Bienvenidos to my Blog!

Hello Family, Friends, and Curious Readers,

Thanks for stopping in to see what I am up to. This is my first blog, and I hope not to bore you too much with the details of my life. But rather hope to offer you some insights into development work, the highs, the lows, and well the boring.

But before I move away for 27 months, let me give you a little information about myself before I lose a steady internet connection.

So after graduating from Boston College in 2005, I decided I wanted to learn Spanish and "save the world" so I moved to Cusco, Peru. I began by volunteering for The Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco by researching and writing a small business plan for the organization. I continued to work with the organization until February of 2008, when I returned to the US to prepare for my move to Madrid, Spain for 15 months to study an International MBA at IE Business School. And now, after a year of searching for the perfect development job, and taking odd jobs in the meantime, I have joined the Peace Corps and am volunteering again. So wish me luck, and PLEASE someone stop me from volunteering again!

Friday, August 3, 2012

Small Business Advising

So contrary to what my blog may have led you to believe, I am not only a high school Entrepreneurship teacher, but I also work with small businesses in Matagalpa to improve their operations, expand product offerings, and most recently I am working with a cafe on a market study so we can design an advertisement campaign. Laura and I spent last week designing the study, and I was able to take it to my class today and have my students and fellow teachers fill it out. (We are currently studying Market Study in our class so I hope it is interesting for the students to see a local business applying the technique in their own community.) After, I will take the flyers we design back to the school offering an incentive to the students to come visit the cafe.

Also, I was shocked to see in my class in San Ramon this morning, that some groups had figured out what were the next steps in analyzing their market study and had already done the math and graphs that we were going to work on today! I was super impressed with their initiative! Also, in this school as well as the rest, I am starting to move away from teaching with the hopes that the teachers will be 100% self-sustainable when I leave! It's not going to be easy, but will be very rewarding for all of us if we can achieve it!

So here are some pictures from today's class and Laura working at La Taza Llena (means "the full cup" in Spanish).

Students explaining their work to my counterpart teacher.

Going over Market Study results with a group

A group of two working hard!

My counterpart working with students

Laura mixing up a giant batch of home-made fruit punch. Ingredients are as follows. 1 whole watermelon, 1 whole pineapple, 1 papaya, purified water, and a little bit of sugar.

The cafe without its tables (they are all being used for an event that is taking place upstairs!)

Sembrando Esperanza meaning "Planting Hope" it's the name of the organization that the cafe Taza Llena is part of...

A picture of the space they rent! If you are ever in San Ramon, come visit!

Overall, I really enjoy working with small business owners. It's fun because their businesses are a reality and efforts are used to help them grow. Next Small Business update will be on El Mexicano... a Mexican Restaurant in Matagalpa! Make good choices haha.
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1 comment:

  1. JulieAugust 3, 2012 at 3:37 PM

    Fun to see the many elements of your job.
    You must be proud of your students, always gratifying when they are motivated enough to work ahead on their own.
    Also, hope all goes well with the cafe and it has lots of success!

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