3rd Weekly Reflection



Our last week in Maryland was just as hardworking and entertaining as the previous two weeks of our senior project. Kyra came home for the last couple days and so we were able to enjoy the fun with the whole family. Our last week was more focused on wrapping up the project and doing smaller tasks for Laura and ourselves. We started the week with a test of our overall knowledge with a practice presentation for an intern of Laura’s close friend who works for Ashoka, a company that finds and trains future change-makers in the world. This was a great experience for Henry and I because it allowed us to realize the holes in our comprehension of the material as well as get feedback from multiple sources. The same was the case later in the week when we gave our revised presentation to Kyra, who is familiar with a lot of the material as she worked for Laura’s organization FINCA last summer.

This past week was also filled with experiences outside of Laura’s teachings that still connected to the purpose of our project. We went to two events on Monday night and the first one was a book reading by Karen Mills, a former administrator of the U.S. Small Business Association, for her book about financial technology in the future of small businesses. The second event of our night was part of the trade off with the Ashoka intern, we taught her what we were learning and then she took us to a company event. There were four social entrepreneurs sharing their stories about how they were making the world a better place by creating a product or system to improve their communities. After Monday’s busy night the only other outside activity we did was visiting with Kirsten Quigley– an entrepreneur of the company LunchSkins, which makes reusable and recyclable sandwich bags for lunchboxes. All of these outside activities allowed me to achieve my goals of expanding my professional network and learning in a professional environment.

The rest of the week was filled with culminating research and teachings from Laura, particularly about her organization’s standards for client protection around the world. I really enjoyed all the work I did this week, as well as the previous weeks, and it was hard to leave it all behind on Saturday. The work was tough and rewarding, allowing me to meet the goals I met at the beginning of the journey.

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