Students Support Indigenous Entrepreneurs as Consultants on Service-Learning Trip

A young person makes a presentation to several seated people while a person holds a piece of paper and two others look on. Image by courtesy
Senior business major Kieran Scofidio, center, gestures while leading his team's presentation to poultry farm owner Gumercinda Guerrero during a Manning School of Business service-learning trip to Panama this summer.

09/10/2024
By Ed Brennen

Manning School of Business听students Kieran Scofidio, Wins Mathew and Takumi Wang knew they would be offering budgeting and financing advice to the owner of a poultry farm during their weeklong service-learning trip to Panama this summer.

Recipes for sustainable chicken feed were an added bonus.

鈥淭here鈥檚 obviously the business side of consulting, but she also needed some help with growing her chicken population,鈥� says Scofidio, whose team spent several hours researching recipes online that Gumercinda Guerrero could use for her chicken coop in the community of Guacuco Guna (population: 165).

鈥淲e gave her recipes using tropical crops that she was already growing, like cacao and coffee, which she found extremely useful,鈥� Scofidio says.

Eleven people in matching blue Manning School of Business t-shirts stand in a line and pose for a photo outside. Image by Elise Magnant
Ten Manning School of Business undergraduate students volunteered in Panama, accompanied by MBA student Justin Baez Paguero, fifth from left, and Asst. Teaching Prof. Elise Magnant.

Ten Manning School students, led by Asst. Teaching Prof. of Management听Elise Magnant听and MBA student听Justin Baez Peguero听鈥�24, provided consulting and financial literacy support to four small businesses in two Indigenous communities in eastern Panama. The trip was run by Global Brigades, a nonprofit health and sustainable development organization that provides volunteer opportunities for college students.

The Dean鈥檚 Office covered the cost of the trip; students were only responsible for incidentals during the last day of sightseeing in Panama City.

Annie Duong, a senior business major from Boston, applied for the experience because it was a 鈥渦nique learning opportunity鈥� that exposed her to 鈥渁n entirely new culture and life.鈥�

A young person makes a presentation while sitting at a table with several other people in a covered area outside. Image by courtesy
Manning School students present their consulting plan to a small business owner in Panama.

She and her team partnered with a bakery looking to expand its business. After learning about their clients鈥� lives and community, the students collaborated on a consulting plan.

鈥淭his experience showed me how I can directly impact someone's life with my experience and education in a way I never understood,鈥� says Duong, whose concentrations are in听finance听and听management information systems. 鈥淚t has given me confidence and perspective on my career moving forward.鈥澨�

Business majors Kendra Som, Hailey Appiah-Opoku, Iloni Taylor, Britney Tran, Brigitte Fundi and Adriana Mendez also participated in the trip. Other clients included a pharmacy and a women鈥檚 artisan group.

Magnant notes that the Global Brigades program focuses on the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education and its 17 sustainability goals, which 鈥減erfectly aligns and maps鈥� to what she teaches in her courses.

Five people pose for a photo. One of them, a woman in a yellow top, is holding a piece of paper. Image by courtesy
Manning School students Takumi Wang, second from left to right, Kieran Scofidio, center, and Wins Mathew worked with poultry farm owner Gumercinda Guerrero, second from right, in Panama.

鈥淪tudents were exposed to not only another culture, but also to how Indigenous populations live, what they value and how they interact with the larger community around them,鈥� Magnant says.

Scofidio, a transfer student from Groton, Massachusetts, is president of the听听student organization. The experience in Panama whetted his appetite for living and working internationally someday.

鈥淭ravel was always very intimidating to me, but it鈥檚 a magical feeling when you land and realize you鈥檙e in a whole different place,鈥� says Scofidio, who last spring traveled to Orlando, Florida, with 11 other Manning students for the annual Society for Advancement of Management conference.

鈥淭he opportunities that the Manning School and UMass Lowell have offered me in my first year here are awesome,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 am so grateful.鈥�

Share