Using the funds from my STEP signature project, I traveled with 11 other Fisher College of Business students to Cusco, Peru as a part of the Nonprofit Global Projects program. Split up into 3 teams of 4, we were tasked with helping GVI Peru and Centro Bartolome de las Casas (CBC) provide sustainable, profitable, and modern business solutions to numerous rural communities in the Chinchero region of Peru engaged in tourism. My team specifically suggested charging higher prices more representative of the value of the communities’ tourism activities such as textiles, naturally cooked meals, and cultural integration.
Throughout the trip, I was able to further my understanding of my self as I immersed myself into Peruvian culture and the project at hand with a new group of fellow students. Because this was my first extended trip abroad in a new culture, I learned that I enjoy throwing myself into uncertain and at times uncomfortable environments. For example, I applied the Spanish I had learned in high school to start conversations with Peruvians in a language I am not as comfortable with and even started learned the native language of Quechua.
Furthermore, I acquired a unique perspective on the people living in the Andean region and on nonprofit work in general. The people living in the Andean mountains with less technologically advanced institutions and devices do not view themselves as worse off than us students in America. In fact, in many ways these people are far more advanced: Their ability to harness the surrounding natural resources into a sustainable and more natural lifestyle is impressive. This perspective played a key role in our work as business partners with the Andean rural communities, because many of our initial ideas did not align with the desires and values of the people who would be putting them into action.
One key aspect affecting my described transformation was maneuvering the communication barrier between us and the Spanish-speaking and Quechua-speaking people we worked with as business partners. Much of our time in educational workshops and presentations to the communities had to be allocated towards translating the message between the three languages and ensuring that all involved understood the ramifications. I learned the importance of different communication forms and gained an appreciation for it; we take basic communication for granted as students at a major university in America.
Additionally, the various tourism activities around the city of Cusco and throughout the rural communities in Chinchero provided a new cultural perspective to me on the Andean world and its contrasting characteristics in comparison to America. Learning about the history of the Incan empire, the arrival of the Spanish, and the cultural stories from each community helps explain many of the aspects of Andean society today and is much different than learning about the very brief time period of American history. Visiting Machu Picchu particularly fascinated me, and it’s remarkable that the metropolitan city was able to survive up there so long unnoticed.
Finally, my interactions with specific members of the communities that represented our business partners left a lasting impact on me. Seeing how excited they were to take in our ideas and perspective, as well as just get to know us as people, truly surprised me and left me leaving Peru with a new outlook on people in general. The leaders of the communities were so grateful for the time we spent there and the impact we could have on their business, yet they did not look upon us as students coming in to do charity work, but as equals.
This personal and ideological transformation will yield significant dividends in my professional career going forward as business continues to become more global in nature. Understanding different types of people and being able to work with them as business partners holds value in anything to be done in life. I also made some lifelong friends on the trip from Ohio State that I can forever share my memories and images of transformation with.