Our mission is to uplift the lives of African youth and their communities through sustainable entrepreneurship.
SE 101: 2009 Team
In preparation for departure, the team reflected on what it was like to prepare, and what they looked forward to once they were on the ground.
This team consisted of both those students who went to Kenya, and those who provided volunteer labour and consulting to the team. The "travelling team" arrived in Nairobi in late July and worked with Strathmore University students to deliver SE101 from August 3 - August 21. The team managed three separate sites in Nairobi. The 2009 program included a pilot project where some of the participants worked in teams to develop business plans to solve problems in the slums.
UBC Students Travelling to Kenya:
Rob Foxall, 4th year Finance Co-op, Sauder.
Rob was born in Vancouver and has travelled extensively. He has a keen interest in accounting and finance and recently participated in the CFA Global Investment Research Challenge in Calgary. Rob is actively involved with a number of clubs and co-founded the UBC Venture Capital and Private Equity Club in 2008. Rob also volunteers with the UBC Commerce Mentorship Program, Junior Achievement, The United Way, and has been a Scouts Canada leader since 2005. Rob completed an 8 month work term at GE Commercial Finance in December 2008 and will be starting another work term in May. Rob enjoys travelling and spent one year sailing from South America to Washington DC. Rob spent Christmas 2008 in Morocco and is excited about going back to Africa. He is enthusiastic about working with the SE: 101 team, while contributing to the lives of young people from Kenya. He is particularly drawn to the educational aspect of SE:101 as the team will be able to leave a lasting legacy in the region.
Sarah Gale, 2nd year, Marketing, Sauder.
Sarah is finishing her 2nd year of Commerce at UBC and will be attending the University of Warwick, England as an exchange student for her 3rd year. Sarah is actively involved at UBC in a variety of ways. She recently returned from Germany where she represented UBC at the Rubicon International Business Competition, and she attended the Enterprize Business Conference. She is a member of the marketing club at Sauder, an event planner at Carey Hall, and attends a core group with UCM. Outside of school, Sarah competes competitively in the equestrian sport of Three Day Eventing – dressage, show jumping and cross country, which takes her throughout western Canada and the United States. Sarah is looking forward to being a part of SE101 this year and hopes to have a positive impact on the African youth through teaching sustainable business skills.
Christi Han, 4th year, Marketing Coop, Sauder.
Christi is actively involved within the Korean community and serves as the Director of Communications at Cheondoong Performing Arts Society, a non-profit organization in Vancouver that envisions bridging the gap between Korean and Canadian communities through its music. In 2006, Christi was awarded with the Japanese Government Scholarship for International students in Japan and spent a term studying at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan, where she had the chance to join the volleyball team that won the national intercollegiate championship that year. After her study abroad experience, she took some time off from school to indulge in her passion, backpacking through Nepal, India, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. During her trip to Nepal, she volunteered at a local orphanage and led several projects to improve the living and learning environment for the children at the site. In the summer of 2008, she worked at the Asia Pacific Trade and Investment Division at the BC Ministry of Economic Development, where she gained experience in international business development. Through SE101, she hopes to connect to and learn from the local entrepreneurs in Kenya, as well as transfer her knowledge and training in business to equip them with the right skills to start their own businesses in Nairobi. She hopes that at the end of the program, she will have made as much of an impact in their lives as she knows they will have in made in hers.
Jon
Kaida, MBA, Sustainability, Sauder.
Jonathan is a first year MBA student specializing in sustainability. After completing his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Alberta, he decided to come to UBC to learn more about incorporating sustainability into business. He has always been interested in social entrepreneurship, and was a member of a local NGO in Calgary that supported local people in his community. Jonathan’s parents are originally from Kenya and Tanzania, and after traveling back last year to help his grandmother build a house; he enjoyed the satisfaction that goes along with helping others. He applied for the Social Entrepreneurship 101 project because he feels associated with the country and believes that the idea of business is universal. He believes that this Kibera project is a great opportunity to use his business skills for a cause that he strongly believes in.
Candy Lee, 4th year, Marketing Co-op, Sauder.
Candy has very recently completed her degree, and is looking forward to the next adventure, working full-time for Labatt Breweries in September. In recent years, she has held leadership roles as the Chairperson of the UBC Me Inc. Career Conference and President of the UBC Chinese Varsity Club. She has also spent time interning as an International Business Development Officer with the provincial government, where she spent one week in Beijing as an organizer of the Premier's diplomatic trade mission to Asia. In 2007, Candy studied at the Vienna School of Economics in Austria, which sparked a passion for travel that culminated into a recent four-month backpacking trip in Australia and Southeast Asia. While in Laos, a two-week stint volunteering to teach English has motivated her to contribute more to international projects after seeing the positive impacts it can bring. She looks forward to working with the SE101 team.
Nadia Meherally, 2nd year, Marketing, Sauder.
Nadia has been an active community leader since early childhood, and is especially passionate about providing other youth with opportunities to transform their ideas into positive action. In 2008, Nadia's role as Vice-Chair Marketing helped launch the first ever Zenith Global Citizenship Conference. She is currently Co-Chairing the second Zenith Conference to be held in May 2009, which will focus on themes such as Human Rights, International Development, World Peace and the Environment. Nadia is also an Executive Councillor on the Richmond Youth Foundation, which is a group of young professionals who fundraise to build their endowment fund and then grant out the endowment's income to youth with beneficial project ideas. Voluntary service within the community has been an important focus of her life thus far, and she is eager to experience an overseas volunteer opportunity with the SE 101 team!
Joanna Pedersen, MBA, Sauder.
Joanna is a first year MBA student with degrees in Kinesiology and Education. She has taught secondary school in Melbourne, Australia, the Yukon Territory and most recently in inner-city Toronto. In 2001, she volunteered in Australia’s Northern Territory developing a literacy program in an underserviced Aborigine community. Recognizing the positive impact education can have on individuals and communities, Joanna is excited to combine her teaching experience with business knowledge in the SE101 – Africa program. Joanna’s hobbies include local and international travel, snowboarding and playing outside.
Amanda Polak, MBA, Sustainability Sub-specialization, Sauder.
Amanda is a first-year MBA student. After completing her undergraduate degree in Economics at the University of Victoria, she spent 6 years in Investment Banking. She hopes to use her MBA to establish a greater connection between the financial and social sectors. She is an active volunteer for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, helping to grant wishes for many exceptional children. She feels that volunteering is an important part of her life. The SE101 project is an exciting opportunity for her to gain hands-on experience in bringing about change. She is confident that the project will be a profound experience for all participants, and looks forward to gaining a greater appreciation for the diverse cultural and business practices abroad.
Mike Rimoin, MBA, sub-specializing in Marketing and
Sustainability, Sauder.
Mike graduated from Middlebury College in VT with a degree in Music and Sociology. He spent the next four years founding and growing an award-winning seasonal outdoor market stand, festival food vendor, and waterfront restaurant and music venue specializing in sweet and savoury crêpes and dedicated to local and organic ingredient sourcing, compostable packaging, and biofuel powered transportation. He has experience in agricultural policy, energy efficiency, and waste vegetable oil biofuel technologies, and is interested in pursuing a career in the clean-tech, alternative energy and bioremediation sectors. Mike is especially interested in how innovative and elegantly simple technological solutions to complex ecological and social issues might be implemented in the developing world. He hopes that the SE101project will create concrete positive social change and help all participants develop new perspectives on how to tackle business challenges.
Les Robertson, MBA, Strategy, Sauder.
Les is currently working towards the completion of his MBA, specializing in Strategy and International Business at the Robert H. Lee Graduate School. He has worked in both the public and private sector managing a variety of recycling industry organizations, most recently as the Vice-Chair of the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries, BC chapter. Les was formerly a research assistant in Education Psychology and Leadership Studies at the University of Victoria and has taught outdoor education and leadership to youth in the Pacific Northwest for over 10 years. He is thrilled to be a part of SE 101, and cannot wait to learn and grow with his teammates and students in Kenya.
UBC Student Volunteers:
Volunteers support the project with pre- (and post-) departure preparations such as fundraising and curriculum development. We are particularly grateful for the help that volunteers provided to the team.
Carlene Field, 2nd year, (most likely) Marketing, Sauder.
Carlene is finishing her second year at Sauder. She intends to go into the marketing option, and is also currently working on a minor in sociology. Carlene has a diverse background of involvement experience. She has attended numerous leadership conferences, worked in the not-for-profit sector and has played sports competitively. She has been on many different councils and committees, including the CUS. Her interests include human rights and global issues, and she is incredibly excited about this project’s initiatives. Carlene hopes to learn more about the daily lives of people living in Kenya, and looks forward to contributing all she can through this program. She feels this is an amazing opportunity to combine her interests of social and cultural issues and business.
Erik Horn, 4th year, Accounting and Finance, Sauder.
Erik is from Oslo, Norway. He has a great interest inaccounting and finance, enjoys working in a team setting and has been involved with events like the CUS Charity Golf Tournament, the JDC West Business Competition and most recently the Macquarie Investment Banking Competition. He used to play for the UBC’s varsity soccer team and has been a community soccer coach. In his spare time, Erik has always enjoyed traveling and experiencing new cultures. He spent the last summer in New York, working for Renaissance Capital, a leading emerging market investment bank with a presence in Sub-Saharan Africa. He was astounded by the immense opportunities in Africa that are yet to be exploited, due to the lack of both education and capital. He decided he wanted to learn more about the continent and thus applied for the SE101 program which provides the incredible opportunity of going to Kenya to help the local people through collaboration with African students.
Mariela McIlwraith, MBA, Strategic Management and Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources.
Mariela recently graduated with her MBA from Sauder. Her background is in meeting and event management, and she has worked in both Canada and the US. What started as a class assignment for one of her MBA modules resulted in Mariela being selected to develop content on Corporate Social Responsibility for Meeting Professionals International (MPI), the industry’s largest professional association. She is an active volunteer and has been involved with fundraising for UBC’s United Way campaign and the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Mariela is excited about bringing her experience in fundraising, curriculum development and ROI analysis to the SE101 team.
Jana Svedova, 1st year MBA student, Sauder, specializing in Strategic Management and International Business.
Jana completed her BA in International Relations with a minor in Commerce at UBC, and has spend the last five years working in the Financial Services industry in Vancouver. As an Account Manager with Vancity Credit Union, she had the opportunity to work with not-for-profit organizations, small businesses and social entrepreneurs, and saw the positive impact they have on their communities. Jana strongly believes in the power of social entrepreneurs worldwide and in their abilities to effectively address social issues in their communities. With a background in banking, she also has a strong interest in innovative approaches in social finance, and will be mentoring a local "hero" in Kibera to support her efforts in managing an established NGO, and in setting up a microfinance organization.
Project Coordinators:
Kirby Leong, MBA, Marketing, Sauder.
Born and raised in Vancouver, Kirby works full-time for SAP as a Content Strategist for the BusinessObjects Community on the SAP Community Network. Outside of work and school, he has been known to frequent his tennis club and compete in the local 4.5-level summer tennis circuit. After completing his B.Comm at UBC, he spent two years in Sierra Leone, West Africa working for a Canadian relief and development organization in various projects and roles. Kirby first joined SE101 in 2008 and was excited about applying what he learned to the 2009 program.
Nancy Langton, Associate Professor, Organizational
Behaviour and Human Resource Division, Sauder School of Business.
Nancy was asked by the Dean of the Sauder School of Business, Daniel Muzyka, to develop an initiative that would enable UBC students to work in Africa on development issues, and also lead to an exchange of professors and students between Africa and Canada. This request followed her work in Vancouver's downtown eastside, running a program called Entrepreneurship 101, which taught people living in Canada's poorest postal code to write business plans. Nancy teaches organizational behaviour, organizational theory, and leadership at the undergraduate, MBA and Ph.D. level. She is also the co-author of six major textbooks, including the widely used and award winning Organizational Behaviour: Concepts, Controversies and Applications; Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour; Management; and Fundamentals of Management. 2009 was Nancy's fourth year doing volunteer work in Africa. She enjoys helping students and faculty members work together on development issues in Africa.
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Next: The 2008 Kenya team
Last Modified on:
01/05/2012 7:16 PM
