Hi, my name is Oluwafemi Iluyemi (Femi for short)! I am a sophomore in the University of Pittsburgh College of Business Administration. I am double majoring in Finance and Business Information Systems. I have a passion for Finance, and a goal of mine is to eventually be able to share the wealth of knowledge to as many people as possible. Outside of the classroom, I am a member of two clubs: Women in Business and the Roberto Clemente Multicultural Business Association. Additionally, I am tax preparer for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, which provides free access to tax professionals to complete taxes for international students and middle to lower class citizens in Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas. Professionally, I work part time in a personal care home as a Certified Nursing Assistant, which I started this past summer and took the course and exam to complete my certification. Everyone always asks if I want to become a nurse in the future, but I am just working this job to get me through college. Also, a little fun fact about myself is I am in the process of teaching myself to play piano and to speak Spanish.
This consulting project and trip to Trinidad is my first Global Experience here at Pitt Business. Considering the trip to Trinidad is one week, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get a taste of traveling academically in a shorter period of time. Since starting, I already committed to another study abroad experience for this May. I am participating in the Plus3: Germany program, which is a two-week trip to Augsburg to learn about business operations in the automobile industry. I am beyond excited to have the privilege to attend both of these trips this year and I know it will be extremely beneficial to my academic and personal development. Another reason for choosing this program is I strongly believe I will grow professionally by the work that my group and I are doing for the non-profit in Trinidad, Nature Seekers. It is my first time working on a consulting project, with the added challenge of working with a client from a different country. I am lucky enough to be able to work on a team with other intelligent Pitt students like myself while navigating these challenges.
In participating in this program, I hope to complete it knowing more about Trinidad and its people, how business transpires across cultures, and myself. This will be my first time executing a consulting project, so I plan to evaluate how I handle this type of work while on a team. Personally, I believe this program will help me hone my skills in teamwork and problem solving under a time constraint. We have specific goals that we must meet by a certain date and the organization is counting on us to deliver. On an academic level, this program and our professor, Bryan, both have already taught me so much about Global Service Learning as a discipline. I have learned how it differs from community service, and how it is much more impactful to an organization and a community. By the end of this program, I hope to be an expert in the field, so I can share my experiences with others interested in the program or service learning in general. Professionally, I am going to utilize this project as an opportunity to see if consulting could be a field I would like to work in after graduation. This will provide me hands on experience in this branch of business, while also showing the business operation of a non-profit organization. It is a privilege to be provided with these valuable insights, and I will not let it go to waste.
The Global Service-Learning project gives my team and I, as Pitt Business Student Consultants, the opportunity to utilize our business skills and innovative ideas to make a difference in the Matura community. We are working, alongside Amizade (a Fair Trade learning organization), to provide Nature Seekers business consulting for non-profit organization support. Amizade, with their focus on linking communities through Global Service Learning, acts as our in-country liaison for Nature Seekers.
Our goals for this project include creating a paperless inventory management database, a collection of social media posts for advertising nature tours, and a timeline for a 10-year plan to maintaining a partnership with Nature Seekers. Overall, the primary objective is to have the organization prepared to respond to data requests with a user-friendly management system. This is all in efforts to simplify the business operations for Nature Seekers, so they can put most of their efforts into growing the organization and developing within the community.
The organization, which was established in 1990, is very important to the local Matura community and economy for many reasons. They have helped tremendously with restoring and protecting the population of sensitive sea turtle species. Moreover, they have done work to maintain the quality of the beaches in the Matura area. They provide nature tours, conservation, and community outreach in the form of donations for people in need. They are dedicated to providing memorable conservation experiences and supporting a sustainable ecosystem.
In class we discussed many facts and opinions about Service Learning and sustainability. One thing that stuck out to me was the idea that “all sustainable change is incremental.” In other words, efforts to towards a more ecofriendly and sustainable future need to be made with small continuous changes. These small changes will eventually compound and make for a large payoff over time. This is part of the reason for developing a long-term plan to continue working with Nature Seekers. We believe it is necessary to provide support that lasts longer than only one semester.
All in all, it will feel incredible to be able to leave a lasting impact on the organization, as well as the community. Not only will I be able to aid the organization in development, but myself in addition. I hope to gain transferable skills that I can carry with me to future professional and academic endeavors. The work is just getting started and I am excited for what the rest of this semester holds!