This summer, thanks to the gracious contributions from the Dill family and their funding at Wabash College, I was able to intern with the prestigious accelerator non-profit called Endeavor. While Endeavor is a global company, with over 60 branches, I worked in Cape Town for the South African regional team supporting scale-up entrepreneurs across the Southern African region. Launched in 1997, Endeavor is leading the high-impact entrepreneurship movement around the world today. More locally, Endeavor South Africa is committed to driving long-term economic growth and building strong entrepreneurship in growth markets across the country and the continent. This experience changed how I saw entrepreneurship –as a channel and vehicle for high-impact on communities and to create employment and benefit an entire economy and all the stakeholders. My specific role, as a support intern, allowed me to be flexible and work on projects where I could contribute and bring value while also working on new projects to learn and develop new hard and soft skills. Hence, I worked on content writing and project management work to support the Endeavor SA team, while I also gained new skills while assisting with feedback data analysis, internal/external business communications, and strategic networking events. My takeaway from the experience was not only my role and the work I was able to do but being able to sit in on all business meetings with Endeavor entrepreneurs. This gave me opportunities to meet amazing entrepreneurs, introduce myself to important people within the South African start-up ecosystem, and help me decide what fields and industries I might see myself working in for the future. Another takeaway was the networking opportunities set-up by the Endeavor team. I was introduced to people who work in the fields I am interested in and was able to sit down and ask questions and have insightful conversations that helped me reframe how I see my future and the impacts that I want to make. I am very grateful to the Career Services team at Wabash College, including Cassie Hagan and Anthony Mendez, for encouraging me to take this opportunity and assisting me in utilizing the generous scholarship funding from the Dill fund. Wabash Always Fights!
