"One of my biggest lessons from the Entrepreneurship & Empowerment in South Africa [EESA] program is that it stretched me to my absolute limit, but it made me realize that I am capable of so much more. This program is great for students because it's hard to be in a classroom, learn about all these concepts, and be done with it. This program really challenges your mind and teaches you business in a way that you can't learn in the classroom. Getting to work with real people and their businesses is not only so enriching to the mind, but it's also so fulfilling knowing you're making a real difference for these entrepreneurs." said EESA alum and University of Colorado Boulder student Forrest Mondlane Jr.
Watch a video that Forrest, a talented up-and-coming visual storyteller, captured about his experience.
The Entrepreneurship & Empowerment in South Africa program, part of the McKenna Center for Human Development and Global Business at the Keough School of Global Affairs, enables students to help historically disadvantaged entrepreneurs in the townships around Cape Town, South Africa.
Over six weeks each summer, Notre Dame students and students from across America who participate in the EESA program partner with South African students to dive head-first into social entrepreneurship in a consulting capacity. Students are grouped into consulting teams and receive expert coaching from four faculty members to identify and prioritize entrepreneurs' key needs, make meaningful progress in addressing some of their priorities, and make their ventures sustainable. Ventures include catering, arts and crafts businesses, community newspapers, and small construction companies. It is a life-changing experience both for students and the entrepreneurs they serve.
Michael Morris, Ph.D., Keough School of Global Affairs professor of the practice and director of the Entrepreneurship & Empowerment in South Africa (EESA) program, said the program is an invaluable opportunity that exposes students to the reality of poverty in a low-income country and allows them to witness firsthand how their actions help entrepreneurs create pathways out of poverty. This program allows students who wish to be agents of change to serve in a way that produces a real and tangible difference in the lives of the entrepreneurs and their surrounding communities.
"Through this program, you have indeed taken the less traveled road—not the road of taking the school break off, or the safe internship or job, but a more noble road—one where you take on a more difficult challenge,” Morris told a recent group of program students. Give your all. Refuse to accept the obvious or the simple solution and reject mediocrity."
Learn more about the Entrepreneurship & Empowerment in South Africa Program