we got involved with the fellowship and where we came from, check out our personal blogs!
Alex Cabral: http://blogs.scu.edu/alexcabral/
Kiara Machuca: http://blogs.scu.edu/kmachuca/

After three months of intensive research surrounding topics such as social entrepreneurship, base-of-the-pyramid customers, last-mile distribution, micro-finance institutions, and all the good stuff, we have departed on the second part of our journey.

Heading to the airport.

We had the good fortune of being paired with Iluméxico, a social enterprise based out of Mexico that aims to provide light to the energy-impoverished populations of Mexico through solar power technologies and community development programs. We will be conducting a customer service analysis and marketing and communication analysis in a couple rural communities where Iluméxico works in order to give the company a clearer idea of what they can do in order to improve their product line and customer satisfaction levels. After completing our two-month research plan abroad, we will return to SCU to piece together the parts of our research which will benefit the enterprise most.

First, we will be spending a week in Mexico City to get to know the ins-and-outs of the enterprise before we set out to visit more rural areas.

My impressions of my first day in Mexico City:
1. Traffic is scary. Cars will turn wherever, whenever they want. I saw my life flash before my eyes more than a few times, which may or may not have been due to the cautiously-aggressive driving of María, our mentor here at Iluméxico. Speed limits? Cameras at stoplights? Staying in your own lane? These phrases don’t exist here. Crossing the street is a do-or-die mission.

2. Plans in a start-up company can switch in another direction almost as fast as María’s lane changes. On our way between the airport and breakfast, she filled us in on many major changes currently happening in Iluméxico that we will get to witness this summer. All of them will have a large impact on Iluméxico. Who knew we would be so lucky? Or are we…

3. We grabbed breakfast at an awesome café that sold books, food, and hosts a slew of concerts throughout the week. The Omelette Juliette I ordered, filled with spinach, goat cheese, and mushrooms, tasted like the best food I’d ever had, especially since we ate it after a 4-hour plane ride at 5am PST. It was a warm welcome to the colonia where we will be staying for a good part of our journey, which is one of the cultural hubs of the city.

4. After eating, I went to browse through the books while we waited for a suspiciously-young valet to bring María’s car around front. But I could not browse through the books, because every single one was wrapped in plastic. Probably so that no one could sit in the restaurant all day and read an entire book without paying (like they do at Barnes ‘n’ Noble), but I took it as an action that stifled my liberty to flip through the pages before I buy a book.

5. Ilumexico’s office headquarters looked very small from the outside. It was on a very narrow street. with a very skinny building facade, and a little doorway. As we were given the tour, the office continued back further and further, until we reached a patio, a back office, and a make-shift movie theater the team had created in order to get the best World Cup-watching experience possible (which we watched on our first day, of course, because “El Tri” was playing). The employees seemed young, energetic, and close to each other, which I think is very important. Building trust between the team is vital for a company’s success, especially when that company is just completing its start-up stage.

6. Rain is just as unpredictable as a start-up company. Both me and my soaking wet jeans paid that price tonight.

We shall see what more this trip will bring!
Hasta Luego,
Alex

The view from our hostel!