Where are you from and what did you do before coming to Goldsmiths?
I’m Irish, but I grew up in the US. I studied Development at the University of East Anglia. After graduating I worked for a social Enterprise in Swaziland called Tintsaba Craft. We worked with rural weavers and exported their products overseas to Fairtrade buyers. I was in charge of business development as well as the management of literacy and education projects, which I started.
Why did you chose social entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths?
After studying development and working in Swaziland I felt the old models of aid weren’t working and that social entrepreneurship is a more sustainable model for addressing social failures, especially in the developing world. In Swaziland there aren’t many alternative views on how to develop poverty reduction strategies, so I wanted to equip myself with the knowledge and ability to bring new thinking to Swaziland. I also wanted to return to London to build my networks in Social Entrepreneurship in the UK and be part of a dynamic environment. Goldsmiths social entrepreneurship is at the centre of the UK scene so it seemed like a natural choice.
Why Goldsmiths?
I really liked the fact that Goldsmiths is well known for its creativity and felt that being part of that environment would be an added value while studying social enterprise. Especially because I’m interested in artisan based enterprise the last organisation I worked with was very creative in nature.
What have you enjoyed about the course?
Firstly, I love being part of a diverse learning environment with so many different views and life experiences. So many of my classmates have real social enterprise experience and bring that wealth of knowledge to the program. Secondly, I’ve really enjoyed the entrepreneurial modelling class because it’s given me some hard skills in business planning that I can use in future roles. And thirdly we’ve had the space to develop our theoretical and conceptual understanding of social enterprise and social innovation.
The Golden Angle 