After spending eight weeks as an SEC intern in Nicaragua, one of my biggest takeaways from my experience was learning to work and live within the gray. When I say gray, I don’t mean the absence of colors. My memories of my trip are tinged with so many vibrant hues - the dandelion yellow of […]
One of the best parts of Guatemala I have observed so far is the sense of community and the desire to help others, even when there is no immediate, or even ultimate gain for the person doing the helping. With such small towns and villages, often living in extreme poverty, I have seen community members, […]
While I was in Ecuador I stayed with a family in Timbara. It is a small village in the Zamora region. My homestay family lived on a sugar cane plantation outside of town. I remember walking up a mud covered hill to a quaint and modest house. The family had a very small house to […]
Early one Saturday morning this past June, eight of us Social Entrepreneur Corps interns in Equipo Esparanza decided to hire a local guide from Turismo Ixil to lead us on a three-hour trek over the tall mountain range surrounding Nebaj to explore the neighboring village of Acul. After a few weeks living in the Guatemalan […]
In a world that’s centered around the “me” concept, the idea of an internship that is 1. Unpaid, 2. In a foreign country, and 3. Costs money to participate in, is quite frankly ridiculous to some and a waste of time to others. Almost immediately after telling people about my experience they would inevitably ask, […]
Year after year, Social Entrepreneur Corps is fortunate to host incredibly bright and motivated students from partner universities across the US as interns supporting our in country operations. Their efforts supporting the work of Community Enterprise Solutions (CES) and its local partners are extraordinary, and have made a significant impact both in moving forward CES’s […]
Community Enterprise Solutions first learned about the Ecuadorian artisan group, Mujeres Cambia, two years ago through Peace Corps volunteer contacts. Every summer since then, Social Entrepreneur Corps interns have collaborated with the artisans and learned about their work and the beautiful jewelry they make from recycled materials.
Last weekend, as Regional Coordinator of the coast in […]
I have always had such a respect for handicrafts. Perhaps it’s my own tendency to make things, but I have always found myself drawn to handmade items. While In Guatemala as a Social Entrepreneur Corps intern, I found myself constantly in awe of the handmade goods for sale everywhere I looked. Yet I also noticed […]
This past week, Hilla Benzaken, the regional coordinator of the Andean region of Ecuador, accompanied the women’s association of Pulingui, Riobamba in a soap-making workshop. The idea came about after summer interns from Social Entrepreneur Corps conducted a needs analysis with eight of the coordinators of the association. The women mentioned that they were looking for […]
For a fun day outside, we led the sixteen Miami University (Ohio) Social Entrepreneur Corps J-Term students, their three accompanying professors, and two grandparents on a “casual walk” up to the small mountain town of La Pista, where Miguel Brito, the President of Soluciones Comunitarias (SolCom) lives. After falling down mud hills, scrambling under barbed […]
