Over winter break, 24 Stern, Wagner and Steinhardt students consulted innovative social entrepreneurship-focused companies throughout India as part of a new experiential learning course titled International Social Impact Strategies (ISIS). The team-based projects focused on areas including micro-entrepreneurship, renewable energy, microfinance/cooperative farming, family planning, fellowship development, and health services. In only 2 weeks, teams interacted directly with senior leaders of partnering organizations, and gained exposure to every facet of their operations. Whether working directly alongside ambulatory emergency pickups, advising farmers on innovate ways to incorporate renewable energy in their operations, or setting up meetings with the largest corporations in India to discuss sustainability, students' fieldwork resulted in experiences that could not be replicated in a classroom. Initial feedback from all the students and organizations in India who participated has been remarkably positive.
Conceptualized by SEA a couple of years ago, the ISIS class finally materialized thanks to Professor Jill Kickul, Director of the Stewart Satter Program in Social Entrepreneurship, Indian-born Professor R. Kabaliswaran, and Graduate Assistant Sanjay Rupani. Through a partnership with Hans Taparia, Director of Preferred Brands International, a ready-to-eat Indian food company, the academic team developed relationships with innovative social enterprises such as the Deshpande Foundation, and deepened its existing relationship with the Acumen Fund.
To help prepare students for their projects, the ISIS course provided case studies on Indian social enterprises, and lectures and classroom dialogue on cultural, political, and social topics. The professors also tapped into their networks to provide industry experts for one-on-one advisory sessions for each team.
According to Mr. Taparia, "It is rare to see a group of students hit the ground running in a new country and add value so quickly. ISIS students brought a unique blend of expertise, out-of-the-box thinking and global exposure to their projects. While final project proposals have yet to be submitted, the mutual value addition between the students and the partner organizations has clearly been substantial."
The course's goal is to provide a socially relevant academic experience that combines classroom curriculum with hands-on learning in an international setting. The course is designed to help students gain in-depth insights into economic and social value creation in the developing world. Students learn to think strategically and act opportunistically with a socially-conscious business mindset. Through their fieldwork in India, students gain exposure to a partnering firm's innovative model for addressing respective issues, as well as to other stakeholders in the field (customers, suppliers, government) to provide an additional lens and perspective into the complexity of making scalable progress in implementing new solutions. Student teams work with the firms to deliver on discrete projects designed to meet existing needs. In addition, project deliverables facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practices within the sector.
"It was interesting to see how each team handled their projects and interacted with their partner organizations," says Sanjay Rupani, who visited each project site and met with each partner organization. "Each organization has had absolutely wonderful things to say about the students we sent over for this experiential learning trip. Initially they were skeptical about how much value students could really add in only two weeks. Not only did they find the students to be insightful and innovative, they are now excited about providing more opportunities for students to continue to expand on their work. This experiential learning trip demonstrates just how valuable on-the-ground experience can be in helping guide students on where they want to make meaningful social impact later on in their careers and can help students focus their classroom learning. I am confident that the NYU administration will take heed of the success we have had here and continue to support the growth of experiential learning at Stern. We already have ideas on how this course will be improved along with other opportunities we can provide to the students. This is going to continue to put Stern on the map."
Below are two accounts of team projects and highlights of the teams' experiences working in India.
NextGen
Team: Bhavna Ghoshal, Chris Cramer, Trish Kenlon, Zach Maler Our team was focused on renewable energy, and we partnered with Abhishek Humbad, Richa Bajpai and their team of young entrepreneurs who started NextGen, a biogas and energy efficiency business in India.
In our time in India, between the 14-hour overnight trains and countless rickshaw rides, we focused on learning NextGen's business and industry. To that end we met with a wide variety of stakeholders across the non-profit, government, and large-scale commercial sectors. SKG Sangha proved one of the gems of the trip. Our morning started in the rooftop offices of Mr. D. Vidya Sagar, founder, where we learned how he built a non-profit organization that has been recognized globally for bringing the benefits of biogas to over 60,000 rural homes in India. Later we visited Hemarlahalli, a small village where SKG Sangha had installed several household biogas plants, and spoke with villagers about the positive impact on their lives. Another highlight was meeting the Indian Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, a seasoned politician recently appointed to this cabinet-level position.
Our meetings with clients and potential clients of NextGen's biogas business included a major prepared-food exporter that has hired NextGen to conduct an energy efficiency audit on their manufacturing operations, and the Taj luxury hotel chain, a potential customer that produces enough food waste at each of their hotels to see a bottom line benefit from capturing the energy in the food waste through a NextGen biogas plant.
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