{"id":70,"date":"2016-11-19T21:38:06","date_gmt":"2016-11-19T21:38:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/?p=70"},"modified":"2018-01-16T22:00:32","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T22:00:32","slug":"looking-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/2016\/11\/19\/looking-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA fragile world, entrusted by God to human care, challenges us to devise intelligent ways of directing, developing and limiting our power.\u201d \u2013 Pope Francis, Laudato Si<\/em> (passage 78, chapter 2).<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 This fellowship has been both incredibly rigorous and incredibly rewarding. It has opened my eyes to ways in which business can be used for global good; ways in which business can in fact drive<\/em> global good. In the face of discouraging times and realities, I feel all the more driven to take what I have learned as a GSB Fellow to combat today\u2019s most challenging social and environmental issues. Coming back to the U.S. after South Africa and after Indonesia, I experienced periods of grief as I realized that oftentimes our society is unaware of the comforts that\u00a0many of us\u00a0are privileged to experience, while much of the world continues to struggle with various barriers to access. I know, however, that I want to take this grief and let it pull me towards making a change. Through experience, personal interest, reflection, and many conversations, I have been able to discern where studying business, and marketing in particular, can be used to make a positive difference in this world. As I have mentioned before, prior to the fellowship I felt slightly limited and unaware of what my options were in pursuing a business degree with a passion for social justice, but I knew that I had to be patient and trust that my study choices and internal inkling would unfold with time. Thankfully, simply having faith and being patient worked out as my path led to studying in South Africa and then joining the Global Social Benefit Fellowship.<\/p>\n

When applying, I remember being amazed at how perfectly my studies and interests seemed to match up with the fellowship\u2019s description. My minors are in international business and entrepreneurship and I also felt stirred towards challenging myself to discover more about how I can combat social injustice after experiencing the protests in South Africa. The fellowship described itself as indeed a challenge, but one that was seeking entrepreneurial ways of combatting our globe\u2019s most challenging needs. Through these experiences within my junior year and into my senior year, my eyes had begun to be open to an internal calling towards committing to social good and towards a realization that perhaps this could be done through innovative business endeavors. My heart had always been inclined towards social good, but I had not been fully able to combine it with my business studies. The combination of these ideas is what excites me so much about the fellowship and social entrepreneurship as a whole, as I continue to imagine new ways to sustainably generate much-needed change for a hurting world.<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-11-19-at-4-22-54-pm\"<\/p>\n

Oftentimes business is criticized for fostering a consumer-obsessed culture. However, there are also companies that are seeking a social mission alongside making a profit. I find myself making new connections constantly about what I am able to do vocationally that will doubly generate good for others. Whether this means working for a small social enterprise, or in a larger corporation that is ethical at its core, I know that I want to carefully select where I choose to apply my skills and hard work. I am deeply intrigued by the idea that we can generate new, entrepreneurial ideas about how to combat today\u2019s global social and environmental challenges, so I truly hope that this passion will remain alive in me over the years as I explore my career path.<\/p>\n

At this point in time, and largely thanks to the fellowship class, I have reflected on my values, skills, gifts and interests. The fellowship has offered me the space and intentionality behind putting a name to each and piecing them together.<\/p>\n

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Coffee and the outdoors.<\/p><\/div>\n

My values include love, joy and justice. My skills are those I have learned through business interests and studies, specifically in marketing, events planning, international business and entrepreneurship. My gifts include a love for bringing people together, being attuned to others\u2019 stories and having adventure at heart. My interests include the coffee industry, the outdoors and events that offer meaningful experiences. Prior to reflection, these all felt abstract to me, and I had never directly associated them with how I would discern my vocation. Now, I see how even something as specific as coffee can play a role in my discernment, as I realize that I would love to work for a company in the coffee industry to help it\u00a0ethically source, or for a social enterprise that is mission-driven in the coffee sector.<\/p>\n

I continue to have faith and try to remain patient with discovering exactly what my path will look like down the line. For now, I am content in knowing that I can explore innovative thinking in the world of driving social justice. Perhaps in these first couple years post-graduation I will need to hone in on my business skills and knowledge at a large company and then eventually apply these skills to a social enterprise. Maybe I will start off in the coffee industry, or bringing people together in an events-oriented enterprise, or in promoting improvement of our environment through an outdoors-based organization. Nonetheless, I\u2019m excited to see what lies ahead and am thankful for the journey I have had so far.<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-11-19-at-4-26-03-pm\"

Looking forward.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

\u201cA fragile world, entrusted by God to human care, challenges us to devise intelligent ways of directing, developing and limiting our power.\u201d \u2013 Pope Francis, Laudato Si (passage 78, chapter 2). \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 This fellowship has … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":560,"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-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Katie Waddell","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/author\/kwaddell\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"\u201cA fragile world, entrusted by God to human care, challenges us to devise intelligent ways of directing, developing and limiting our power.\u201d \u2013 Pope Francis, Laudato Si (passage 78, chapter 2). \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 This fellowship has … Continue reading →","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/560"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/katiewaddell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}