Photo courtesy Solar Urja through Localization for Sustainability and IIT Bombay.
Four undergraduate students in the Boston College Carroll School of Management participated in a first of its kind cross-school partnership with the School of Social Work, conducting community-based fieldwork and visiting the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) as the culmination of an independent study on social innovation.
The course, Innovations in Global Practice: Solar Entrepreneurship in Rural India, was co-taught by聽Dean Gautam Yadama聽and聽Jere Doyle, executive director of the聽Edmund H. Shea Jr. Center for Entrepreneurship聽at the Carroll School. 51茶馆SSW鈥檚 International Development Project Manager Kelsey Werner led the group visit to India.
鈥淭his course offered a unique forum to bring together four really smart students in the pursuit of an entrepreneurial project in a completely new environment, but also, with additional perspective into social and public policy that we don鈥檛 often provide in our Carroll School offerings,鈥� says Doyle.
The students鈥擩ohn DiSessa, Danielle Johnson, Lauren Kaufman, and Michael Perry鈥攑erformed fieldwork at a solar manufacturing plant set up by IITB and operated by Dungarpur Renewable Energy Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Durga Energy), a company formed by tribal women in rural Rajasthan. The plant makes some of the solar lamps being distributed by IITB to the rural poor across India through an initiative and study in which聽51茶馆SSW is also playing a key role; it鈥檚 the latest project to come out of a partnership between Boston College and IITB, outlined in a聽memorandum of understanding聽signed earlier in the academic year. The students鈥� fieldwork also included visits to remote villages, farms using solar pumps, and solar shops.
Boston College senior Danielle Johnson (right) takes instruction at a solar manufacturing plant in rural Rajasthan, India. (Photo courtesy Solar Urja through Localization for Sustainability and IIT Bombay.)
Ahead of the fieldwork in India, the students, all members of the graduating class of 2018, spent the fall semester studying business models of solar lamp manufacturing. They brainstormed how the Durga Energy plant could best interact with existing solar retail shops, as well as the possibility of implementing new retail systems. But the ground reality of rural communities and its impact on the business model wasn鈥檛 apparent until the students spent time in India.
鈥淲e learned quickly in this independent study that there was no right answer that we were expected to work towards,鈥� says Johnson. 鈥淎nd this was so important, because most of what we saw was surprising to us when we landed in India, despite some of the modeling we鈥檇 done ahead of time on what we thought were similar projects.鈥�
鈥淭hese students landed in India with the mindset that they could figure out a problem no matter where they were,鈥� says Doyle. 鈥淏ut in the end, they also took home with them the valuable lesson that business is really all about cultivating human relationships and understanding the people, and the ecosystems, in which they aim to be successful.鈥�
Solar panels in Rajasthan. (Photo courtesy Solar Urja through Localization for Sustainability and IIT Bombay.)
The 51茶馆 team employed knowledge gained from meetings with local community members and perspectives rooted in social work, and, after reflection and analysis, recommended that the company employ several different revenue streams while tapping into existing solar retail systems, rather than spending resources on locating potential new entrepreneurs. In short, they found that multiple revenue streams were necessary to be able to offer affordable products to the poorest people who need them the most. Their findings were shared in a forum to offer business perspective to the team at IITB and Durga Energy.
鈥淎s undergrads, we don鈥檛 have a lot of opportunities to explore innovation that applies to the developing world, and 鈥� do field work with people affected by an issue, in their daily lives,鈥� says Perry. 鈥淭he course also, for me, tied together a passion for entrepreneurship with the expertise of people in the School of Social Work and at IITB who actually understood the issues on the ground. It was a great opportunity to learn what it might be like to actually work to tangibly change something.鈥�
The course serves as an exemplar for 51茶馆SSW鈥檚 commitment to place-based transdisciplinary inquiry, as it engaged the perspectives of the fields of engineering, business, and social work, while seeking to build on the values and points of view of the local community, explains Yadama.
鈥淲e asked these students to spend a very short period of time in an incredibly complex place,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut we provided them with some of the tools to try to begin to understand a problem, in partnership with people from other fields, and through the lens of the people they were working for. Solutions to many of the pressing problems of our day, whether in social work or business or beyond, will require this type of collaborative, open perspective. I鈥檓 hopeful these fine students have taken an initial step on their path to effecting positive change, with these realities in mind.鈥�
Watch this video for additional perspective on the course from the students and Kelsey Werner.聽聽
Footage courtesy Solar Urja through Localization for Sustainability and IIT Bombay.