Fall 2017

Each semester, students enrolled in the Global Microloan Program will update this site with their weekly program logs. The Spring 2017 student teams include Enterprise Development and Program Impact Audits; and Finance, Budgets and Risk Assessment; Marketing and Fundraising Team; and Technology and Communications Team.

  • Enterprise Development and Impact Audits Team: Jessica Benjamin, Lloyd Howell III, Brendan Mickalay, Michael Palacios, Jessica Sansaverino*, Renee Schakron
     
  • Finance, Budgets and Risk Assessment Team: Maria Villon, Maria E. Loureiro De Souza, Connor Hart, Aba D. Joseph, Sasha Khan, Jessica N. Vishnudat*
     
  • Marketing and Fundraising Team: Colin Duffy, Michael Hatzopoulos, Maria Sefcik, Angela So*, Rafael Sondon, Linda Wang
     
  • Technology and Communications Team: Keighla K. Exum, Samiha Huque, Ayana Ibarra*, Thomas Shaker

*Team Liaisons

Learn More

Enterprise Development and Program Impact Audits Team

By: Renee Schakron
Log # 1

Spring 2016 was my first semester here on the Queens campus. I was originally from the Staten Island campus and then decided to transfer after my semester abroad in the Fall of 2015. Although I loved how small and cozy Staten Island was, I wanted to be a part of something bigger and more international to broaden my knowledge especially after being abroad for a semester. I recall first hearing about GLOBE that same spring semester from a friend who was in the class at the time and immediately I was interested in learning more about the program. My first thought was how amazing it would be to be a part of class where I am getting hands-on experience by providing microloans to people in need evidently changing their lives for the better. As an international student coming from what people see as a “third world” country, it has always been my long-term goal to be able to go back to my home and help in any way I could. I knew GLOBE was the perfect place for me and I had to apply. I enjoy doing community service projects and helping those in need. This program really attracted me because it spiked all my philanthropic qualities and related to my long-term goal regarding helping my own country. After being accepted into GLOBE, I was excited and honored to be part of something that could be so significant in someone else’s life. I wanted to do GLOBE from the Fall of 2016; however, my schedule wouldn’t allow me to. Nonetheless, I knew I had to do this once in a lifetime opportunity before I completed my undergrad.
I was born and raised in Belize City, Belize and moved to New York to attend St. John’s University. Growing up in Belize isn’t something I could describe so easily. The beauty of the country itself is unimaginable unless having seen it for yourself. Our national anthem describes it as, “The Land of the Free” and it truly is with its 250 islands, Mayan ruins, rainforest, jungle wildlife, etc. However, the poverty level in Belize is something that scares me every time I think about it. Many parents don’t have jobs and cannot feed their children or afford to put them in school. When these children aren’t able to attend school, they are lead into gangs. I have seen families living in shacks with no electricity or running water, fifteen-year-olds committing crimes, children wearing no shoes, and children that have no idea how to read or write. Growing up and seeing a large part of your population in need, only makes you more motivated to make a difference. I was blessed to have been raised in a family where giving back is something we enjoy and do with passion. From a very young age, I have been going with my parents to feed those in need, give them clothes, and other basic necessities. My dad was always an advocate for education so he handed out 6 scholarships to those students that really needed it and their parents weren’t able to pay for them. I have always vowed that after completing my Bachelor’s Degree, I will return help alleviate poverty by creating loans for small business development. Thankfully, GLOBE is giving me the knowledge and experience I need to do so.
After just 2 classes, I have attained a large amount of knowledge regarding topics in health, poverty, microfinance, women empowerment and much more. I can recall the first class when Dr. Sama asked what does poverty mean, everyone had a different response. Some said statistical answers, lack of shelter/basic needs, hunger, and health conditions. What struck me was when Dr. Sama began her talk after this and said that being poor doesn’t mean that you are unhappy. She shared some of her experiences from engaging with families from her trips and said that they were always smiling and always so humble. I can recall from my own experiences, that I’ve seen kids in Belize play with stones and sand and are overjoyed. Happiness isn’t measured by being rich or poor but its measured within. I think it was just an eye-opener to take and second and think about how people in need are still humble and happy despite their situations. Most of the time negative thoughts come to people’s mind when they think about poverty because they think that people don’t have anything. However, we should all take a step back and look at the things they do have such as family, friends, love, happiness, and humility. I am happy that I have the opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life and I can’t wait to be able to learn and grow more from GLOBE.
 
Finance, Budgets and Risk Assessment Team

By: Maria Villon
Log # 1
 
I remember the first day that I came across GLOBE. It was during an Economics and Finance Society meeting that I attended at the beginning of my sophomore year. E-Board members were encouraging us to attend the information session to learn more about the opportunities within the program. Every time someone asks me “Why GLOBE?,” I go back to that information session I attended.
The story of Maria del Socorro Robeto Madriz resonated with me the most during the information session. Maria, a mother of two, was starting her business of selling school supplies by a local school in Nicaragua. The Daughter of Charity coordinator gave great feedback about Maria saying she was the perfect candidate who was very reliable and responsible. Maria asked for an initial loan of $700, but GLOBE managers decided to give her one of $500 as she would be able to afford it. She ended up repaying it earlier than expected. This allowed her to take a second loan for her desired amount of $700 to continue expanding her business. I liked her perseverance. I knew from that moment that this was the same personality and mentality that many of the GLOBE Entrepreneurs possessed.
When I was in high school, I was a co-founder of a project my sister created called “Educating a Child: Ayuda a Ecuador.” The project consisted of collecting school supplies to be sent to kids in Ecuador. As someone who was born and raised in Ecuador, I have seen similar living situations such as the ones GLOBE entrepreneurs have come from. In Ecuador, just like in Nicaragua, some families do not have the resources needed to sustain themselves. In Ecuador, families would not send their kids to school because they did not have enough money to afford school supplies. I believe that education is one of the keys to success. This is one of the reasons why my sister created the project. Education is important and it is a tragedy that some people cannot afford it. Even though this situation is different from what Maria experienced, she created a business that would allow people to buy school supplies in their area. It was a step towards change.
I have met perseverant people like Maria in my life who would do anything to better their lives. People who do not call themselves poor because they are happy and as long as they are happy, they will never be poor. The only thing that they might be missing is the resources to grow. People that have the “least” are the ones I can count on the most, that I can trust, and that is reliable. In his novel, Banker to the Poor, Muhammad Yunus talks about his experience with the people in developing countries. Most of them are open and thankful for the opportunities he brought to them with the Grameen Bank. Before he created it, he was trying to understand why banks would not give out loans to some people who were considered “poor.” One branch manager explained that these people do not have the collateral they need to give out the loan. Yunus said back to him, “the poorest of the poor work twelve hours a day. They need to sell and earn income to eat. They have every reason to pay you back, just to take another loan and live another day! That is the best security you can have–their life,” (54). I could not agree more. I believe microfinance is one of the most powerful things out there that allow the poor to have the opportunities they need to live. I am looking forward to learning all about it.
 
Marketing and Fundraising Team 

By: Linda Wang
Log # 1

Since I was little I felt empathy whenever I see the less lucky people on the street or on the TV. I wanted to help them, but I felt powerless. The only thing I could do at that time was to give them my used clothing or no perishable food, whenever there was a running program in the school where we collected necessary items for those in need. I did feel happy for what I did but not as much as I felt when I had the opportunity to work with the Breakfast Run; not only we prepared the food, but we also went out and distributed coffee and sandwich to people who cannot afford it. We spent early mornings together and every time, someone was willing to talk about his or her experience and how he or she came that far. When it was time to leave, they always waved to say goodbye with a happy smile on their face, and I always felt so much accomplishment and heartwarming when I see their satisfaction and thankfulness.
It was thanks to an email that I came to know GLOBE, and it was thanks to that e-mail that I came to join this amazing program this semester. I was thrilled by the idea of helping people while pursuing my own degree. This class is different from anything I have ever done before. It teaches you that there is another way to approach problems and that the problems need to be solved not alleviated. The students have the opportunity to run and perform functions that microfinance institutions have to deal with every single day. It is not just a class where you learn theories and learn how things work; you actually put it into practice and it seems like you are running a business.
I could not wait to start working on our objectives, after looking at the profiles of the people who GLOBE managers had helped in the past years. I really want to see how this time, my team and I, could impact the lives of people on the other side of the world through hard working.
Even though only 2 weeks have passed, I believe that I had learned so much already. Our team is ready to proceed with our objectives and we are all very passionate and ambitious about our duty. I really hope that we could exceed our goals and that more and more people can get benefit from what we do.
 
Technology and Communications Team
By: Samiha Huque
Log # 1

Growing up I always believed poverty was something that could not be overcome but GLOBE has shown me otherwise. I’ve visited Bangladesh multiple times and every single time it breaks my heart to see a number of people living in poverty. I knew these people didn’t deserve to be living in the situation they were in, no one deserves to live like that and especially not children. There were just so many external factors that play a role, government, lack of jobs and the cost of an education being the biggest factors. I was so used to the mentality of doing good in school (which was free unless you chose to go to a private school), get the most out of your education and you will be able to open many doors and opportunities for yourself. I’ve learned to realize a majority of people in the world do not even have this luxury. Therefore, it is up to us, to be able to give these people an opportunity to get themselves out of poverty. I personally feel like if I have the ability to help someone who cannot help themselves but would like to I should find the way to do that. When I learned about GLOBE and found out what it was about and all of the lives they have already made an impact on I thought this would be an amazing chance to help people from the comfort of campus working with other students and adults who have the same amount of passion.
In just these past two weeks of being in GLOBE I have already learned so much. As a Bengali, Mohammed Yunus is a name that is mentioned very often and being able to read his books connected a lot of dots for me. His books are very motivating, I learned that having innovative ideas is one of the keys to making a large impact. When you have good ideas and are able to follow through with them it doesn’t matter. Mohammed Yunus was able to see a problem Bangladesh had and then find sustainable solutions that helped people. For example, Grameen phones. Before this, there was no way for people in Bangladesh to communicate with each other. But the phones and the service not only provide a connection it also created jobs like phone ladies where you could pay someone to use the phone. No matter how big your ideas are if they are able to provide it is worth taking the risk. As a business major, I always get caught in the ethical question of if i’m really going to be able to get out into the real world and help more than I cause damage through capitalism but the Yunus books and GLOBE has taught me that it is definitely possible to make a living for yourself while having a social business and positively impacting people's lives.
GLOBE has also taught me no matter what your future goals are or what your career path is you can use any skill you have to help. Our class is made up of a variety of majors and it’s so great to know that people from all different backgrounds are able to participate in GLOBE and have something substantial to provide. This class definitely seems overwhelming but the responsibility is never solely on your shoulders. Being in groups makes things easily accomplishable and easier to do and more fun. 

Enterprise Development and Program Impact Audits Team

By: Jessica Sansaverino
Log # 2

Last Tuesday we met with previous GLOBE managers and had the opportunity to ask former members of our team any questions that we had and to listen to any advice they wanted to share. Meeting them was not only a really fun class activity, but was also extremely beneficial to us as a team. I think they gave our team a good sense of direction to move forward with, helping us to condense our objectives and figure out which areas of our obligations will require more time and effort from us. Most importantly, they shared their Google drives with us filled with so many useful documents!
I went home that night and sifted through these Google drives. Reading through all of the information from them took about six hours and was a super tedious task to complete but I found that this was a really valuable use of time for me after analyzing what resources my team actually has to continue building on. Some really great content I found included previous field audits, internal audit surveys and response databases, team objectives, and pamphlets on a variety of subjects translated into different languages. These internal audits really helped us a lot drafting our own audits for the teams this week. Our plan is to implement the surveys and collect responses digitally through Google forms, meet with teams in person to discuss the data, and then publish a completed audit with feedback for all teams by next week. I’ve already discovered some areas where we need to improve for the next audit. It’s also critical that we update the form to make every question mandatory because several people completed the form without answering all the questions, giving us less data to work with. I’m excited to see the finished product but from what I’ve seen so far these teams seem very confident and committed to their work in GLOBE and they’ve made a lot of progress. I worked with the Marketing team and I was so impressed to hear that they’ve already scheduled most of their events and even booked the locations for them.
I’ve become really interested in Muhammad Yunus after all this reading we’ve been doing about him in class. In this week’s reading from Banker to the Poor, I learned more of the specifics on how Grameen Bank structurally operates. Yunus described the interest rates, lack of legal contracts, and implementation of weekly repayment programs at 2% amounts for fifty weeks. One concept that especially interested me was the bit regarding Grameen’s practice of group lending. When I first read about this in a previous reading I thought it was such an innovative idea, creating value in human beings as collateral instead of requiring funds that are probably not available to the poorest of the poor. A new piece of information to me was that at one time Grameen Bank required its group borrowers to deposit 5% of each loan in a group fund for emergencies, such as in the case an individual cannot pay back their loan. I’m not sure if Grameen still implements this practice but I think enforcing these savings and insurance concepts on borrowers is an excellent way to create habitual practices for them. My team is seeking to create a care package for our borrowers with informational pamphlets, non-perishables, and toiletry items. I’m not sure if the previous pamphlets have included this or not, but I think that there should be a pamphlet maybe on the subject of insurance. It would be a very simple breakdown of what insurance is and why it can be important to help borrowers prepare for accidentals. Now with the first audit out of the way I’m eager to begin work on the care package!

Finance, Budgets and Risk Assessment Team

By: Jessica Vishnudat
Log # 2

Last week in class we listened and received advice from former GLOBE managers. The former GLOBE managers were very insightful on advice they offered us on how to approach loan recommendations. The best tip they could offer me was to always communicate with one another. Because GLOBE is heavily based on teamwork, it’s important every member’s opinion and voice is heard. Not only speaking up, it’s important the team is on the same page with one another. Although every member in the finance team has been contributing, it was a great reminder that we are all going through the same thing together and we should lean on one another.
The finance team was asked to develop questions we had for borrowers that were applying for loans and previous GLOBE managers explained to us we really needed to focus on the information we already knew. I didn’t realize the process of asking questions to our borrower had. It was great to hear that even though there are defaults, the Daughters of Charity are on the field trying their best to provide us with reliable borrowers. We are really the only chance some of these borrowers have to get out of poverty and be successful entrepreneurs.
The previous GLOBE managers were also really great in providing their personal stories on how GLOBE has changed their lives. They reminded us that even though the class is stressful at different times, we are the reason someone can get out of the poverty cycle. This really pushed me to never lose sight of the bigger picture and the overall mission we were trying to help alleviate.
In our assigned readings this week, there was a topic that was touched upon known as the “country context.” From the reading, I learned that the background information is an essential factor in determining whether or not the loan will be repaid.
Because the finance team has just vetted 5 loans, I think it’s important going forward we look into key factors in an environment that will affect a loan repayment. It has been very interesting learning about the countries our borrowers are from. The loan recommendation I focused on was with Ms. Fanny Carmen del Jaime from Nicaragua. It was great researching the country and learning about cultural differences. 

Marketing and Fundraising Team 

By: Rafael Sondon
Log # 2

Going into week four, our team is now getting quite a bit busier. Events and responsibilities come up quickly, and I am so thankful for the helpful managers and experienced assistance we get from Lina, Dr. Sama, and Mina.
I want to begin by discussing progress.
As the semester progresses, I believe my team is learning about the difference between ideal goals and realistic outcomes. We are still very much succeeding and well on our way to reaching our original goals and objectives. However, a great business lesson I am learning now is how things do not often go exactly as imagined. As a team, we address these changes and utilize them the best we can to push forward. It is necessary to come together as managers and never get discouraged. This group is very organized and is proving to be adaptable and prepared. I am very proud of the creative minds that marketing and fundraising team consists of.
Ideas between groups are now coalescing. Looking at GLOBE, whether as its whole or as its parts, is interesting. As teams work within themselves to achieve their set out objectives, other teams are now working together to cooperate for the goals and events of GLOBE. Originally, I wanted to be on the finance team, and the marketing and fundraising team was my second choice. Now, I can honestly say I much rather would be on this team. I have grown to like this work more than I would have finance. Organizing events and raising money for this organization means a lot to me.
The “cement” of ideas we poured in our first couple of classes is now beginning to harden, and we must now put our thinking to the test. Events such as midterm care packages and the Treat for Change event are coming up so fast, and although the tasks ahead seem overbearing, I am curious and excited to see how our plans materialize. Despite the reading assignments and these logs, GLOBE still feels much more like a business or club than a course, which is great. Meeting with previous GLOBE managers was a fun and informative experience. Listening to them taught me about their ideas, struggles, and happiness they got from GLOBE. Overall, they all seemed to love GLOBE and took many experiences and skills from the journey.
Our readings have been a solid support throughout the semester to educationalize what we have been doing. Although it can sometimes take me out of the business element, the information and lessons in all the reading assignments have been valuable. So far, Creating a World Without Poverty, by Muhammad Yunus, has been my favorite book. It provokes deep thought and addresses many concerns of the modern business ecosystem. I love the philosophical aspect of each chapter along with the examples associated with each thought. I am growing more interested in the reading assignments as time goes on, and applying them to our hands-on work at GLOBE has been a worthwhile and valuable challenge.

Technology and Communications Team

By: Keighla Exum
Log # 2

When I applied for GLOBE, I was particularly excited to be a part of something that brought together my love of culture, business, and learning. As a military child, I have had the great opportunity to travel across the world for most of my life. One thing that impacted me most was the different cultures I was able to experience. As a middle-schooler, I had the advantage to learn a lot about the culture and how it affects different aspects of a person’s life. I knew at a young age that cultures have different norms, attitudes, beliefs, and ways of communication. This past week, we were able to look into how culture and gender play a big part in the world of microfinance.
As I am being taught as a business student, one of the most important thing is to know your customer. I find that this statement carries itself into the microfinance world. Since GLOBE is a student-run organization, we are only able to know our customers to a certain extent. However, I believe the best way we can get to know them is through their culture. Knowing who they are, what they do, and where they live is important, but you can never really know a person unless you know their culture. Their culture is what carries their values, morals, and tightly held beliefs. One instance in which GLOBE has experienced challenges with culture is in working with the Daughters of Charity. As Dr. Sama mentioned in class, we have noticed that in the countries we operate in, that they feel more of a connection and obligation to the authority of their own culture. When we had an American daughter working with our borrowers, they did not respond as well.
I have found that being part of the communications and IT team has made me realize what communication can do to help reduce poverty and bring awareness to the issue at St. John’s. Social media plays a huge part of the college “culture”- it’s how we access the world. The IT and Communications team is focused on leveraging that cultural norm of 24/7 social media and information access to our advantage. Our goal is to speak to our students in a language they understand, which happens to be social media. We not only want students to know about GLOBE, but to get excited about GLOBE. We know how to communicate with our audience here at St. John’s, just as we learned how to communicate with our borrowers abroad. 

Enterprise Development and Program Impact Audits Team

By: Lloyd Howell III
Log # 3

As the fifth week has commenced, a lot of festivities are in the works regarding the GLOBE program both internally amongst the teams as well as externally.  Entering into this week, several events have been highlighted which will, in essence, kick off some crucial GLOBE Fall 2017 campaigns.  One major event is the Steering Committee presentation where representatives like myself will speak on the behalf of their teams and communicate to the board of trustees the team objectives and goals for the semester. Additionally, the Marketing Team has begun their campaign for the first major event: the Midterm Care Packages Sale event where packages of merchandise, promoting awareness of GLOBE, will be distributed amongst the academic community.  Also, the first GLOBE information session and an executive meeting with Dr. Sama with my team are soon to occur.
All in all, it’s a festive time, and internally, within the Enterprise Development & Program Impact Audits Team, some restructuring has occurred.  In meeting with Dr. Sama this week, as a standard protocol and formality, the team was able to have an open discussion about some present obstacles/strategies on how to best proceed moving forward.  The meeting proved to be helpful and insightful as reasonable solutions and information were relayed.
Also, the position topic paper outlines were due and the discussion of social entrepreneurship and its importance within microfinance is my topic of choice.  It seemed like an interesting topic due to the various discussions, to date, surrounding entrepreneurs in the global social sector as well as other entities like NGO’s and Citizen Sector Organizations.  However, my paper will argue that social entrepreneurs are the best avenue for individuals to take career-wise for those whom are looking to make and have a lasting impact within the microfinance industry. 
Lessons gathered thus far this week have strongly surrounded that of effective communication and collaboration.  It is important to remember that there is in fact no “I” in team.

Finance, Budgets and Risk Assessment Team

By: Sasha Khan
Log # 3

We are in the fourth week of our GLOBE class, all seasoned and well aware of the direction that we are heading. I must say, it’s been a fantastic experience thus far! My team members and I could be loan pros. We completed our draft loan recommendations and submitted to Dr. Sama for review, got feedback and we are doing our final check and then we are ready for action! On October 5th, we will be sitting in with the Steering Committee on the loan recommendations. My team has given the greenlight to approve our first batch of loans, however the Steering Committee has the final say.  I must say the borrowers’ stories have touched my life. I have realized that these women and men have so little, yet so much to offer to society. One loan approval could transform one’s life.
We also had our first internal audit by the Enterprise Development and Impact Audits Team. The members of that team are measuring our progress and ensuring we are on top of our game. The impressive thing about this GLOBE class is that we are all working collectively despite our different tasks. We are collaborating and communicating effectively to complete our tasks assigned.
Dr. Sama gave a brief lecture on the Ethics of Microfinance. We assessed whether microfinance has helping or hindering effects. With no prior ideas or knowledge about the flip side of microfinance, I always saw only the pros of microfinance in that it has always assisted the poorest of the poor. However, when Dr. Sama spoke about the hindering aspect of microfinance, I knew I had to take a few steps back, because the points of microfinance being a hindering hand could be valid and debatable. In my opinion though, I think if institutions were to implement a program like GLOBE then microfinance would be practiced in a just and accurate manner. However, if there are ulterior motives behind running a microfinance program then it would be disregarding the true ethics of microfinance. We also saw a video in which Microfinance gave voice to women of rural areas in India. It was truly amazing to see women in India finally lifted the ban of being confined to their homes. The women in the video were making a difference in the lives of their husbands. For instance, one of the women gave her spouse money she earned from taking a loan to assist him with starting up his business. Amazing, isn’t it?
As the semester is moving rapidly, we are the process of researching another country so that GLOBE could expand its micro-lending operations taking all factors into consideration.
I think that as microfinance flourishes around the world, then there is a high possibility that people in developing countries can have better lives. I truly believe that GLOBE has the potential of expanding its operations and setting an example so that other microfinance programs can be motivated to make a difference in the lives of individuals who seek freedom from the cycle of poverty. 

Marketing and Fundraising Team

By: Maria Sefcik
Log # 3

This week of GLOBE has been super exciting! I can’t help but think how fast time is flying, and how we are already in our fourth week. Not only my team, but also the class as a whole has been so productive, and I have been able to see everyone transition into a completely different atmosphere. GLOBE has become such an important part of everyone’s life because we are working towards something greater then ourselves.
The finance team was able to show us a few of the borrowers that we will be giving these loans to. It was so inspiring to hear about their lives, and how they will use the loans we are providing them, to better themselves and their families.  It was honestly great to see a picture of them, as well as know a little bit more about them. It makes us feel more involved when we are able to see and hear about these people’s lives, and what we are doing to help make a difference.
My team, the Marketing and Fundraising Team, has been doing awesome! We compiled a paper with our overarching fundraising goal with sub-goals that contribute to it. To raise our money, we plan on hosting fun events, connecting with donors, and setting up fundraisers.
The first event that we are hosting, which is literally right around the corner, is the study care package sales. In preparation for midterms week, we plan to sell small care packages to our fellow Johnnies that may include post-its, highlighters, and study snacks. This will be the first fundraising event that I have ever been a part of, and I am so excited to see the success that will take place.
We were already able to get a ton of stuff donated by not only a stationary store, but by parents and students. It is so astonishing to see that so many people care about our cause and truly want to help. It is always surprising, but also amazing to see the contributions we get daily.
The Audit Team has sent us a survey to see how we are doing thus far, and sat down with us to discuss any improvements. They were so thrilled on how our success has been, and encourages seeing more of it.
GLOBE not only surprises me week by week, but I can see the amount of effort and enthusiasm that all of the managers have, and it is outstanding!

Technology and Communications Team

By: Thomas Shaker
Log # 3

As we continue to progress toward our goals I feel as though I have begun to create something of a routine finally. Now that we know exactly what our goals are we have begun to follow our steps that will guide us to them. Every week we post, share, like, and post some more. The current struggle is finding original content to post every day, which becomes especially hard when we don’t have an event. Luckily, we have our mid-term care package sale to market and advertise. Were very excited for this event and hope it can give us a fundraising boost as we work with the marketing team to make it a success.
Because we have to turn our position paper outline in this week, there was no reading to present on. As I write this I’m struggling a little bit with the outline of my paper, the topic being the possibilities of microfinance in healthcare. As it is such a broad topic I’m struggling with deciding what I would like to focus on. Yunus’s ventures into the healthcare would really interest me but I would also like to explore topics outside of Yunus as well. I’m very interested in learning about other current or future endeavors into micro-financed healthcare, especially in developing countries other than Bangladesh.
Lastly, we’ve progressed towards our goals pretty well up to this point, when we were audited the team was completely comfortable with everyone and everything going on. Our current main concern is creating a video, we hope to have a draft set in a week to two weeks depending on approval by class and supervisors. Otherwise, I feel very excited about where the team and class is headed and I look forward to the work laid out for us in the near future.

Enterprise Development and Program Impact Audits Team

By: Brendan Mickalay
Log # 4

Over this past week, the Enterprise Development and Program Impact Audit Team completed its first audit and analysis of the progress of the four respective teams. While I am sure that every team is upset with at least one aspect of the scores they received they must acknowledge that the goal of these audits is not for the teams to always have a high score it is for the teams to have a low score (meaning no goals accomplished from the beginning) and work tirelessly until the conclusion of the semester where they will hopefully receive a 100 as a score.
In class, we discussed the difference between micro finance in a developing country versus a developed country and the reason why it is easier to implement in developing countries. In developing countries there is less competition and less regulation and government policies meaning that things such as licenses, labor laws and interest rate caps are not dealt with like they are in developing countries. In developing countries labor laws, regulation, interest rate caps and higher competition from large firms make it much more difficult for clients of micro finance to make profits from a business no matter how financially literate they are. Unfortunately, there is still a need for micro finance that is not being met. We learned in class that only two percent of those in need are being served.
With that being said, in developed countries it seems clear that whatever impact that micro finance has on poverty will only be lessened when compared to developing countries. The value of US $500 in the United States will not be able to supply you with the same amount of resources that it would in a developing country like Vietnam or Nicaragua. This only makes the job of the program impact team even more difficult because they must search and create more questions that gear toward program impact in order to find results that would demonstrate impact like it would in a developing country; unfortunately, I do not think it would ever reach that level.
Finally, we had a speaker who referred to himself as Father Memo. He told us his incredibly interesting life story about being a political refugee and the troubles he faced in his life and what he has seen throughout his travels. What stuck with me most was the term “ethical indignation”. It is something that is so rival to your morality and makes you sick to your stomach that it motivates you to “fight the good fight”. For Father Memo it was witnessing a woman who was starving and could not feed her baby. The baby when it would go for milk would actually be receiving blood from the mother because the mother could not provide the milk due to the state of poverty they were in. The term ethical indignation is something I hope to never experience personally but I hope that one day I witness my own ethical indignation so that I am motivated to “fight the good fight”.

Finance, Budgets and Risk Assessment Team

By: Jessica Vishnudat
Log #4

This class was by far my favorite and most empowering. When GLOBE managers mentioned how empowering Memo was while visiting class, I didn’t anticipate the impact his speech would have on me. The only word I can use to describe our last class was inspiring. I am beginning to feel that effervescent feeling that previous GLOBE managers always speak out.
There are a few stories Memo mentioned that really made me stop to say to myself “wow- what can I do to stop this?” The first story Memo mentioned that made me stop to think was his story about Halloween. Halloween is a widely celebrated holiday but just listening to how he didn’t need to dress to be “a poor boy” because he was actually “a poor boy” was very sad. He spoke about his clothes being short and ragged and he walked with no shoes. This hit deep because my dad grew up in Guyana and lived most of his life in poverty. Being the eldest kid of 6 children, he had one pair of shoes that he needed to fit into and when he couldn’t fit into them anymore, they would be passed down to his younger brother or sister. Memo’s speech just made me feel so grateful for what I have yet made me realize how much I take advantage of very much everything in my life. The borrowers of GLOBE are fighters and are fighting in their developing countries for a necessity – food.
The second story that really struck deep was his story about seeing a mother hold her baby that was hungry. The mother being malnourished and had no milk to feed her baby, still never referred to herself as being in a state where she was starving. This raised a point in my head that words are thrown around many times carelessly and not thought out. During class, Dr. Sama showed us a video where the word “poor” was said several times. Since starting this class and changing my language to “developing country" or "in poverty” I feel offended when someone says the word “poor” because that is not a word a person not living in poverty should say. Just as Memo mentioned starving is a sensitive word because he has held people who have actually died from starvation- this is a big cord that struck hard.
I have never witnessed a life-changing class until now. This is the first class I have ever taken at St. John’s where I just felt so moved to go out in the world and do whatever I could to make a difference. It’s important to note that poverty in the US and poverty in different countries look different and it’s important to keep a global perspective. Although community service in the US can help make an impact, seeing poverty and people who have lived through real hunger is very different.
Although very time-consuming GLOBE is quickly becoming my favorite class. I feel so much more connected to our borrowers and appreciate the hard work our team puts it. WE are changing someone’s life and giving them an opportunity to do better.
Memo was such an inspiration to have in class. There needs to be a change and although GLOBE is a smaller Microfinance program, we are trying to be the change borrower’s need.

By: Maria Loureiro de Souza
Log # 4

GLOBE keeps getting more and more exciting as weeks go by. This week during class we were able to learn a lot and also work a lot on our objectives. Our class structure was a little bit different as we had a very important speaker - Memo. Another thing that was important this week was that our outlines for our term paper were due and we are also planning a midterm care package sale and an information session.
The most exciting thing about this week for me was having Memo come talk to our class. Memo is very intelligent and said things that I believe opened the eyes to a lot of people in GLOBE. Being born and raised in Brazil I could relate to Memo in a lot of things that he explained and also gave examples of. I believe that a lot of people who have never left America has no idea what poverty actually looks like. There is poverty everywhere. Brazil, USA, Spain etc but there are countries that suffer from it more than others. Every year when I visit Brazil I get a different culture shock. People survive on less than $1.50 a day. Many die of hunger while many kill because they are hungry. People are unhealthy, with no shelter and normally a lot of kids to take care of. 
We live in a world were sadly ending poverty is something very far away from our reach. We live in a world were corruption takes place in the majorities of countries around the world. We live in a world were people define "ending poverty" as raising peoples' daily spending/surviving money from $1.25 to $1.26. I don't define that as "ending poverty" I define that as shame. People trying to cover this big problem to say they did something meaningful while people are still dying because $0.01 doesn't change anyone's life. 
If we want something to actually change and for something to actually be done, together with a whole the world has to come together and end corruption. Corruption money is money that could be saving the lives of millions of people and actually having an impact in the world. At the end of the day, I am happy that I am making some difference by being part of GLOBE and helping those in need of better opportunities.

Marketing and Fundraising Team

By: Linda Wang
Log # 4

This past week was amazing! First of all, we met a very special guest, Father Guillermo Campuzano, CM representative at the UN. He has a very pure heart, is very down to earth and is very knowledgeable. The way he expresses himself is unique. It was so captivating and engaging that many times, I was seeing the environment and the people of the story he was telling. It was really touching. I could see that he was also very into his own stories because his eyes were still experiencing the past that he was sharing with us at that moment. Especially when he was talking about how a woman presented herself in front of his door with a baby and said that she was hungry. I really saw that woman in my mind and I felt so much compassion for her. He had a very strong delivery which I believe had influenced a lot of people in the class. It was very sad when the time was up for him to leave. I wished he could have stayed longer and told us more, but I am very grateful to have met him, even for a short time. He was so generous, to invite us to the UN and I definitely want to go, it is going to be an unmissable opportunity for everyone in the class.
Our first event finally took place and it was situated in the Marillac food court. Two boxes full of our blue GLOBE bags were displayed along with some of our promotional items and drinks. Our big banner was hanging from the table. Behind the table, our amazing GLOBE managers were standing and smiling waiting someone to approach. Some of us went around campus with bags trying to sell them out in other locations so that it would be more efficient. During my shift, I encountered many people who wanted to donate; mostly donated one dollar, but there was a guy who took out five dollars, as much as the cost of the bag we were trying to sell, in exchange for nothing. I was very thankful to him, and it made me believe again that if everyone cares about their surroundings and other people a little bit more, we can really make the world a better place. I am very thankful for this first event, I took courage and walk to strangers and asked them to buy our bags. I know a lot of people like me are intimidated by this or at least feel embarrassed to ask for money, but I am sure that when you have a good cause to do so, you will have a strong motivation that pushes you out of your comfort zone and challenges yourself. The more money I collected the more I believed in myself and the more eagerness I had to sell.
At the end of the day, the event turned out to be very successful. We exceeded our goal, thanks to everyone’s effort, and we are ready for our next event, which is coming very soon.
We also had our first information session on the same day. I honestly, was a little bit worried about this event, because of the night before I dreamed that only one person came. In fact, only one person came on time, and at that moment I thought that my dream was coming true, but as time passed, more and more people came and the meeting room was packed with a lot of students. It was great to see that there are so many people interested in our program. I am sure that there will be many more people coming for the next one as some of my friends showed interest on attending the later date.
We had a great start this semester and I wish that we will keep on going and make ourselves proud the end of the semester.

Technology and Communications Team

By: Samiha Huque
Log # 4

There were a lot of notable things that happened this week. Beginning with our guest speaker, Father Memo. The first thing I learned from him coming to class was to have a realistic approach on things. His speech opened my eyes, I feel like we are always taught to have a positive outlook on major things like poverty by believing that we can put an end to it. But this isn’t something that can be done easily or single-handedly so it is important to have a realistic viewpoint so the goal can actually be achieved.  Poverty is definitely not something that can be solved anytime soon but, what we can work to fix is the root of the problem. Poverty is just the product of a bigger problem and there are so many different factors leading to it like economic imbalances or global companies affecting the environment, or corrupt government and lack of education. If we work on the causes it is easier to fix the problem. The thing he said that stood out the most to me was when he was talking about taking the word “starving” out of our vocabulary. I probably constantly complain about starving or being hungry but I’ve clearly been taking it for granted. I do not know what starving really is, but there are people who don’t have the ability to provide food for themselves or their children. We cannot claim this word until we’ve actually experienced this level of hunger and it is something I want to help alleviate. No one deserves to be in this position and if money is something that can give people living in poverty the medium to get resources to make more money to sustain themselves everyone should
We also had our first fundraising event which was the care package sales. I thought it was amazing how everything came together. There were a couple students I approached who decided to just donate money instead of buying a bag. There were also students and faculty who just saw we were a part of GLOBE and decided to pay for the amount of the bag but not actually get the bag, it was clear that GLOBE meant a lot to them and they were supporting because they truly wanted to help. We successfully raised a total of $325.50, which is way over the marketing teams goal. This is more than enough to give a loan to someone in Vietnam. When I think about how much work we’ve been doing individually and what the product is when it is put together collectively it makes being a part of this class more motivating. Seeing the recommendations and then seeing money being raised knowing it is actually going to a real person to make a real positive effect in someone’s life feels great, especially being a part of it.

Enterprise Development and Program Impact Audits Team

Jessica Benjamin
Log #5

Log 5. This means we are basically at the halfway point. It feels like just yesterday I was meeting my team for the first time and discussing our objectives for the semester. Time really does fly when you’re having fun. The weeks seem to be passing by and there is still so much to do, but I have confidence in my team that together we can accomplish it all. This coming Tuesday we have our midterm progress report to present and the written midterm to take. I’m excited to hear what the other teams have accomplished since our audit.
Reading Yunus’s Banker to the Poor has been extremely inspirational. There’s no I in team, but one person really can make a difference. It’s easy to give someone living in poverty some money, but that’s a short-term solution. Yunus strived to create a long-term solution in which people can pull themselves out of the vicious cycle of poverty. His creation of the Grameen Bank was the exact opposite of any other traditional bank. Grameen Bank, based on the idea that credit is a basic human right, not the pleasure of a prosperous few, now provides over 2.5 billion dollars of micro-loans to more than two million families in rural Bangladesh. Ninety-four percent of Yunus’s clients are women, and repayment rates are close to 100%. Around the world, micro-lending programs inspired by Grameen are developing, with more than 300 programs established in the United States alone.
At this point in the semester, I think it would be a good idea for a quick reflection. Even though the workload is a little overwhelming with my other classes, working part-time, taking MCAT night classes and studying for the MCAT on my own time, I have no regrets. I’m truly happy to be a part of GLOBE, something bigger than myself. People often walk on eggshells when it comes to world issues including poverty because they are usually very controversial and touchy subjects. This class is not like any other class I’ve taken in college. I can’t remember one class that discussed ways to end these problems; instead, they only discuss the causes and effects of these problems. We tend to always look at the surface and ignore what’s underneath it. In GLOBE, we go beyond observing poverty from a distance; we are submerged in solving poverty one loan at a time. It’s comforting to know all the hard work we do behind the scenes makes a change in our borrowers’ lives. With the micro-loans, they can now live a dignified life and hopefully educate their children to put a stop to the cycle of poverty.
Now I quote Nick Vujicic because I couldn’t have said it better myself, “The greatest rewards come when you give of yourself. It’s about bettering the lives of others, being part of something bigger than yourself, and making a positive difference.” This is what GLOBE is all about.

Finance, Budgets and Risk Assessment Team

By: Connor Hart
Log # 5

The Finance and Risk Assessment Team laid out several ambitious goals at the outset of the semester, but we believe they are attainable. One of these goals was to create a “risk grading checklist” in order to create a write off profile and a low-risk approval profile. First, we reviewed GLOBE’s current loan portfolio: consisting of outstanding loans, repaid loans, and defaulted loans. Perhaps the biggest risk factor is the borrower’s health since borrowers often don’t have access to affordable healthcare. A borrower’s enterprise will be at great risk if they are unable to work due to illness.
Borrower gender, age, and the number of dependents are key factors in the Finance Team’s risk assessment. On average women are lower risk loan candidates than men; they are less likely to default because they are nurturers by nature and are less likely to neglect the needs of their children. For this reason, married borrowers represent lower risk candidates than single ones.
Repeat borrowers represent a lower risk than first-time borrowers: they have already demonstrated an ability to repay their loan on time. Also, repeat borrowers typically already run a successful enterprise due to their previous loan and are merely seeking expansion funds. An existing enterprise represents much lower risk than a potential new one. Borrowers who have an existing business have already shown a penchant for entrepreneurship, whereas a new business has no track record and is less likely to succeed.
An in-depth analysis of country risk, both locally and nationally, is necessary when determining an enterprise’s economic feasibility. Major economic factors include government policy and influence, the currency exchange rate, gross domestic product. Locally, major risk factors are the local government’s role in the economy, infrastructure, the terrain, and whether the potential borrower lives in an urban or rural area. Higher population density results in more potential customers, meaning the enterprise is more economically feasible than an area with low population density.

Marketing and Fundraising Team

By: Colin Duffy
Log # 5

This past week has kind of been a big preparation week for us.  We didn’t have any events but we have our midterm progress presentations along with our midterm exam. I really like the progress our team has been making and I like how we all get along. I say this week because we had a little confusion with who was doing what slides and then when we went to practice a few people were doing the same slide. However, we calmly and easily resolved the issue and moved on from our confusion.  I am really looking forward to our presentation I think we all sound very nice and it will be good practice for me as I have been struggling a little bit with presenting. 
We have our Treat for Change and Halloween bake sale coming up soon and I am excited for everyone to bake and walk around in their costumes. We, the marketing team planning on meeting up at one of our houses and baking some treats together. Along with this in about a month we have our Appreciation dinner where we are launching our Fabretto fundraiser which I am in charge of, so I am very excited for that. We also have some fun games such as GLOBE bingo that we are going to play.
Lately, we have been working with the Tech team to put together fliers to raise awareness for the upcoming events and hopefully get a good turn-out.  The tech team also put together a really nice video that sums up some of our progress and upcoming events we have coming up this year. To conclude I am very excited about our upcoming events and looking forward to seeing everyone's Midterm progress presentations

Technology and Communications Team

Keighla Exum
Log #5

This past week, the IT and Communications worked intensely on our various video campaigns. While we have been slowly working on the videos and ideas for them for the past couple weeks, we really got focused on them this week. The video campaigns have been one of our most exciting projects yet. We have been brainstorming them since week one and though we had some challenges, we are quite happy with how they are turning out! Some of the challenges we faced were due to the programs we used to animate the videos. Though we are the “tech-savvy team”, none of us have ever ventured into animation as it is a pretty expensive project and an intensive learning process. We would have loved to be able to have the capability to animate the scenes we wanted to go along with our story, but unfortunate, y none of us are professional animators and we decided to use pre-made animation packs to animate our videos. The main struggle with the pre-made animation packs has been the limited selection of scenes and trying to mold them into the story we are trying to tell. However, we have very creative people on our team and I think we made a great video with the limited resources we had, and we are excited to screen our progress on our videos so far for the class on Tuesday!
Another project we have been working on this week is our midterm progress reports. It was good for us to see where we stand in relation to our goals, and for the IT team, we have quite a way to go. I think this is what all the past GLOBE managers were talking about when they say not to get discouraged. It has been a wake-up call to really sit down and map out our progress. Though we have been working very hard to reach our goals, I think the IT team is going to have to really work through these challenges to meet the pretty ambitious goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the semester. Despite these challenges, I have confidence in my team and I know that we will pull through at the end of the semester!

Enterprise Development and Program Impact Audits Team

Lloyd Howell III
Log #6

As the midterm period has passed, another festive period approaches as Fall continues to unravel and holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving quickly approach.  GLOBE looks to host several events in the spirit of Halloween including a bake sale and a Treat for Change event.  Additionally, the second information session was a success as well as the Social Justice conference.  According to executives, a lot of traction has been noted as far as GLOBE’s interactions and attractions of candidates, and it’s an exciting time as teams continue to further achieve their objectives as well.
Regarding the Enterprise Development & Program Impact Audits team, a discussion and a meeting were held regarding efforts on the post loan survey as well as the care package project.  Overall, the feedback was positive and reassuring as the team looks to implement some new strategies and changes.  The discussion concerning the care package was helpful as far as coming to understand the budget limitations and the more cost-effective methods for getting this project to blossom.  As for the post loan survey, three new questions were added and the overall expectation of simple, yet effective vocabulary with a max of two pages was conveyed.
In the latest class discussions, mid-term assessments were returned and a guest speaker presented an interesting presentation on GIS and poverty mapping.  The topic is crucial as far as understanding how to highlight and use mapping to locate poverty areas and regions lacking resources and how to communicate that on a global scale.  Maps are an undervalued resource and have tremendous significance as far as connecting communities and communicating stereotypes as well as values.

Finance, Budgets and Risk Assessment Team

Maria Villon
Log #6

On Monday, October 16th, I had the opportunity to work as a Career Peer for the Debating UN World Economy Forum, Sustainable Business Investment, and Sustainable Development Goals event hosted by Economics and Finance Society and The Peter J. Tobin College of Business Career Services Center. We had a speaker from the UN. He talked about the Sustainable Development Goals and it reminded me of when Mr. Guillermo Campuzano, Memo, came to our class to talk about his experience as part of the UN. It is amazing how some things we do not see until we are exposed to it someway, somehow. During the whole event, I kept thinking of GLOBE and the impact it does in the community it reaches to. At the event, they showed a graph of how poverty has decreased in the past years but I kept thinking of how just because people no longer earn less than $1.25 does not mean they are no longer poor.
As part of the Finance and Risk Assessment Team, we presented our Midterm Assessment last class. It was wonderful to take some time and look at the accomplishments we have made so far. The one I am the proudest of is submitting 6 loans to the Steering Committee and having 5 of out the 6 loans been approved, with one that is currently pending.  I think reviewing the loans is the biggest rewarding experience that my team gets. We get to be one of the first students to hear the story of the loan borrowers. We get to understand who they are and what they want to accomplish with their loan. Once they have been approved, we are the ones that allow this opportunity to occur.
In my management class this week, we discussed a project which consists of advising the North Shore Learning Center in Staten Island. The Second Chance Gospel Music Convention, Inc. is the mother organization of Second Chance Youth Empowerment Project which runs the “North Shore Learning Center.” Its goal is to strive to make the world a better place. The programs they have established are towards an effort to break the cycle of poverty and lower expectations in this community. As part of my class, we will be advising the company on strategic partnerships, areas for recruitment, donations, events, and fundraising. The North Shore Learning Center just like GLOBE strives to help people get out of poverty. There are many organizations who are willing to help communities in any way and form. I am happy to find every day different ways to give back to others with my service.

Marketing and Fundraising Team

By: Rafael Sondon
Log # 6

We had our Midterm exam and presentation this week and although I was slightly nervous for the longer presentation, I knew we were prepared. I believe we presented very well and as time went on while I spoke, remaining calm grew easier. The previous homework presentations proved to be a major help to prepare us for this week. Recapping on this semester and addressing the other managers on our struggles and plans was a proud moment. I treat GLOBE like my own personal business for the short amount of time that I am a manager, and to see progress toward goals that I truly care about makes me much more excited for this course than the others. Applying my outside knowledge to improve the GLOBE program gives me broad experience on how to really apply what I have learned in school and understand what truly works.
Before becoming a manager at GLOBE, I was bored by marketing classes and memorizing definitions. But I now realize that understanding target markets, setting S.M.A.R.T goals, and finding effective distribution channels are truly important. Our team has had to adjust several times to which types of donors we are currently reaching out to. Potential elder donors and student donors are completely different when trying to win over. Also, the locations of our events and ways in which we distribute our promotions are key in achieving our desired goal. For example, an event we will purposely schedule around a sports event at the university is better suited to be promoted on social media and does not need to be announced as much in advance since the audience is likely to be younger. For a fundraising event that we expect an older, non-student audience, such as the Appreciation Dinner, the emphasis is not nearly as much on social media as it is physical promotions. These may seem like simple planning techniques, but trying to relate to potential donors is essential to any organization.
I have also learned a great deal about microfinance. Before this course, I just assumed microfinance was banking on a smaller level. Although it is like that, banking with people who live in impoverished nations is very difficult. Risk assessment is not nearly as easy as running a credit score. These entrepreneurs need a chance to show they are credible borrowers, and these nations do not have the security or structure to allow traditional banking. Also, currency exchange rates are severely different than I expected. It is incredible to think about how far $250, the cost of an expensive textbook, gets some people in many countries. Applying an appropriate interest rate and expecting to be paid back is a challenge in this industry. For our midterm exam, I made sure to learn more about the differences in developed versus developing nations for the microfinance industry, revealing some intriguing contrasts.
In terms of team progress, making our schedules work to meet up in person has been difficult. Our class schedules have not been compatible so far and we have not met many times outside of the classroom to plan. We have been successful in planning and communicating online so far, and I personally enjoy that. However, sometimes in-person meetings are necessary to develop the proper chemistry and familiarity with each other and better prepare our events. I expect to have a few more personal team meetings going forward and figure out our scheduling differences. I am excited and hopeful for the “Treat for Change” event coming soon and am curious about the result of our plan implementation with the bake sale. Like everything we have done so far, this will be another enlightening learning experience.

Michael Hatzopoulos
Log #6

As time continues to fly by, we are officially halfway through the semester.  Our last class on October 17th was arguably our busiest one yet.  Between the midterm progress reports and the midterm assessment, the night was a bit stressful but also fulfilling.  I thought the midterm progress report presentations provided the teams with an opportunity to see where we were at, and reaffirm what we want to eventually accomplish.  I was pleased with my team’s presentation and thought it was helpful in reminding us along with the rest of our class about the significant workload that we have ahead of us.  Overall, I think our team was well prepared for the presentation and everyone delivered their parts well. 
I remember being very nervous when Dr. Sama informed the class about how we were not allowed to use note cards or read directly off slides when presenting.  I felt that I would have trouble memorizing my part, and presenting with minimal references.  However, as the semester has gone on, I feel more comfortable during my team presentations and I think that the practice has helped to improve my presenting skills overall.  Instead of trying to memorize different information, I’ve found that truly understanding the information  and attempting to speak passionately about it has helped me immensely. 
As October winds down, we are now only one week away from Halloween and six days away from the Treat for Change Bakesale!  As the event grows closer, I am becoming more and more motivated to contribute to its success.  I am looking forward to the help our team will be receiving from the rest of our class, and am excited to get together with my team the night before the event to bake some delicious treats.  I am also eager to learn from our next guest speaker during Tuesday’s class, Dr. Barrett Brenton.

Technology and Communications Team

Samiha Huque
Log #6

This week in class we had our midterm progress reports. Our team created two different videos and let the class vote. The website we used to create the videos had very limited creativity options. It came with different packs and animations so it was difficult to get it to conform to and suit our ideas. One video did a better job pulling at heartstrings but it was very dull because the animation pack had great characters and more options but the background wasn’t as colorful and eye-catching. The other video we made compensated for the lack of color but it did not have the same effect the first video did because of the lack of characters. The class ultimately chose the one that had more characters because it pulled at the heartstrings. I learned that when making videos like this it’s important to try to make a connection to viewers and try to project our goal by pulling at their heartstrings.
We also attended the Poverty Conference on campus this Saturday and I learned a lot from it. Although we didn’t actually go inside and fully be a part of the conference the pictures that were displayed outside were very intriguing. It depicted people living in poverty all throughout New York City and Long Island. This was a really interesting take on things since for the majority of the class we’ve been focused so much on poverty in developing countries I sometimes forget that it is a global issue meaning it is also something significant right here surrounding us. It was also great to meet more people connected with GLOBE. I feel like every event or fundraiser there is always someone who knows us very well and is willing to purchase everything for support.
This week we also held one of our last info session and it was great to see how many students came and how many of them I had a class with. I also thought it was interesting how many of these students were sophomores who were trying to apply. I was honestly expecting a turnout of seniors and juniors who have heard about it from other classmates who were past managers to be the ones coming to the info session. I thought it was really informative and a cool idea to be given the chance to talk to these potential students in a more real and personal way to let them really know what it’s like to be a part of GLOBE.

Enterprise Development and Program Impact Audits Team

By: Renee Schakron
Log #7

With the blink of an eye, another week has gone by just like that. We have about one month to complete all our objectives and make this class the best GLOBE has ever seen. This past week has been quite eventful and informative. We had a guest speaker, Dr. Barrett Brenton, who is an Anthropology Professor. His presentation was about Geographic Information Systems and Poverty Mapping. He enlightened us about how the use of maps can help us better understand the geographical area that our borrowers live in.  For instance, he discussed how soil, water, marine life, access to roads, agriculture, natural disasters, are all factors that affect the conditions that borrowers live in. It was interesting when he talked about Typhoon Haiyan that severely affected Tacloben, Philippines, which was known by its people for fishing. Due to this natural disaster, many people could no longer fish which was their source of income. I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Brenton’s presentation because it gave us an opportunity to see how the geography has a great effect on people’s lives. After this presentation, I gained a deeper understanding of how every little thing affects our borrowers even things that may seem minor.
As a part of the Enterprise Development team, our job is to be creative as possible to ensure that our borrowers are successful in their business venture. When formulating our creative solutions, we must ensure that we take everything into account like what Dr. Brenton explained. We must also consider that the problems out borrowers in Nicaragua are facing won’t be the same for our borrowers in Vietnam. I think this is why I like the idea of a business care package so much because it will help all our borrowers and not just a few. Our team has finally finalized the list and now we are in the midst of creating a prototype.  This care package is geared towards more business than health. We will be including a calculator, notepad, pencil, highlighter, eraser and a brochure for budgeting. Our hope is that our borrowers will gain more insight on how to manage their business and money. In the past, teams have done health packages so I’m very excited for our team to be doing a more business-oriented one.
As the weeks have gone by, we are finally starting to see all our goals getting done one by one. This goes for all the teams in GLOBE. The marketing team had their second event which was Treat for Change. I, unfortunately, could not attend this even but I contributed cupcakes and Kit-Kat bars and I was still there in spirit. Dr. Sama informed us that we raised over $550 dollars which is amazing. It’s truly heart-warming to see each manager’s hard work pay off. I am particularly proud of my team because we managed to have most of our goals accomplished except for the follow-up system. This has been one our biggest challenges but there is still one month left and we are determined to have this one accomplished.

Finance, Budgets and Risk Assessment Team

Sasha Sayanna Khan
Log #7

It is a relief that midterms are over, but what is more of a nerve-racking feeling is that finals are just about two months away, and before we know it, our semester in GLOBE will end. My classes are currently overwhelming me with research papers due, mini-exams to take, and networking events to attend, but that’s college right, so I am not complaining.
Last Saturday GLOBE managers worked shifts at the 10th Biennial Vincentian Chair of Social Justice Conference and I have no regrets about that event. I got a rare opportunity to actually sit in and communicate with the other members of the other teams. To listen to their stories and all that’s going on in their lives currently, we all bonded. I felt like I made a new family with the other GLOBE managers. The fact that we all come from different walks of life is amazing, and GLOBE gives you that extra opportunity to learn about someone’s culture, their way of life, other college courses and of course, little chit-chat about the professors at St. John’s- who should we take for the different courses. Individuals who attended the conference came to our table and asked questions about the GLOBE program, what we do etc. When we told them about GLOBE and its mission, they were actually impressed in what we do, and also, we made a sale of $100+ with GLOBE’s bundle, the tees, water-bottles, flash drives etc. So overall that was a great experience!
In this week’s class, we had a guest speaker – Dr. Brenton, who gave a lecture on “Poverty Mapping.” Honestly speaking, I always found maps to be interesting like I would put up pins on a world map that I have with the countries I visited. However, to witness the work that Dr. Brenton has pursued with the GIS system and all, it was unbelievable.  Dr. Brenton described the GIS- Geographical Information System, as a method of visualizing, manipulating and displaying spatial data. He further explained that using GIS research tools would assist in global development while trying to break the cycle of poverty, which is referred to poverty mapping. I found GIS to be interesting because one can use modern day technology to investigate countries suffering from high poverty levels and link it on a map, to indicate which countries are suffering from poverty and to reveal the main causes of poverty be it the lack of resources, individuals earning less than US$1 per day etc.  Also, Dr. Brenton used a term that resonated with me “ground-truthing” is the actual reporting of what’s happening in the field or on the ground. And it makes sense because one who is on the ground and exposed to first-hand experiences obviously could report better than one who has never been on the ground. I think being exposed to poverty mapping after Dr. Brenton’s presentation each team of GLOBE could relate to utilizing poverty mapping. For instance, our finance team may use poverty mapping to prioritize which countries GLOBE should expand its operations to. Also, the Risk Assessment team could use poverty mapping to identify and measure risks associated with countries that GLOBE is currently operating in.
In sum, Dr. Sama is placing the hammer on the right nail, her guest-speakers and her presentations all tie-in on how we could make GLOBE a better program and how we the student managers can learn so much more that could be implemented in our personal lives and create change, rather than just preparing loan recommendations, hosting events, tracking risk and publicizing GLOBE on social media. It’s more than just performing the duties of GLOBE. I have grown with GLOBE and most certainly, my knowledge and perspective about how I view the world has changed.

Marketing and Fundraising Team

Linda Wang
LOG# 7

Another week went by and we are slowing approaching Thanksgiving, which usually means that the semester is going to be over very soon. I cannot believe how fast the semester is going. We already did two of our events and both ended up being very successful.  The first was our midterm care package sales which gave us the assurance that if we put effort on what we were doing, we will receive great outcomes. In fact, we exceeded our goal even though we thought we could not make it in the middle of the process.
This week, however, we had our Halloween Bake sales. A lot of different organizations in the school were holding events around campus at the same time for the Halloween season, so it was more challenging for us to sell out our goods when other people were “competing” with us. We had people wearing boxing robes walking around campus with treats, in search for some good souls that would donate their spare changes to fight poverty.
In this occasion, we were also worried that we were not going to reach our goal when we saw that there were still a lot of goods in front of us that were not sold. However, we the managers did not want that to happen. We really wanted to surpass our goals that we have set at the beginning of the semester. We really wanted to reach out, that one more borrower who is seeking help. We did not want to just give up, so we took some trays with the baked goods and walked around campus with the hope that we could make extra sales by reaching to those who are in other schools and departments. It turned out to be very effective, for the last half hour of the event we walked around campus to dean’s offices, professor’s offices, and students from different schools.
Many of them donated and I was so thankful to each, and every one of them, especially those who had greeted us with smiles and interest. Sometimes it is hard to approach a bunch of people and try to sell out your goods. People become more sensitive when we start talking about money, even though it is just a small donation. But when we were welcomed with happy smiles on their faces we were encouraged to keep on going. At the end of the bake sale, we collected all the money that we had raised and we counted them all even pennies, and we found out that we surpassed the goal. It felt great, everyone in the room was so happy and I really thought that all we did was worth it. Does not matter how tired and hungry we were, we surpassed the goal, one more loan could be made out of it, and that was the only thing that mattered.
In the course of this week, I learned that teamwork plays a very important role in our events and the whole coordination of the class. I would not be able to do this by myself, but only with the help of the marketing team. The same applies to the marketing team, we would not be able to surpass our goals without the help of the other teams by spreading the word out, staffing the tables, walking around with treats. I really enjoyed these events and I really wish that we could hold more events like this. I honestly, would love to take another semester of GLOBE, it is such an amazing journey, that I had never regretted joining.

Technology and Communications Team

Thomas Shaker
Log #7

This week was an eventful one, especially with our Treat for Change Bake Sale. Last minute we decided to introduce a raffle aspect to increase our follower count. The idea would be that people could follow us and be entered into a raffle for a big bag of candy. Although we were very excited and had high hopes for this idea, it ended up being a bust, only garnering a few new followers. At this point in the semester, we are heavily struggling with Instagram followers, and Keighla is going to bring this up in class. We’re not sure if this is the lack of support from class or were just hitting a serious plateau we are continuing to look for answers and fixes.
But to counteract this negative news all other aspects of the bake sale were a complete success! We raised our goal for the second time this semester and we believe it has a lot to do with our flyers and social media platforms. A lot of people who came mentioned our material. We were able to use our Snapchat platform which is a rare occasion. On top of this, we also used Instagram story so both of these platforms let us give our followers a good look at what we were doing. We believe this drew in, even more, people, as our treats for change did look pretty appetizing! This is a feature we look forward to using at the Appreciation Dinner, and our currently debating whether we should invest in creating a Snapchat filter or not. We just don’t know how efficient this will be, and at this point in the game we can’t waste our time on anything that may be pointless.
In class, we all had our articles and learned some new information on topics related to our class which is always good and sometimes eye-opening. Our article on Cow Loans was crazy to me at first as I’d never head of live-stock trading. However, as I continued to read into it I learned it was a very viable option and could definitely help a lot of people as it has.
Moving into the upcoming week we will continue to put an emphasis on interaction on all social media platforms (this is what our raffle was supposed to be), and brainstorming new solutions to our Instagram problems and setbacks. We also will begin our Give Campus campaign on Monday next week which is exciting as it’s a completely new venture, more than half-way through our journey. We hope that our social media can help boost our reach and exposure but we also realize that a lot of the pressure is on the class’s shoulders as donation finders. We look forward to the challenge and are beginning to see the end of the tunnel with our Appreciation Dinner and Final Presentations nearing.

Enterprise Development and Program Impact Audits Team

By: Jessica Sansaverino
Log # 8

Today my teammates and I met with Lina to continue work on the care package for our borrowers. We’d all done some prior research on the costs of the items that are going to be included in the package and Lina also looked into the costs of customization. We are going to create several sample budgets with the costs of the care package, dependent on which items we use (customized/non-customized) and will be submitting them to Dr. Sama for approval. Once we have that, we will draft our final proposal to the steering committee requesting the funding for the project. 
My team was also able to spend some time today to continue planning how we will meet our goals by the end of the semester. Together we examined the tasks we need to complete over the next coming weeks to accomplish this. We divvied up the work and assigned everyone something to take the lead on. At this point, we are doing really well and are on track to be successful in completion of all of the objectives, except for Goal #6: creating a follow-up system for our poverty graduates. Lloyd is going to take the lead on this and we will meet next week to discuss the model we would like the follow-up system to follow.
I think this is the one that we’re struggling with the most because we’re seeking to measure the impact we’re actually having in the field but “impact” is a difficult term to attempt to quantify. I’m starting to do some research on how to do this. I wasn’t surprised to find immediately in a report from New York University that only 54% of companies actually even attempt to measure the impact of its Enterprise Development initiatives. This information assured me that GLOBE managers are certainly not the only people struggling to fully understand this concept. Another issue that came to my attention regarding impact measurement is that every organization most likely measures it differently, making measurements much more subjective and impossible to use in comparisons. Potential metrics measured could be both short-term and long-term effects, including profitability, sustainability, and socio-economic transformation. Despite the fact that only half of the companies surveyed implemented impact measurement procedures, 80% of them agreed that there should be standardized metrics for this. While this research has clearly shown me that there are others facing similar difficulties, it is not meant to discourage. I just think that my team and I will have to put in more research to understand potential impacts and be very specific in defining how we choose to measure it.

Finance, Budgets and Risk Assessment Team

Maria Villon                                                                                                               
Log #8

On Monday, October 30th, our class had the opportunity to participate in the Treat for Change event. When I showed up to my time slot, I was asked to please go to Marillac Cafe and ask people for their pocket change. I personally think of myself as an introvert and I would have normally been a little scared to do such thing but I didn’t. I grabbed a bag and went around the cafeteria asking students for any change they had as it would be very helpful. I talked to them about GLOBE and the opportunities it creates for entrepreneurs in developing countries. Many of them were very touched and gave bigger donations wanting nothing in return. I realized I wasn’t scared to go up to people and talk to them because I knew that this was not about me but about the people that we are are helping. I am the advocate, their voice on campus and I will continue doing my best for them.
We were able to raise $551.51 that couldn’t have been made possible without the help of every baker, seller, staffer and candy contributor. This amount does not count eh sales that we were able to register by credit card. I cannot wait to hear the final amount as again we surpassed our goal of $500. When going around selling the baked goods, one student asked if we have a venom account he can send the money. I was with another student and we just looked at each other disappointed that we didn’t have one since the student was willing to contribute but had no cash with him. Another student who was walking by stopped and approached to tell us that he would love to donate but had no cash either and that the Venmo account would be a good idea to implement for GLOBE. There is always a risk when coming up with new things, in this case the risk of how will the money be managed and under whose name? The importance is to find a way to let our donors know that every penny they donate counts.
The discussion of our GLOBE class started with the following quote: “Management weakness is the greatest risk facing microfinance.” Why is it important for MFIs to be sustainable? It is important because if everything else isn’t reliable, we start to have investors goes against microfinance mission and focus on their need to make a profit. It is important to always look at the bigger picture of GLOBE which is in helping alleviate poverty.

Marketing and Fundraising Team

Maria Sefcik
Log #8

I cannot believe it is already November 1st!! What?!? Halloween just passed and we just finished our second event. We had a Halloween bake sale and treat for change. It was not only so much fun to prepare for, but it was such a great experience going around campus and selling candy and treats for Halloween.
Give Campus is right around the corner, and this is where we want to make the majority of our profits. So far, the few events we had done, has raised us about $1,000, which is phenomenal! I get so excited whenever an event has finished and I learn the outcome of our sales. I always call my parents and tell them the update. It’s so great to inform people about GLOBE and what our class does. I not only tell my parents but the rest of my family and friends.
There are a few questions that are commonly asked throughout the semester. People always want to know why we don’t just give our borrowers the money. That is not the point of the program. We need to teach them how to manage money, how to build credit, and how to become successful on their own. If we spoon-feed them money, they aren’t going to learn, and want to continue to learn and build a better life. It would not help break the cycle of poverty. Giving them an opportunity to break the cycle for themselves is better than making them look and feel more like a charity.
Another question I am frequently asked is “who are our borrowers and why are they usually women?” GLOBE statistically can see how women are better borrowers. They have better repayment rates, less likely to default on loans, and more likely to break the cycle of poverty for themselves, their families and communities.
I love explaining the program to everyone, and telling them how it has had such a huge effect on not only my life, but on so many others as well. My short-term goal as of now is to continue to spread the awareness of GLOBE to my family members, peers, professors, co-workers, and anyone I may encounter along the way. The more people who know about the program, the more profit we can make, and the better it can get!! I want to thank Dr. Sama for always updating us about GLOBE, microfinance and honestly making me love the class more and more each week!

Technology and Communications Team

Keighla Exum
Log #8

As the semester begins to come to a close, the pressure has been turned on. As we prepare for our Give Campus launch, appreciation dinner, and final presentations, we are excited but also nervous to see how far we have come in just a few short months in GLOBE. Unfortunately, the IT has lost a team member, but I am positive we will carry on without complications.
As our Give Campus campaign launches, we are excited to see our work come full circle. The IT team worked hard in conjunction with the Marketing & Fundraising team to produce a seamless, integrated campaign video and description. After working on this video for what seems like forever, we are ready to show it to the GLOBE community - and hopefully new friends of GLOBE. We believe our video is compelling and uses an emotional appeal to evoke the same feelings in our donors as we do for our borrowers. We want to convey that although they are impoverished, they are not poor. 
I am also getting excited because I have found a new resource that may be helpful to GLOBE, called Google Sites! Although not a “new” technology or resources, it is something that is new to me and I believe is little-known. This application on Google Drive allows a user to make a simple “site” or resource hub for members the site is shared with. I am still reading up and playing with it, but I intend to test it out a bit and see if it would be a worthwhile resource for GLOBE (whether it be a GLOBE site as a whole or separate sites for each team). I am even thinking it may be effective in “passing the baton” at the end of the semester, where we can provide new GLOBE managers with a site of consolidated information and tips and tricks for their time as a manager! I am excited to explore this new application and see how it can benefit us at GLOBE!

Ayana Ibarra
Log # 8

This week, GLOBE finally launched our GiveCampus campaign! This is one of the biggest objectives for the Marketing and IT teams this semester, and I’m so excited. In our first night, we’ve already made $315! There has been so much hard work put in by both teams to launch this campaign, and with the help of Scott, Lina, Mina, and Dr. Sama we were able to start what I think will be a very successful campaign. Everyone in the class (finally) cooperated greatly and signed up as advocates within our class time demonstration. This first week should be exciting! Also, I didn’t have a chance to write about it last week but our Treat for Change and Halloween Bake Sale was a huge success as well! I had a lot of fun baking my “bloody cinnamon rolls” and was so happy to see everyone enjoying them so much. I worked the entire day and myself, along with my classmates, were so worried that we wouldn’t reach our goal. By the end of the day, I counted around $400 in cash. Discouraged-because we are terrible at estimating-I headed back to Lina’s office to deliver the news. I decided to sit and count all of our change myself. We all thought the change would come out to equal $15-maybe. Well, after counting we had $100 in CHANGE! It was incredible discovering we hadn’t fallen short at all, and in the end, we exceeded our $500 goal by almost $70! We continue to outdo ourselves and I’m so proud of myself and my class for working to hard to make GLOBE better. Next week is our appreciation dinner and I look forward to seeing how many supporters GLOBE has and being able to sit and talk with them.
I’ve also recently realized that our semester is rapidly coming to a close. Last class Dr. Sama told us we only have 3 classes until final presentations and I was really in shock! Time has flown by. I feel like my first log was due yesterday. I’ve learned a lot thus far and can’t wait to take everything GLOBE has taught me and apply it later in life.

Enterprise Development and Program Impact Audits Team

Jessica Benjamin
Log #9

This week past has been very exciting! Our team met with Lina on Monday to discuss prices for all of the items we will be including in the care package. We found most of the items like calculators, sharpeners and pencil cases inexpensive on dollar tree. Lina also found a box of GLOBE notepads and some extra world map erasers from the marketing teams care package sale that we’re going to use. We still need to crunch the numbers and figure out whether we want to include both pens and pencils or only pencils. I think only pencils would make more sense because if a mistake is made while budgeting it’s easy to be fixed with a pencil, pens are less forgiving. 
Also, GiveCampus was launched on Monday and we all signed up as advocates in class on Tuesday. With 24 days remaining and 24 donors, we have raised $1,085, which is 27% of the $4,000 goal. I personally have generated 61 clicks and three gifts totaling $40. I reached out to a few more family members who aren’t on social media so hopefully, that number will change by next week. This has taught me how difficult it is to raise money no matter how great the cause is. I have almost 700 “friends” on Facebook yet only 61 clicks… if all of my friends would donate a dollar that would be $700. It’s truly disappointing to me. All of my friends live comfortably in houses and many are well off. It’s upsetting that they can’t donate even a dollar to people in developing countries who have nothing. With this in mind, I will work even harder to reach my personal goal of raising $180.
Next week there’s a lot going on. It’s our last class before Thanksgiving break and then when we come back it’s time to start rehearsing for the final presentation because the week proceeding that is the final presentation! This coming Tuesday we have a presentation on Ledgerwood’s Microfinance Handbook and the position paper progress is due. There’s so much to do and the clock is ticking away. As far as the objectives go, we decided to split up the work that still needs to be done. Jessica and I will work on the care package proposal and the creation of the prototype to present to the steering committee. Michael and Renee will work on the budget pamphlet. Brendan will look into the cell phone technology and Lloyd will start working on the follow-up survey for poverty graduates. We will all end up helping Lloyd because this is a huge undertaking, but for now, we have deadlines to reach before the steering committee meeting November 29th.
Wednesday is the trip to the United Nation with Father Memo and the 7th Annual GLOBE Appreciation Dinner. I haven’t been to the UN since high school so I look forward to that. I’m also excited about the Appreciation Dinner, and hopefully, there will be a good turnout and we can get some more donations to GiveCampus. I’m eager to see what this week brings!

Finance, Budgets and Risk Assessment Team

Jessica Vishnudat
Log #9

During our last class, we had a guest speaker from Habitat for Humanity who also serves on the GLOBE Steering Committee. Although there is a misconception that Habitat builds homes for people and gives them away, they are actually partners. Habitat works with people who are ‘unbankable’ partnering with families who wouldn’t be classified as a reliable borrower.
My first encounter with Habitat was over the summer while interning. Although I was at the company for 3 months, they allowed me to attend a Service Day site with the rest of my colleagues. With Habitat, we traveled to Yonkers and worked on a house that was being built for a veteran who was homeless. Our contractor was very informative in letting us know the duties of Habitat, but he made sure to enforce it is “We build simple.” Although Habitat doesn’t build a lavish house, they build for someone who desperately needs necessities. Not only were we doing most of the hands-on work, it felt so good to help someone that needed help.
It’s so weird to think that GLOBE will be over in a few weeks and everything he has started will be passed down to future classes. The finance team is beginning to wrap up on our objectives, but we have had some push back with the Microsoft Power BI System.
Not only our objectives, I have been working on my position paper about the effect group lending versus solo lending has on the economy. Throughout the semester I have learned so much about Group Lending and the way it forces people to act, at the beginning I would’ve thought this was ideal until now. Group Lending strings a group of people together to force them to pay back their loans. For instance, if a group of five women is in the same group and one woman can’t afford her loan one week- this affects the whole group. While I began to believe this was a good way to push borrowers to pay back their loans, this can also force a drift between the borrowers in a group.
Group lending is seen from two sides – the first side being it gives borrowers shared responsibilities and they won’t have to carry the cost by themselves. Knowing some MFI’s charge interest as high as 100% this can be a way for people to share the cost. On the other side, it is a threat to borrowers to pay their loans. If the borrower is unable to pay the amount, it affects the whole group.
After seeing both sides, I believe group lending doesn’t do more good than solo lending. Solo lending gives people the responsibility to stay on top of their loan repayments and make sure they can handle it on their own.

Marketing and Fundraising Team

Rafael Sondon
Log: 9

Going into next week, the heavy work is mostly done. We are now making sure everything we have prepared all semester comes out perfectly. The GLOBE Appreciation Dinner is coming up and we are ready. A lot of work has gone into this and my team is focused on delivering a magnificent event next Wednesday night. Going over the final details is tedious and never fun, but this is a necessary part of any workplace function. I look forward to the final stretch. Finding enjoyment in the process has been a rewarding task, thanks to the friendships I have made.
Not meeting for class in a couple of weeks feels weird, but even when we don’t meet, we constantly communicate and get tasks done. I am excited about Thanksgiving, and a small break with the family will be very relaxing. My fellow managers on the Marketing and Fundraising Team have become personal frieds, and learning how to meet with friends on our own time while still getting things done has been worth it. Being productive managers outside of the classroom is completely necessary to achieve objectives in GLOBE. This course has been rarely based inside of class with typical notetaking, and I love it. Although we have learned a great deal during our Tuesday night meetings and weekly readings, the best education for me by far has been the organizational work for the Marketing and Fundraising Team.
Making flyers, promoting social media pages, making necessary phone calls for event planning, setting up proper guidelines and presentations for the other managers, and running the operations that we planned, has been difficult yet smooth. Although we put tremendous effort in our objectives, nothing felt forced throughout the semester. Our team came together nicely, and although communication with other teams has not been as consistent, we are all trying our best with busy schedules and objectives. I am sure this hectic time will now extend to the end of the semester.
GiveCampus has had a great start so far, and it is key that we keep it up. I believe we will easily exceed our goal of $4000 if most of the managers are engaged in the campaign. I also feel the theme came out quite nicely, and I think we will gain a lot of support at the Appreciation Dinner. My final paper and our final presentation are looking good. We started our work on those and are ardently trying to get a great head start on our presentation. Overall from what I remember from last semester’s presentation, considerable progress has been made by this semester’s GLOBE managers. For me, this experience is truly a resume builder because it is comparable to running a business. I have felt like GLOBE is my own business because I genuinely care about its success and the process of team building to achieve the organization’s goal, promoting microcredit to entrepreneurs for overall sustainability and social entrepreneurship.

Technology and Communications Team

Ayana Ibarra
Log #9

The first week of our GiveCampus campaign went much better than I’d expected. We’ve raised $1,315 so far! Angela and I have set up a weekly schedule so that every week there’s one occurrence that will boost donations. The first is our Appreciation dinner. We hope to make it to two thousand. Next week, my team and I will be asking Scott to boost our GiveCampus Facebook post. Finally, the final presentations will be our last hoorah. Dr. Sama inspired my idea to ask everyone in the class to make a personal plea during this two week hiatus, since those are said to help tug at people’s heart strings and make them want to donate. I hope it works! I see us surpassing this goal like we have all of our other ones, we all just need to do our part. The next task for the IT team will be to have some more posts boosted by Scott. We get to revisit our awesome “Intro to GLOBE” video and boost that, and with his advisement we will pick more posts to advertise. We are also trying to include a snapchat filter in our budget. They’re very cheap to custom make (about $20) and we’d like to make one for the Final Presentations, so that all of our managers and guests alike can use them. We think this is the best event to use a filter because it will be used by our entire class, previous GLOBE managers, and since we will have a crowd of mixed ages, a lot of our audience can use it too!
Recently Keighla discovered Google Sites which will be a part of our “Pass the baton” section of our Final Presentation. The sites are very easy to navigate and hopefully we can create one for each team and that can be a great (bonus!) technology improvement. The end of the semester, and the deadline for our position papers is looming, so I thought it was great that Dr. Sama required us to make some progress with our essays/outlines. Adding to my outline is going to make writing my paper much easier. Looking forward to the UN trip and the Appreciation Dinner Tomorrow!

Enterprise Development and Program Impact Audits Team

Jessica Sansaverino
Log # 10

Wow, so this is officially my last log of the semester! I know I’ve mentioned it before in a previous log but now that we’re actually at the final log I really feel how much time has flown by. The semester is almost over but the work is not. This next week is going to be really crazy getting everything prepared for the final presentation next Tuesday. My team has a lot of tasks that we need to accomplish and we’re hard at work to get it all done.
Our final audit will be sent out on Tuesday for the other teams to complete. I’m really excited to see how much everyone was able to accomplish their goals. It’s funny because when we first started having seven goals seemed so easy but as time has gone by it’s actually been very tough to manage them all so I’m curious to see how the other teams have made out. At this point, my own team has been able to accomplish most of them but as we proceeded forward with so much emphasis on the care package, we lost our way with one of our external auditing goals, the follow-up system. However, we’ve begun to create a foundation for the project so we will be happy to pass it on to future GLOBE managers.
Speaking of the care package, our meeting with the steering committee is on Wednesday. We’ve completed our formal proposal and spreadsheet of costs associated, so now we just have to assemble to prototype and finish up the budgeting pamphlet that will go inside. I’m really excited to share this idea with the committee. I’m really proud of the work my team and I did on this project. The task seemed a little daunting at first but watching it come along has been really inspiring for me and made me feel really accomplished.
The templates that the IT team made for the final presentation are so beautiful! My team and I have begun putting together our slides for the rehearsal on Tuesday night and I love how great the slides are that we have to use. I’m a little nervous on how the presentation rehearsal will go without all of our final feedback in from the audit and results from the steering committee meeting but I’m sure we’ll be fine and I’m just worrying. I’m also nervous about GiveCampus. My family and I have shared the link multiple times across our social media but I still don’t seem to be generating a lot of clicks or donations. It’s made me pretty nervous wondering if we’ll make our goal or not but hopefully in this last week if we continue to push hard enough it will all work out.
Despite all the things going on right now and the heavy workload, I’m still pretty sad to see GLOBE come to an end. I’m really appreciative of the opportunity that I was given to participate in this class and get some experience doing some things I’m really passionate about. The readings and lectures have given me more contexts regarding the global economic world and taught me about microfinance, which I knew nothing of before! Being on the Enterprise Development team was fantastic for me because it directly relates to the career path that I want to go in and helped me to strengthen my vision even more. Thank you, Dr. Sama for a great semester and for including me in this amazing network of the GLOBE family.

Finance, Budgets and Risk Assessment Team

Connor Hart
Log # 10

Log number ten, the final GLOBE log of the semester. I’m not quite sure where the all the time went, which typically happens when I am thoroughly enjoying myself (or thoroughly stressing myself). The Fall 2017 semester was a combination of both, but GLOBE consistently provided a bright spot in my weekly routine. It was powerful to see our work transform the lives of others, as GLOBE is truly an experience like no other.
Between seconds, thirds, (and fourths) of turkey I spent my time compiling additional research for my position paper. Renewable energy’s future as a poverty alleviation tool excites me greatly, as a large body of evidence suggests that it is a valuable catalyst in the rapidly developing microfinance industry.
However, the majority of my time was spent performing a comprehensive analysis of GLOBE’s loan portfolio in an effort to identify which risk factors were most common amongst defaults. Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have traditionally been countries with high default rates in the microfinance industry as a whole, and GLOBE’s revised portfolio was no different. I started with the six defaulted loans currently in GLOBE’s portfolio, five of which were from Kenya, the other from Nigeria. Four of the five Kenyan defaults cited health-related issues, while the other failed to make a single payment and disappeared - the same was true of the Nigerian default.
Next, I looked at twenty loans classified as potential write-offs. Of these twenty, sixteen were from The Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the last four were split between Kenya and Nigeria. Potential write-offs were mostly constituted of loans with restructured terms in which the borrowers continued to make some sort of payment and thus classified as “active”. Cases, where the borrower had completely disappeared, were far less common, of the twenty potential write-offs only five fell under this category now reclassified as “defaults”. The five new defaults included two Kenyan loans, two Nigerian loans, and one loan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
After restructuring GLOBE’s portfolio to reflect these changes, a few things immediately stood out to me: the default rates of Nigeria and Kenya. Nigeria’s delinquency rate of nearly sixteen percent is extremely high by industry standards but Kenya’s rate of nearly eighty percent is astronomical. Granted both were small sample sizes: only composing 3.2% and 1.7% of GLOBE’s total portfolio, respectively. It is extremely difficult to get estimates on country-specific default rates in the microfinance industry, but most of the research I found suggested loan delinquency is the highest in Kenya. Most sources place the aggregate Kenyan delinquency rate at approximately sixty to seventy percent, fairly consistent with my findings. A large portion of the defaults in Kenya are health-related, as healthcare access is practically nonexistent.
In conclusion, there are a variety of internal and external factors that influence borrower delinquency, all of which vary in importance based on the circumstances of the individual and their environment. The lack of accurate reporting and reputable data in the microfinance industry makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions based on empirical evidence. But a handful of factors remain consistently paramount in the successful repayment of a microloan: borrower health and access to healthcare, borrower gender, and governmental risk.

Marketing and Fundraising Team

Log #10
Angela So

As this is the last log, I’d like to really reflect on my experience with GLOBE this whole semester. During class, Dr. Sama talked about sustainability investing and how it’s a virtuous circle that really pays off because as you do well financially, you are able to invest in sustainable measures, which gives you more profits, allowing you to keep investing and so on. I thought about how this applies to GLOBE and there is the obvious comparison where our donors are investing in the borrowers’ businesses, shattering the poverty and bringing forth sustainable living. However, I recognized the sustainability that GLOBE brings to its student managers. Being an active part of GLOBE has provided me knowledge of how microfinance is more effective than charity and has overall, made me a better and more thoughtful person. It has provided me a stronger foundation of ethics to uphold in my personal and professional life. I cannot forget what I have learned from GLOBE even if I wanted to, as it has meshed with my very own identity over this past couple of months. I realize that I should not be sad that I am leaving my responsibilities as a GLOBE manager because the journey continues as I graduate as a lifelong GLOBE ambassador.
Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face...Do the thing you think you cannot do.” This is one of the quotes I really try to live by and I applied its use to GLOBE as much as possible. Especially when organizing events and getting donations, I went to a lot of small businesses asking for everything from balloons to flowers to desserts. Yes, I did meet a lot of rejection but I also met success! Through my failures, I was able to learn how to better my GLOBE pitch to others and how to best market GLOBE and the event at hand. Learning how to accept failure only brought me closer to successes. You can’t know what you can achieve unless you actually try. GLOBE was able to get great decorations, school supplies, desserts, and dinner donated by local businesses!
As November is coming to a close, we really want to attract donations for our GiveCampus fundraiser. We’re only about halfway with about a week to go, which is quite disappointing. I’m really surprised considering we had nearly a week off for Thanksgiving so I thought friends and family would donate more considering it’s a giving time. The managers really need to pitch in and as a whole, we can really capture more donations. As Giving Tuesday is coming up, the tech team plans to really hone in on that and help market the GiveCampus campaign through GLOBE social media accounts. We all just want to end our GLOBE semester surpassing our fundraising goal so we can pass the baton to the next GLOBE managers on a confident note!

Technology and Communications Team

Thomas Shaker
Log #10

It is honestly incredible to be a week away from our final presentations. Looking back on all the data we have collected and created over the past weeks has been almost nostalgic. We have made leaps and bounds towards our goals and I am extremely proud of what we have done. Creating our final presentation confirms my beliefs in how we have done. Seeing all our effort translated into graphs and final figures was an incredible feeling as I was able to see our contributions toward the program. I hope that these contributions can directly help those impoverished entrepreneurs in their missions and goals for their personal life. The chain effect of poverty is almost opposite to the domino idea of giving. Our hard work here translates to money which can directly impact the lives of entrepreneurs, in turn changing the community around them in a positive way. Hopefully, our falling dominoes can help break the chain of poverty.
This week the only new news is our social media being promoted by the very charitable Mr. Scott VanDeusen. We have boosted our reach and overall statistics an incredible amount of the resources he gave us and we are very grateful for that. This will be shown in our final presentations with the difference between an “organic” post and a “boosted” or promoted post. These boosts make a significant difference, and I believe that in the future putting some donation money towards these boosts will help increase the amount of money we receive total, as well as help spread awareness for the overall organization. These last few boosts in the upcoming week will be very significant for our goals as we are still 20 followers or so under goal. I believe our goals are definitely reachable, it’s just difficult to track followers on Twitter as users following and unfollowing erratically affects our ability to track progress. Our other statistics have improved dramatically over the semester even though we set no goals on them, we are still proud of what we accomplished.
Overall, it has been quite the experience watching all of this come together and I cannot wait for our final presentations. It will be an incredible feeling to display what we have done and I think we can all be very proud of our work