By Delaine Zody, conference attendee
Take a room full of young, highly motivated college students with a desire to help others, mix in microfinance and entrepreneurship, and you have a combination that could change the world. Or at least a part of it.
At Microfinance USA 2010’s panel on student led microfinance clubs, Erica Dorn from ACCION USA led a conversation with student leaders and a faculty adviser as to what is happening in microfinance at a variety of college campuses:
- Melissa Paulsen, professor at the University of Notre Dame, discussed how she worked with the small entrepreneurs in her community to find out what support they needed. She then built a two-semester undergraduate course, which includes an internship opportunity providing technical assistance to micro-borrowers. She’s learning that many business owners need legal, which her students are unable to give. So, she’s starting to engage the law school at Notre Dame to provide pro bono support.
- Alex Dang of Global Brigades said, “The Kiva experience is not enough for college students. This group wants to go further.” He advocated for getting stores into the hands of alumni who can help with providing funds for various projects.
- So many entrepreneurs are busy working IN their business that they have no time to work ON their business. This is where the campus clubs can step in and make an impact. Rohan Mathew of The Intersect Fund, and Paloma Pineda, a student, are both from Rutgers University. Rohan struck out on his own, and since has made 19 microloans through his organization. Paloma talked about the club at Rutgers’ work consulting with the town businesses and making loans.
A key take-away from the session was that lending isn’t the only way for students to be involved. For schools in communities where it might be more difficult to make loans, it was advised to look into raising awareness on campus, helping at high schools and middle schools, offering lectures and guest speakers, and prepackaging loan materials to send on to microlending organizations.
The final message? Students can evolve and help change their communities through microfinance clubs AND skills to their resumes.
