From the Graduation Files 2020: Lipscomb’s first BAM Fellows graduated this May
The Business As Mission Fellowship provides select students with enhanced local and global experiences in social entrepreneurship
Janel Shoun-Smith | 615.966.7078 |
A group of Lipscomb 2019-2020 BAM fellows, including the four seniors graduating this May, on a field trip to ABLE, a Nashville women's apparel store selling clothing produced by women from all over the world who are paid a living wage.
Every student wants to change the world, but the four Business As Mission Fellows celebrating their graduation on Saturday actually have the skills to do it, thanks to the fellowship program’s strategic blend of experiential learning and intensified academic training in social entrepreneurship.
Since 2015, the Business As Mission program within the College of Business has been training the next generation of business leaders to make a positive impact not only on the bottom line, but on society as well.
The BAM Fellowship was established in 2018 to build on the existing program to provide highly experiential local and global opportunities for a select few. Twelve students are enrolled in the fellowship program, and the first four BAM Fellows celebrated their graduation May 2.
Rebecca Ahlberg, entrepreneurship major from Thompson’s Station, Tennessee; Lydia Baker, entrepreneurship and human resource double major from Lincoln, Nebraska; Aijalon Powell, entrepreneurship major from Gallatin, Tennessee; and Raina Turatsinze, international business major from Kigali, Rwanda, have spent the past two years participating in a wealth of experiential learning, through service opportunities, mentoring and global learning, to build on the academic courses included in the Business As Mission minor.
These seniors have started their own on-campus business with classmates as freshmen, traveled to Jamaica and Kenya to work with small business owners, taught good business practices to Hispanic entrepreneurs in Nashville and helped a home remodeling, nonprofit company achieve more effective marketing strategies.
Lydia Baker, BAM fellow and May 2020 graduate, spent two months in Kenya working with five women entrepreneurs.
“Our first cohort has attracted some of our most dynamically engaged and academically excellent students,” said Rob Touchstone, director of the Center for Business As Mission and the co-founder of The Well, a Nashville-based social enterprise that funds building wells in disadvantaged nations.
“The successful completion of this fellowship by our first cohort is not only a milestone to be celebrated but a model to inspire future students. We have already witnessed how their domestic and global accomplishments are a catalyst for future students,” he said.
The 2020 fellows have big plans, such as Baker’s dream to open a bakery employing youth who have graduated from the foster system. Or Powell’s hope to someday serve as a consultant for nonprofits to help them become more sustainable over time by developing revenue streams outside of donations. Ahlberg hopes to own her own faith-based social enterprise in the future.
Baker and Powell were both interested in using their college degree to fuel an entrepreneurial career, but as they learned more about the BAM concept while studying at Lipscomb, they both were drawn to a program that could incorporate doing good with doing good business.
When she first arrived on campus, “I had no idea how (my entrepreneurial dream) could interact with my faith and how that could all work together,” said Baker.
The BAM Fellowship requires students to earn the 15-hour minor in Business As Mission, to participate in a global learning opportunity, to be partnered with a mentor from the community, 50 hours of service learning and a capstone consultation project.
A hallmark of Lipscomb’s approach to teaching how to leverage business profits into hope is to require the students to teach the business concepts they learn in class to others.
“These students haven't just taken business classes, they have taught them to real people in need in domestic and international contexts,” said Touchstone. “This requires a deeper commitment to their education because they didn’t just learn information, they processed it, they experienced it and then they offered it back to others. I believe this academic/experiential cycle is how real learning takes place.”
Turatsinze, Powell and Ahlberg (l to r) during their Maymester global experience working with entrepreneurs in Jamaica.
This process was practiced for a month during the BAM global learning Maymester in Jamaica in May 2019. BAM students worked with a Jamaican entrepreneur to establish a used shoe business. The students brought down 50 pounds of shoes acquired from the nonprofit Soles4Souls to start the company’s inventory, said Powell.
“Everyday we would have class in the morning and in the afternoons, Tangie came over and we had class for her,” Powell said. “It was cool to learn in the morning and then apply it in context that afternoon. We had to think about what would be most useful for her to know in her situation, how can we adapt concepts in a way that would speak to her and what can we learn from her about how to structure her business.”
Baker spent two months in Kenya working with five businesswomen. She also fulfilled the service-learning requirement for the BAM fellowship by teaching Latino immigrants in Nashville in a business accelerator course at the Hispanic Family Foundation.
“They do business truly as a way to survive. It is not just a passion project,” said Baker of the women in Kenya. “It is their whole life’s income. It’s the way they feed their kids. That stuck with me for so long.”
For their senior consultation project, the four BAM Fellows worked with Tucker’s House, a Nashville-based nonprofit that retrofits homes for families with children with disabilities. They met with Tucker’s House leaders in person and through videoconferencing to develop marketing, social media and fund-raising strategies for the growing enterprise.
“My specific task was to formulate new fundraising strategies that Tucker’s House can pursue with minimal manpower,” said Ahlberg. “My top recommendation was for them to host a virtual talent show where the kids and families served by Tucker’s House can send in a video and debut a talent, artwork, favorite toy or favorite thing about their room or new addition.
“When we visited one of the construction sites and dove into research, I did not realize how hard it is to properly attain resources in a nonprofit,” she said. “I plan on using this newfound knowledge and strategic thinking in my career as I go forth. Having a greater understanding upfront will allow me to have more success in interactions with nonprofits.”
Utilizing a model that teaches by requiring the students to teach others, the BAM fellows worked to teach Jamaican entrepreneurs best business practices.
Baker plans to initially work in human resources while working to build the skills needed to achieve her long-term goal: to open her own missional business.
Powell’s long-term dream is to become a consultant that helps nonprofits and small businesses to become more sustainable and provide more jobs through good businesses practices, rather than relying on fundraising.
Ahlberg said the Maymester trip to Jamaica spurred her interest to do consultation for entrepreneurs in poor areas of the world, and she plans to be involved in future BAM trips to Jamaica as an alumna, to further Lipscomb’s relationships with entrepreneurs there.
“What employer wouldn’t deeply desire an employee who sees their job as something more than a role to be filled or a paycheck to be earned but truly as a way to serve within the business,” said Touchstone, “to help create meaningful impact, to intrinsically have a strong work ethic, and to do all of that with an attitude of joy? These, and so much more, are the kind of things these students will bring to future employers or to businesses they create.”