"It is through business that economies can be built and people delivered from poverty."

-Andrea Cordani, Fundacion Paraguaya, Paraguay

Each May between when Marriott School graduates finish winter semester and start their internships, the Ballard  Center offers them an opportunity to travel for three weeks and consult with a social entrepreneurship organization. This experience gives graduate students exposure to social entrepreneurship and helps them understand how it can fit with their chosen career path.

In addition to benefiting the students, social entrepreneurship consulting is an opportunity for Marriott School graduate students to use their advanced business skills and work with organizations to reduce poverty and affect social change.

Students have worked with organizations in India, Paraguay, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uganda, Mozambique,  Ghana, Peru, California and Utah. 

Projects vary depending on the needs of the organization, but typically students spend three to four weeks in May analyzing small businesses, microfranchises, and other socially innovative projects and then suggest practical solutions for improvement.

2012 PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS

• Fundacion Paraguaya (Paraguay)
• Academy for Creating Enterprise (Mexico)
• Create You Own Opportunity, work with an organization featured with Ashoka, Skoll Foundation or Schwab Foundation.

RESOURCES

For more information visit the Ballard Center, 360 TNRB or contact Brad Hales at 801-422-9009 or bradhales@byu.edu.

Read the Daily Universe article about past consultants. See profiles of all our student interns.

Apply Here by February 24, 2012