The Stern Opportunity

Over winter break, 24 Stern, Wagner and Steinhardt students consulted innovative social entrepreneurship-focused companies throughout India as part of a new experiential learning course titled International Social Impact Strategies (ISIS). The team-based projects focused on areas including micro-entrepreneurship, renewable energy, microfinance/cooperative farming, family planning, fellowship development, and health services. In only 2 weeks, teams interacted directly with senior leaders of partnering organizations, and gained exposure to every facet of their operations. Whether working directly alongside ambulatory emergency pickups, advising farmers on innovate ways to incorporate renewable energy in their operations, or setting up meetings with the largest corporations in India to discuss sustainability, students' fieldwork resulted in experiences that could not be replicated in a classroom. Initial feedback from all the students and organizations in India who participated has been remarkably positive.

Conceptualized by SEA a couple of years ago, the ISIS class finally materialized thanks to Professor Jill Kickul, Director of the Stewart Satter Program in Social Entrepreneurship, Indian-born Professor R. Kabaliswaran, and Graduate Assistant Sanjay Rupani. Through a partnership with Hans Taparia, Director of Preferred Brands International, a ready-to-eat Indian food company, the academic team developed relationships with innovative social enterprises such as the Deshpande Foundation, and deepened its existing relationship with the Acumen Fund.

To help prepare students for their projects, the ISIS course provided case studies on Indian social enterprises, and lectures and classroom dialogue on cultural, political, and social topics. The professors also tapped into their networks to provide industry experts for one-on-one advisory sessions for each team.

According to Mr. Taparia, "It is rare to see a group of students hit the ground running in a new country and add value so quickly. ISIS students brought a unique blend of expertise, out-of-the-box thinking and global exposure to their projects. While final project proposals have yet to be submitted, the mutual value addition between the students and the partner organizations has clearly been substantial."

The course's goal is to provide a socially relevant academic experience that combines classroom curriculum with hands-on learning in an international setting. The course is designed to help students gain in-depth insights into economic and social value creation in the developing world. Students learn to think strategically and act opportunistically with a socially-conscious business mindset. Through their fieldwork in India, students gain exposure to a partnering firm's innovative model for addressing respective issues, as well as to other stakeholders in the field (customers, suppliers, government) to provide an additional lens and perspective into the complexity of making scalable progress in implementing new solutions. Student teams work with the firms to deliver on discrete projects designed to meet existing needs. In addition, project deliverables facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practices within the sector.

"It was interesting to see how each team handled their projects and interacted with their partner organizations," says Sanjay Rupani, who visited each project site and met with each partner organization. "Each organization has had absolutely wonderful things to say about the students we sent over for this experiential learning trip. Initially they were skeptical about how much value students could really add in only two weeks. Not only did they find the students to be insightful and innovative, they are now excited about providing more opportunities for students to continue to expand on their work. This experiential learning trip demonstrates just how valuable on-the-ground experience can be in helping guide students on where they want to make meaningful social impact later on in their careers and can help students focus their classroom learning. I am confident that the NYU administration will take heed of the success we have had here and continue to support the growth of experiential learning at Stern. We already have ideas on how this course will be improved along with other opportunities we can provide to the students. This is going to continue to put Stern on the map."

Below are two accounts of team projects and highlights of the teams' experiences working in India.

NextGen

Team: Bhavna Ghoshal, Chris Cramer, Trish Kenlon, Zach Maler Our team was focused on renewable energy, and we partnered with Abhishek Humbad, Richa Bajpai and their team of young entrepreneurs who started NextGen, a biogas and energy efficiency business in India.

In our time in India, between the 14-hour overnight trains and countless rickshaw rides, we focused on learning NextGen's business and industry. To that end we met with a wide variety of stakeholders across the non-profit, government, and large-scale commercial sectors. SKG Sangha proved one of the gems of the trip. Our morning started in the rooftop offices of Mr. D. Vidya Sagar, founder, where we learned how he built a non-profit organization that has been recognized globally for bringing the benefits of biogas to over 60,000 rural homes in India. Later we visited Hemarlahalli, a small village where SKG Sangha had installed several household biogas plants, and spoke with villagers about the positive impact on their lives. Another highlight was meeting the Indian Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, a seasoned politician recently appointed to this cabinet-level position.

Our meetings with clients and potential clients of NextGen's biogas business included a major prepared-food exporter that has hired NextGen to conduct an energy efficiency audit on their manufacturing operations, and the Taj luxury hotel chain, a potential customer that produces enough food waste at each of their hotels to see a bottom line benefit from capturing the energy in the food waste through a NextGen biogas plant.

Most importantly, we worked closely with the NextGen founders, learned about their experiences as social entrepreneurs, and began to understand the climate for social businesses in India in comparison with the social businesses we have studied in other parts of the world. Professor Jill Kickul was instrumental in guiding our processes and approach as we studied NextGen, and through our final four classes this spring she will guide us through completing our deliverables to NextGen, which will likely include coaching for the founders as well a strategic plan for NextGen going forward.

Deshpande Foundation - Family Planning Association

Team: Andrea Rudert, Cindy Mino, Maggie Grantner Our team collaborated with the Deshpande Foundation's Fellow Xanthine Basnet to conduct financial analysis for a business plan for the Family Planning Association of India's Dharwad branch (FPAI). FPAI provides both free and paid reproductive health services throughout India. However, the NGO's subsidies are decreasing, and Ms. Basnet was analyzing how to make the branch self-sustainable by funding its operations through its mix of paid services for Above and Below-Poverty-Line customers. We were presented with an opportunity to contribute to a new business model that would be an example not only to all other FPAI branches, but also to similar organizations in India.

We worked in the Dharwad branch in a peaceful small town with cows, pigs and dogs sharing the roads with the auto-rickshaws. The administrative office was in the same building as the clinic, so we were able to interact with the people that we were there to help, from doctors and staff to the patients and their infants. One of the greatest learning aspects of this project was working in a small town in a foreign country. The workday didn't start until 10am, internet access was spotty, and the power went out at least twice a day, so we learned how to be very efficient with the time that we had to work. Along with the challenges of working in a small town came the benefits such as experiencing the warm hospitality of a staff member's delicious home-cooked Indian meal. Overall, these experiences enabled not only to apply some of the class concepts to the real world, but also stimulated personal growth though an understanding of how to work in a completely different culture.

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