In a family-owned kiosk in rural Panama, Penn State student Shealyn Williamson shows kiosk owner Maximino Opua how to organize his inventory of dried goods and keep better track of sales. She then steps back to let him execute his newly learned skills.
Williamson and 17 other Penn State students, including three in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, spent their spring break helping Opua and several other small business owners in the village of Arimae strengthen their financial literacy and business skills. They traveled with the Business and Microfinance chapters of Global Brigades, a nonprofit volunteer organization that seeks to empower communities to meet economic and health goals.
“It was a challenge at first because there was a language barrier because Arimae is a Spanish-speaking village. As we worked through it, though, Maximino appreciated the hands-on learning approach. By the end, he was saying to us, ‘Oh, I see this really working for me.’ It was amazing experience,” said Williamson, an energy business and finance student in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
Residents of Arimae recently created their own community-owned bank to assist local businesses, which are primarily farming and agriculture related. This spring break trip provided the Penn State students — whose majors ranged from petroleum and natural gas engineering and energy and business finance to supply chain management and finance — with an opportunity to empower the community with ways to improve their businesses and livelihoods.
Mornings were spent teaching the basics of financial literacy — how to get a loan, why building credit is important and ways to handle debt issues — and afternoons were spent interviewing business owners to identify solutions to business-related issues they faced. The students’ goal was to develop longterm solutions that the business owners could put into place and maintain after students returned to the United States.
“My accounting course work was a tremendous help,” said Nathan Huang, an energy business and finance student, who worked with the treasurer of Arimae’s community-owned bank. “After interviewing our client, Saura, we learned that one of her challenges was keeping clear sales records. So, we developed very simple accounting sheets for her to keep track of expenses, income and sales.”
Bridging language and cultural barriers was a challenge, but with the help of translators, students were able to develop connections with their clients.
“When we were interviewing business owners to learn about their difficulties, it was hard because we didn’t speak Spanish, and also because there was a lack of trust us at first. But we talked about ourselves and asked about our clients — our families and what we do for fun, for example—and sharing those stories helped build trust,” said Huang.
This close interaction with residents broadened the Penn State students’ perspective, which will ultimately help them in their careers, said Huang.
“We not only were able to teach, but we learned so much during the trip,” he said. “We as Penn Staters need global experiences to see the world and to be successful in our careers.”