Speaking of the real world, listed below are my plans for this summer:
Houston
(June 6 - August 6)
For nine weeks, I'll be working as an associate intern at the Boston Consulting Group office in downtown Houston.
Aside from the work itself, which promises to be interesting, the fact that I'll be home for most of the summer is exciting for me and is one of the primary reasons I asked to be assigned to the Houston office for my internship. (It also doesn't hurt that Texas is a pretty good place to be doing business right now.)
This will actually be first time home for longer than a month since 8th grade. Assuming I have any free time on my hands between working, spending time with childhood friends and rediscovering my hometown, I'm planning to buy some new furniture and redecorate my room; my middle school self had truly bizarre taste, even by my standards.
Mozambique
(August 8 - August 27)
In August, I'll be heading to Mozambique to conduct research for my international studies senior thesis.
Based on our coursework in INTS 427 Social Enterprise in Developing Economies, a team of two other students from the class and I will be studying the Mozambique operations of TechnoServe, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that "helps entrepreneurial men and women in poor areas of the developing world build businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth for their families, their communities and their countries."
The organization's mission is threefold: identifying and nurturing promising entrepreneurs, building local local industries linked to dependable markets, and promoting progressive practices that foster a supportive business environment. Through strategic alliances with experts in the fields of finance, management consulting and agriculture, TechnoServe has enabled the launch or expansion of thousands of businesses in developing countries around the world, including Mozambique, which has ranked among the world's poorest nations after being ravaged by a 16-year-long civil war following its independence from Portugal in 1975.
Our team is planning to spend the first week at the regional TechnoServe headquarters in Maputo to learn about the organization's operations and administrative structure. For the remaining two weeks, we will be visiting cooperatives and field sites in rural Nampula Province, where TechnoServe is launching its new Millennium Mills Project. More details to come in August!
