Last spring break, I journeyed to Turrialba Costa Rica with the Social Enterprise Consulting class. There were 10 students and 2 professors on the trip. We worked with RETUS, a local tourism network that specializes in rural eco-tours. While there, we visited small businesses run by entrepreneurial women including a dairy farm, a pottery studio, a bread maker’s house, a butterfly farm, and several other locations. After each visit, my class wrote our own notes and discussed each tour. We also recorded video testimonials and took headshots of each business owner we visited. After returning to the United States, we were able to provide feedback for the hosts as well as personal testimonials, photos, and videos as marketing material. Everyone in the RETUS network received the full write-up. In addition to all of this, our class got the opportunity to go ziplining through a forest and visit the Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles.
This trip, and class overall, showed me what it takes to consult well. We took a lot of time before going on the trip itself to learn what makes a good consulting team, and without that, I don’t think we would have worked as effectively as we did. I learned how important it is to be present in the activities and view subjects from multiple perspectives to best understand what each target market needs. I now better understand the importance of quality of work and attention to detail in the field. We worked with the women of RETUS to help them enrich their lives, and that is a beautiful thing. More so now than before, I know what it takes to work on a close team of people. Everyone in our group became connected and integrated as the semester went on.
Going forward, a few different things have changed my posture. I have been encouraged to be frugal and resourceful rather than waiting around due to a lack of resources. Action and change happen only when we create it with what we have, not by waiting for the resources to suddenly appear or become attainable. I am working on finding more ways to improve anything that I do by using what I have more effectively than trying to get a different tool entirely. I felt so connected to nature and the world around me while in Costa Rica. I felt extremely present with my immediate environment. That has encouraged me to seek a mindfully present posture in everyday life, even more than I already was. I find nature to be especially calming, so I hope to seek that out wherever I can in Abilene.
Overall, I am incredibly thankful I had the opportunity to take the Social Enterprise Consulting class. It was an incredible experiential learning opportunity, and I have been changed by it. Everyone on the trip and along the journey made it into something more than just another degree requirement. I learned so much more throughout this class than I would have if I had taken a conventional lecture over consulting. It gave me a great window into the field of marketing and content creation. In the future, I hope to find more experiential learning opportunities to grow through. I suggest anyone who can learn in such a way should do so.
