RGK/Ford Fellows to Help Latin American Non-Profits on Community Development

Four Latin American nonprofit and social enterprise organizations are getting help to enhance their community development efforts this summer from 11 students from the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Red McCombs School of Business.

The students are serving as fellows in the Ford Motor Company Social Enterprise program. Working in teams, the Ford Fellows will provide management consulting services to assist executive managers on issues of strategy, marketing, finance, human resources, and sustainability for their organizations.

McCombs students Katharina Dittrich, Yezmin Acle, and Mukund Kumur will be working in La Paz, Bolivia, with the youth services non-profit, Valor Support. They will be assessing Valor Support's financial sustainability.

McCombs students Jeffrey Smythe, Jennifer Chang, and Robert Chow will assess the feasibility of Puente a la Salud Comunitaria, a rural health Non Governmental Organization (NGO) located in Oaxaca, Mexico, opening a small-scale processing plant to develop money and other resources to fund their operations.

Teatro Bolívar Fundación is a Quito-based nonprofit dedicated to preserving the Teatro Bolívar, a historical theater and cultural arts center, which is on the list of the World Monument Fund's 100 most endangered buildings. McCombs student Elissa Perrine and LBJ School students David DeGroot and Taja Beekley will prepare a market analysis for Teatro Bolívar and help to identify the most profitable revenue streams for the organization to pursue.

LBJ School student Moira Foreman will be teaming with McCombs student Erica Zavala to create a market-based business plan for Quito Eterno, a youth and cultural education NGO, located in Quito, Ecuador.

For more information and application instructions for fall 2006 and summer 2007 programs, contact Steven Smith at 512-471-3988 or steven.smith@mail.utexas.edu.

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