ESADE MBA Student Kickstarts Nonprofit Career, Heads To South Africa

With intentions to have a career in social enterprises and non-profits, ESADE MBA student Oare Ehiemua is certainly on the fast track. As ESADE’s Social Responsibility Director and a summer strategy intern at Emzingo Group, Ehiemua is gaining valuable experience for her future work.

 

As Social Responsibility Director, Ehiemua coordinated projects such as an ESADE clothing drive last September and a fundraiser for Bilingual Education for Central America (BECA) schools. Not only did ESADE MBAs raise $10,000 for BECA, which will be used to support five volunteer teachers for the school, but they are continuing their work with BECA in the fall.

 

“Instead of just raising money, we decided we wanted to help them come up with a sustainable model so they weren’t so dependent on funding going forth,” Ehiemua said. “We worked in collaboration with my strategy professor and did a case study. We are going to present the case study to the BECA Executive Director when the group goes back to school in the fall.”

 

A project such as the BECA fundraiser brought out the true colors of ESADE MBAs: Ehiemua said that so many students approached her to volunteer their own skills throughout the project project.

 

“The students make the school what it is; they are a bunch of fun, collaborative people,” Ehiemua said. “Everyone is off on their own this summer doing amazing things and I cannot wait to go back in the fall and see everyone again.”

 

Ehiemua will return to ESADE this fall to finish up her MBA after completing her summer internship at Emzingo Group. Through Emzingo, Ehiemua was placed at the Branson Center of Entrepreneurship in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is working with South African entrepreneurs to help them gain necessary business skills and connect to mentorship opportunities, something she hopes to do later in her career back in her home country of Nigeria.

 

No matter what social enterprises Ehiemua is working with though, she said she wants to help them be more sustainable throughout her entire career. And so far, her experiences at ESADE have helped her to do that: “I feel that ESADE has helped reposition me career-wise through its alumni and company network.”