Interview by Eesha Ramanujam
What is your position in SEI?
I am the Assistant Director of Programs at the Social Enterprise Institute. I started working full-time in June and am still relatively new in this exciting position!
How do you see your role within SEI?
The work I do at SEI takes a lot of different shapes. I help our students who run a number of domestic and global projects and activities, oversee our student research publications, coordinate our international field studies, and offer advice and guidance for students who want to engage in experiential learning opportunities through co-op, Dialogues, or internships in the social enterprise space.
I work closely with students and with Dennis every day, and so far it has been enjoyable in the sense that I’m learning new ideas growing in the social enterprise world. It’s funny, when I introduced myself to students in Dennis’s classes during the first week of the semester, it was very different from my first day of class in 2206 with him. A lot has changed in social enterprise in the past two years, and the field is constantly evolving. With this position, keeping up with those new and evolving trends is something I want to take advantage of while I’m at SEI.
How does your previous experience as a student at NEU affect what you’re interested in now?
Most, if not all, of my undergraduate education at Northeastern has geared me to take the direction I’m currently pursuing in social enterprise. I was an International Affairs-Human Service dual with a Global Social Entrepreneurship minor at NU. Taking this position has kept me connected to academia, students, and resources that have helped me grow my personal research interests in social enterprise, particularly in the Middle East.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have traveled to Jordan twice through a co-op and a study abroad semester. On top of that, an undergraduate research grant from the Provost Office allowed me and my research partner to travel to Jordan to conduct exploratory research on two Palestinian refugee communities. We observed how the business and market infrastructures of each community (Jerash and Irbid) affected educational and employment opportunities available to youth. Before I dived into this research, which I would love to do more work on, I completed the field study in Cape Town and was able to apply some of the research methodology I learned there to what I was researching in Jordan.
My co-op experiences at the Jordan River Foundation (Amman, Jordan) and at Root Capital (Cambridge, Massachusetts) largely influenced my interests in the Middle East and social enterprise as well. I created and ran an English language curriculum at a community center in East Amman to young women and mothers who wanted to improve their conversational and professional English skills during my time in Amman. At Root Capital, I co-oped with the Investor Relations department and like to tell people I became somewhat of a “professional stalker” from my donor and investor research projects. That experience taught me the value of knowing how to strategically fundraise for your organization, a skill set that most people hate but I’ve learned to love.
What goals do you have with your work in SEI now?
My goal in this position from the perspective of what I do day-to-day is really to prioritize what you all want as students in social enterprise – how I can help you get to where you want to be in the space. For my personal goals, I think there are a lot of opportunities here at SEI that I’m trying to engage with that could lead to bigger things. The SEI alumni that we’re trying to re-engage back into our SEI family have become my contacts for what I’d like to do in the future. Networking is so valuable and something that students should think about proactively. Making connections as an undergraduate student and even as a recent professional will only help you, and it’s exciting to see where those connections and collaborative opportunities lead to.
I also just want to gather more knowledge and insight on what you’re all studying, what you’re interested in, and what Dennis teaches. That will better inform the research and career that I would like to pursue for myself. In the future, there’s a program I’ve been researching at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies where you can get a Master of Arts in International Development and Policy and an MBA in Global Impact Management. I’m hoping this role right now can be my first stepping-stone into that.
What have been some of your challenges working here?
I think because I just graduated this past May, I’ve really needed to be aware of how I juggle my professional and casual selves with the students I work with now at SEI. Yet I think the unique timing of taking this job after graduation allows me to really keep in touch with students and help them connect to the university’s resources that students alone might have challenges with.
I’ve also been mistaken for a student several times since the semester started, but I’ve needed to remind myself that it was only four months ago that I actually graduated from Northeastern! I often take this as a compliment, knowing that my fresh outlook to this role will keep me energized at SEI. But at the same time, I think it’s necessary to give our student staff members ownership of the activities we run, because at the end of the day SEI is run and fueled by students. Giving students the freedom and ownership to take on these projects and programs is in itself a way to help them develop our skills and their skills for the social enterprise space.
What advice do you have for current SEI’ers?
To reiterate what many of my peers and colleagues have said, the first job you take after you finish your undergraduate studies won’t necessarily be the long-term career for yourself. And that’s completely ok! I think what’s interesting about our generation is that we want to dabble into EVERYTHING. A friend and I had dinner the other night and talked about how we won’t be specialists in a particular area, but we’re growing up to be people who have skill sets in several different areas. For me, I need to express my thanks for the opportunities I was given and took advantage of at Northeastern, because they allowed me to grow different skill sets while I was a student that I don’t think I would have tapped into anywhere else.
One of my biggest take-aways from studying social entrepreneurship is that we know there is work that can offer a dignified and sustainable lifestyle, both for the people who are benefitting from impact driven businesses and nonprofits and for ourselves who want to work in these places. My advice to SEI-ers is to think thoughtfully and realistically about where you see yourself. Working in the social enterprise field is not for everyone, but I know for me, this is somewhere I want to stick around for a while. 
