July 15,2013
Pre-departure thoughts
I will be
off to Kenya in a week! This is pretty much the first thing that comes to my
mind when I am writing my first blog post for SE 101. I have to say that I am
waiting for this moment for a long time, well at least 7 months. I actually have been thinking about how I
should write this these days. It really
has to go back to why I join this program. Before I applied to SE101, I have no
idea of what is social enterprise or social entrepreneurship all about. But then, I started to learn more about it and got really passionate about social
entrepreneurship. I didn't fully realize
the social and environmental issues around me until I dive into the world of
social enterprises. It is really amazing to find out that there are lots of
people starting to tackle some of the toughest social and environmental problems facing our
humankind. It really inspires me and makes me to start thinking what education
really means to me. Is it about getting a degree and ready to make money? Or is
there much more about it? Especially for business education, what do we want
our commence student walk away with when they are graduated? Cash flow statement, marketing tactics or something more than that.
I think that I could actually find the answer in SE101. I don’t fully understand the meaning of cash
flow and all that marketing tactics I have learned until I encounter
SE101. Business education has more
responsibility to our society than just teaching students how to prepare cash
flow statement or learning another marketing tactics. It is the mean, but not
the end. I think the social entrepreneurial spirit the program tries to create
in the students is really the meaning of our business education. Ultimately, we
are not to educate another accountant, banker or marketer but souls that care
about our society and our environment. UBC want to have those graduates who
have the courage to speak up in front of social injustice and fight for positive
social change. I am not sure if I get the idea from SE101 correctly but this is
something that I start to believe in.
It is really
exciting to embark on another international service learning journey for me.
The last one was about housing as basic human right in Mexico with UBC Go
Global. I hope I can learn more from this trip. There are lots of learning
opportunities for this program. That’s one of the reasons I am really excited
about. I hope to learn more about social enterprises,
micro-finance, urbanization and business practices in Kenya. Cross-cultural
communication is always interesting, so I am also hoping to have more
conversations with local people and bring back home some good stories.
Can’t
believe I am leaving for Kenya soon! I am really looking forward to learning
more about this country and meeting some cool locals there!
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