We have arrived!
The team of ten students and advisors arrived from different parts of the world last week. We are all settled at our respective organizations. The Global SE field experience will be an intense six+ weeks of learning-and-sharing with Indian mission-oriented organizations. This experience comes to a close on July 9th, 2016 when our current batch of Wooster Global Social Entrepreneurs, our partner organizations/friends, and Wooster’s Indian Alumni, will celebrate each other and our continued partnership.
We are often asked why the Social Entrepreneurship program is in India? One answer is: We seek to learn and share our time and knowledge globally. We hope to build long-term relationships. In addition, we hope to engender in our students a critical, nuanced and inclusive understanding of how the social change and social entrepreneurship sectors are changing globally in a manner that involves experience, dialogue, co-production and knowledge building.
Dream Team: Laura Valencia (Co-Founder/Advisor), Phuong, Emily, Maite, Heather, and Chris.
The operational day-to day of our work is “simple”. We work everyday from nine to five with regular half-or-full days dedicated to learning. Many of you know that the Indian workweek is six days and the work-culture in Bangalore is such that people work late. We have adopted this aspect of the culture a bit. Even when we are not at our organizations, we are learning in sessions organized by ourselves and our many partners.
Who are our organizations?
Dream a Dream
Dream a Dream empowers young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and flourish in a fast changing world, using a creative life skills approach.
Sattva Media Inc
Sattva Media is a social enterprise consulting firm that co-creates inclusive global businesses. They work with a wide variety of partners from Social Venture Funds to not for profits and publicly traded companies in India.
Global SE 2016 consists of ten students. Each of them is working in a team either on a common project or individual project related to their organization’s mission. You will hear more about the projects in later blog posts.
Sattvans: Moledina (Co Founder/Advisor) Katie, Emily, Dylan, Karsten, and Tom
The field experience also has an academic/cultural component that involves a mix of site visits in the #education and #livlihoods sectors, field trips, lectures, films, reflections and discussions. Some of these are being hosted by our longtime partner Centre for Social Initiatives and Management along with the organization where we reside: Student Christian Movement of India. A few Indian alumni that live in Bangalore have been attending our learning sessions and some have even made special trips to Bangalore to welcome the students.
The most amazing opportunity that the students had was to visit and interact with nearly 100 of their peers. These students, originating from all over India, came to Bangalore to learn Digital Tech and English skills with a focus on Social Change Making and Human Rights. Many of the Indian students had never travelled outside of thier home state. Many of our students similarly are experiencing India and international travel for the first time. There were many common meals, sharing of stories and a cultural show where the students performed for each other.
We are so lucky to have been welcomed so graciously!
