Joining Something Big

Since winter quarter of my freshman year at SCU, I have had my eyes set on the Global

Social Benefit Fellowship as some future, seemingly unattainable goal. Having completed the fellowship and now entering into winter quarter of my senior year at SCU I cannot help but pull out that old cliché “Where did the time go?” My time at Santa Clara University has been filled with various formative experiences but my experience with the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship and the Global Social Benefit Fellowship has undoubtedly been the most impactful and fulfilling of my academic career.

As I stated in my original blog post during the early stages of the fellowship, a flame was sparked inside me from the first time I heard about social entrepreneurship. Undergoing the intensive experience of the fellowship over the last nine months has only made that flame grow stronger. I have fallen in love with the social entrepreneurship movement and now cannot imagine that this movement will not be involved in some capacity as I move forward pursuing my vocation. Through this experience, both in the field and in the classroom, I have seen that the components of this movement that stir up the most excitement in me are the pieces that reflect and activate values that I hold dearest to my heart.

To start, I know now that I want to serve in a way that joins in community and solidarity with others. I admire the humility and intensive work it takes to build a social enterprise

because the entrepreneurs and everyone involved need to understand the needs and wants of the people they hope to serve and help. We cannot come in from outside a community and presume to know how to fix another person’s problems or what that person might want or need in their situation. What we can do is listen. What we must do is listen. Engrained in the framework of social entrepreneurship is the need to meet someone else where they are and bond together over your common humanness. In doing that, you start to truly see and hear the other person. I think only when you truly see and hear another person, can you really start to help each other in a deep and long-lasting way.

The deep and long-lasting goals that social enterprises have, exemplify another value, informing the way I hope to interact with the world. Change is hard. It requires a commitment and devotion of all your resources, including your time and emotional energy. As I meet more and more social entrepreneurs, it is obvious how much they have devoted themselves to their work and their cause. I think true change requires this commitment from us. It is so often in our culture that we want a quick and easy fix. But is

anything worth doing really quick and easy? This fellowship itself is a testament that this is not true. This fellowship required commitment and devotion of my resources but wow, was it worth it. As I move forward hoping to engage in the world and seeing areas that need change, I want to commit to providing the investment of work that area requires. Only with that investment can solutions really be built up in a way that is sustainable and long-lasting. Enterprises are struggling all the time to make themselves sustainable and ensure that the impact they have is long-lasting. The work does not simply “finish,” but the progress that is made is hopefully evident in one way or another and is enough to remind you why you’re doing the work you’re doing when you start to lose sight.

Which leads me to a third and final central reason I have fallen in love with the social enterprise movement – it is beaming with hope. In a world where we can easily feel overwhelmed with problems too big for anyone to tackle, individuals who are brilliant, compassionate and dedicated prove that change is possible, impact is possible. The ways

that social entrepreneurship can be applied to such a wide range of issues, from hunger to the environment to economic opportunity, never ceases to fill me with excitement. Not only is the premise of the enterprise and its commitment to impact inspiring, but in the work itself, hope is palpable. This is largely because the beneficiaries of these enterprises do not exude helplessness but rather empowerment. As I wrote about in my post-field work blog post, when I looked into the people’s eyes that Nazava was serving, they too were brilliant, compassionate and dedicated. This movement inspires hope through seeing the value that is innate to each person and attempting to unlock the potential of that person to be part of a worldwide movement for positive change.

These values of humility, devotion and hope are embodied within social entrepreneurship and it has been a privilege to see them enacted in various ways through this experience. I know it is these values that continue to guide my vocational decisions. While this past year has been extremely influential, I imagine the year ahead will include some of the biggest transitions I have yet to face. The values I have learned through this, however, have already evidently influenced the decisions moving forward as I find my calling in all areas of life.

This next year, I will marry my best friend who just happens to be the love my life. This experience of the fellowship, believe it or not, has greatly informed that decision. My relationship with my fiancé Chase constantly pursues the humility necessary to truly see and hear each other. Our relationship of over seven years has required and will continue to require deep commitment and devotion that we are more than willing to invest. And finally, when I look at him, I see hope. With him, I know that we will act as partners, listening carefully to the needs of the world around us and committing to serve, as we strive to join in on that worldwide movement for positive change.

There are many future vocational decisions I will be making, and this is just one of them (although obviously a very important one). I am grateful to have a partner to pursue this next stage of my life with but there are certain developments that must be made individually. I am lucky that Chase, along with an incredibly loving network of friends and family, supports me in those personal discernments as well. As this fellowship comes to a close and I look out into the new form my vocation will take, I know beyond a doubt that the values that excite me about social entrepreneurship are values I seek to realize in all areas of my life. Whatever path my personal journey takes next as I seek to impact the world, I cannot help but hear this spiritual stirring inside of me. It feels like this still small voice just sweetly whispering, “you are joining something big”.