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The Daily OrangeEntrepreneurs create economic opportunity in South Africa
By Dan Briggs
Posted: 2/19/07, 11:03 PM EST Section: Feature
Steven Thomas Brown lived in a mud hut in Malawi, Africa for two years, helping farmers increase their productivity. He was an outsider, serving under the Peace Corps and learning the indigenous Bantu language.
After completing his service and returning to the United States, it did not take long for Brown to find his way back to Africa. During his second trip, however, he experienced a different kind of social divide.
In the summer of 2006, the year after Brown finished the Peace Corps, he spent six weeks in Syracuse University's Entrepreneurial Exchange Program with South Africa. The program, run by the entrepreneurial department of Syracuse's Martin J. Whitman School of Management, teaches graduate and upper level undergraduate students how to create sustainable economic development in an environment with limited resources. One of the greatest barriers the students face is the residual racism from South Africa's apartheid government.
"It's still there, even in the dogs," Brown said. "The dogs (of some white owners) are taught that when a black person comes to the gate, it's a robber. If a white person comes to the gate, go up there and put your head down and slobber all over them. It's still there. You can feel it all around you."
The program focuses on how to overcome social and economic barriers through entrepreneurship. For six weeks, students enrolled in the program study and live at Stellenbosch University, outside of Cape Town, South Africa.
The students are divided into small consulting groups, ranging from two to four people. Each student participates in two groups. One group provides consulting to a for-profit business and the other to a non-profit business. The entrepreneurs are located in the black townships outside of Cape Town.
While Brown was there, his for-profit consulting group worked with a man who ran his own welding business. Brown, a graduate student studying at Syracuse's Maxwell School of Citizenship, spent several visits getting to know the client, building enough trust to convince the client to share his bookkeeping.
After completing his service and returning to the United States, it did not take long for Brown to find his way back to Africa. During his second trip, however, he experienced a different kind of social divide.
In the summer of 2006, the year after Brown finished the Peace Corps, he spent six weeks in Syracuse University's Entrepreneurial Exchange Program with South Africa. The program, run by the entrepreneurial department of Syracuse's Martin J. Whitman School of Management, teaches graduate and upper level undergraduate students how to create sustainable economic development in an environment with limited resources. One of the greatest barriers the students face is the residual racism from South Africa's apartheid government.
"It's still there, even in the dogs," Brown said. "The dogs (of some white owners) are taught that when a black person comes to the gate, it's a robber. If a white person comes to the gate, go up there and put your head down and slobber all over them. It's still there. You can feel it all around you."
The program focuses on how to overcome social and economic barriers through entrepreneurship. For six weeks, students enrolled in the program study and live at Stellenbosch University, outside of Cape Town, South Africa.
The students are divided into small consulting groups, ranging from two to four people. Each student participates in two groups. One group provides consulting to a for-profit business and the other to a non-profit business. The entrepreneurs are located in the black townships outside of Cape Town.
While Brown was there, his for-profit consulting group worked with a man who ran his own welding business. Brown, a graduate student studying at Syracuse's Maxwell School of Citizenship, spent several visits getting to know the client, building enough trust to convince the client to share his bookkeeping.
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