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<\/a>Entrepreneurship<\/strong><\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if I necessarily have an itching to be a social entrepreneur. Maybe some of that has to do with the fact that I don\u2019t enjoy financial risk, and that I don\u2019t like being the center of attention as well. Entrepreneurship is something I\u2019ve always simultaneously admired and thought was crazy, but what if you don\u2019t have to start a business to have entrepreneurial spirit inside you?<\/p>\n Was I supposed to come out of this fellowship wanting to be a social entrepreneur? At the beginning, it felt like that was the point. Was I disappointing? Am I not \u201cup to par\u201d with the entrepreneurs of the world? Should I be more daring, more reckless, more willing to give up what I know for an idea? I don\u2019t necessarily think so; I don\u2019t think those are the key take-aways from entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n I have an innovative, creative way and that carries into every part of my life. I am a problem-solver, not a complainer. I am a motivator and a realist, but I am also cautious. I think in big, grandiose ideas, but I am careful to carry out the ones that aren\u2019t realistic. Perhaps I limit myself in that; who knows. I am an engineer, an artist, a minister, a design-thinker. I love to work with people and to be on the ground, and I am also capable of working from the base. I think I can carry my problem-solving, strategy-creating passion into any part of my life.<\/p>\n \u201cReal\u201d Problems<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve found in myself that I will be unsatisfied if the work I ultimately do in life isn\u2019t in the service of real problems. As I\u2019ve gone through the motions as an engineer at SCU, I\u2019ve found how easy it would be to just slip through the cracks, indulge in my schoolwork in classes, and come out believing that what is most important is making the most money. Sometimes that\u2019s what a lot of teachers teach, and sometimes that\u2019s what I still believe. And yes, I need my work to matter.<\/p>\n The flip side of this is the utter importance that is put on finding the job of your dreams. Sometimes a job is just that: a job. If I need to save money for awhile, so be it; that is life. However, if there\u2019s anything I\u2019ve learned from these amazing experiences in the fellowship and in other opportunities I\u2019ve had, I now feel the responsibility to give of myself, the best of myself, to work that matters, when I have the choice.<\/p>\n Community<\/b><\/p>\n Nobody can change the world by themselves. I\u2019ve found a community of like-minded individuals who all feel the need, the pull, the responsibility to be active members on this planet who want equality and justice. We work in teams, and we are different; we have new ideas and we balance each other out. We can inspire each other and we can meet new \u201cheroes,\u201d who usually end up being normal people. (Funny how that works.)<\/p>\n A Jesuit once told me that to do justice, you need to be surrounded by justice. You can\u2019t do justice alone; you\u2019ll burn out. Community plays such an important role in the idea of moving forward and making change. I now know of networks of people who are interested in these real-world issues and have dedicated their lives to changing this.<\/p>\n Travelling<\/strong><\/p>\n Simply the act of travelling has allowed me to learn so much. When I travel, especially alone, I find that all I know and am comfortable with is stripped away, and I am left with myself. This, of course, begs the question of who it is that I am.<\/p>\n When I travelled with Jake this summer, I learned what it\u2019s like to spend hours upon hours per day, every day, for weeks on end with one person that is very, very different from me. Besides Jake and my way of joking together and being able to have a great time, Jake and I had our differences, and I had to learn how to communicate with him and let him know when he crossed a boundary unintentionally. This took a lot of strength for me and learning how to process through feelings of entrapment and a bit of loneliness.<\/p>\n Loneliness. This was an interesting part of my experience in travelling. Loneliness that I felt at times was undeniable; I missed my family and my friends back home. I learned how to be my own support system when I needed it. My relationship with God held me up at times when I needed it, and I was very sure about staying in tune with myself and what I needed.<\/p>\n Self-growth<\/strong><\/p>\n A lot of self-growth took place through this fellowship. In an attempt to encapsulate it, I realized strengths that I didn\u2019t know I had and saw that I am capable of a lot more than I thought I was. I saw my ability to discern, my ability to support myself, my ability to be physically strong and willing. This fellowship was an intense turning point and, in many ways, a strong beginning point for a whole new way of Kate that I didn\u2019t know was there.<\/p>\n Probably due to many influences in my teenage years and in my growth as a woman in engineering, voices constantly tell me that I can\u2019t do it. I was simply not born strong enough, willing enough, powerful enough, smart enough. These voices have been proved wrong.<\/p>\n Justice<\/strong><\/p>\n A large, if not the most important, theme of this fellowship is justice. We know that not all people are born into fairness and equal opportunity; this is the essence of social construction and institution based on that construction.<\/p>\n I often think of a quote by Dorothy Day, and wonder how it matches up to social entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t worry about being effective. Just concentrate on being faithful to the truth.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2013 Dorothy Day<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Wait, what about impact assessment? What about entrepreneurship in building new and innovative businesses to effect the largest amount of people possible? Isn\u2019t that all I\u2019ve been taught?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s break down the quote.<\/p>\n What is this \u201ctruth\u201d she\u2019s talking about?<\/strong><\/p>\n Maybe she\u2019s talking about the truth, the reality, of the world. The truth will set you free<\/em>. Truth, reality, suffering, love, pain, poverty, awe\u2026 these all introduce us to humanity, give us empathy, and show us the road to connecting to our brothers and sisters around the world. The truths of people\u2019s realities and lives, the truth of death and birth, the truth of poverty and riches. The only way to make people\u2019s realities better and more humane is to know<\/em> these truths and to see these realities.<\/p>\n What does she mean by \u201ceffective\u201d? Why shouldn\u2019t I worry about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n I believe she\u2019s talking about our temptation to be effective first. We attempt to stretch ourselves thin, to sprinkle ourselves over a large group of people, and try to solve a problem that may not be there. In being too effective and attempting to reach too many people, maybe we lose the truth. In inflating too high off the ground, maybe we lose reality and knowledge of the base. In putting effectiveness over <\/em>truth, we lose truth. But in keeping truth paramount to our ability to make change, we can, in turn, be effective.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What does justice, self-awareness, and entrepreneurship look like in my life? I\u2019m not quite sure yet. I am confident that I will receive nudges from God, small windows and doors to climb through. When I follow my compass, what I believe God is telling me, wonderful things happen. All I need to do is follow.<\/p>\n Thank you, countless thank yous and blessings to everyone who has made this possible. Thank you Keith and Thane for your wisdom, intelligence, and training for how to stay calm when put on the spot. Thank you Jake for, just in who you are, showing me who I am. Thank you Zoe for being receptive to our input as researchers and for responding to ways in which we identified that we could help IkamvaYouth. Thank you to Joy and IkamvaYouth for giving us the opportunity to work with you and your wonderful, amazing tutors. Thank you mom and dad for blessing me with love and support and for being the first people who showed me what it looks like to live for others and for love. Thank you Dr. Figueira for encouraging me to apply for the fellowship. Thank you Nic for being a constant source of support and love in my times of homesickness. Thank you Amanda for your friendship and support. Thank you Katie and Emile for your excitement, expertise, and support in our deliverables up until the very end. Thank you to Serena, Paris, Shelby, Lindsey, Tom, Andrew, Christine, Christiane, Misja, Will, Jana, Maggie, Gogo, Brooke, Elizabeth, and Paul for being a constant inspiration and community to keep each other up when the fellowship work got hard, to keep each other in our thoughts when one of our placement apartments catch on fire, and to talk about things that matter. Thank you Santa Clara University for providing me support, funding, guidance, and wonderfully amazing people and communities to continue to grow into the best version of myself and to live in service of myself to the world. Thank you.<\/p>\n 9 months later, here I am. I am sitting at my computer writing the last in a long line of papers and written pieces in this fellowship. Over 9 months ago was when I felt a pull towards this fellowship. I like to think it was God giving me a little nudge, an invitation to … Continue reading I Follow: Justice, Self-Awareness, Entrepreneurship<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1269,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Kate Lassalle-Klein","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katelassalle\/author\/katelassalle\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"9 months later, here I am. I am sitting at my computer writing the last in a long line of papers and written pieces in this fellowship. Over 9 months ago was when I felt a pull towards this fellowship. 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Left to right: Jake, Alex Smith (Fundraising Coordinator), Joy Olivier (Co-founder and Director), Zoe Mann (Community Coordinator), Me<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a>