Final Journey Home: Post-Trip Reflection

As I write this reflection from my flight to Washington D.C., the journey is bittersweet. While I am excited to be back home and begin the spring semester a refreshed, social innovator in-the-making, I leave behind experiences and stories that cannot be described. Prior to South Africa, I knew only two of the twenty students embarking on this abroad experience. Today, where my relationships with those two students have been reinforced, I come to the U.S. with a network of students across concentrations. Such an emotion, self-discovering-filled trip has brought us closer together in an unforeseen way. Not forced, the trip thrived on natural, organic relationships. If anything that has been my biggest takeaway- personally, to open up and be vulnerable around others, and professionally, to cultivate relationships rather than transactions. Another great takeaway was the power of business in implementing social change. Where, when your passion becomes this social change, it adds a level of commitment and momentum to the innovation of the process. In all, the course has taught me that, although one (as a social entrepreneur) may want to tackle social problems head-on, it is only little by little and thanks to innovation that one can create a true impact.

Group photo at Cape of Good Hope.