“You did everything to bury me, but you forgot I was a seed! It’s all clear now, Miss Ismini, I am a seed!” Hamid, a 13-year old Syrian boy, told me one day. He was one of my students at a refugee shelter, where I taught Greek to unaccompanied minors, the most vulnerable group among the refugees. This was a pivotal moment of realization, which revealed and still underscores my biggest passion; to have measurable social impact that will benefit all stakeholders, including the most marginalized communities.
My interest in bridging the gap between corporate capital and nonprofit organizations led me 5 years later to found my startup; a tinder for corporate social responsibility programs. What we did was the matchmaking procedure between charity partners and corporations. I often refer to this experience as a mini nontraditional MBA that really shaped me as a person and professional.
The journey wasn’t easy. But what I have understood from this experience is that the biggest challenge isn’t how to be on budget or how you are going to achieve your term goals. The biggest challenge is to keep your team motivated and to build a relationship based on trust with your clients. None of them are easy tasks and both takes time and energy.
Two years forward, and I’m on my second semester of my master’s program at Columbia University trying to decide my course schedule. When I came across “Sustainable Investing Research Consulting Project” I got super excited about its curriculum; It brought together both challenges that I mentioned above; working for a real client and working with a team.
Two weeks forward, and several emails later, and we are meeting with my team for the very first time. We spend our meeting talking about everything, apart from our project; our hobbies, our countries, our experience here at Columbia as international students . Each of us comes from a totally different background; educationally, professionally, and culturally. Our discussion reminds me again how beautiful is to get to know deeply your team players. I am now convinced that this is the only way to build trust within your team, that will later reflect on the relationship that you will build with your client. And trust always leads you out of the most difficult situations.
Back to the beginning of my story I must admit that Hamid was right. Every single one of us is a seed. It all depends on how we are nourished. I feel that my personal responsibility is not only to gain academic knowledge, but to apply this knowledge to tackle issues and nourish the seeds of positive change in our society. Thus, I consider the benefit of this class in the training and cultivation of professionals to be invaluable.