- Social Innovation Fellowship
Award Year
The Capital Good Fund (CGF) began in 2008 as a student-led initiative with the explicit goal of fighting poverty. It has since grown into a non-profit microfinance institution and has provided loans totaling more than $100,000 to over 70 borrowers and graduated a similar number through its educational workshops. In the coming months, there will be a paradigm shift in CGF’s business model. It will no longer define itself as a“non-profit microlender”; rather, as a “non-profit financial development organization”. Highly trained “Student Fellows” will provide individual financial coaching to CGF’s clients before a loan may be taken out. Over the coming months, I will create and implement CGF’s Student Fellowship Program.
Personal Statement
Whilst volunteering in the Ecuadorian Amazon during a year off before Brown, I witnessed the power that impossibly small levels of investment – both financial and educational – can have on individuals and entire communities. Many enterprise ventures in the region were being made possible only through such small investments or loans from third parties. My travels were the catalyst for an interest in microfinance that I sought to further upon returning home through reading Muhammad Yunus’ books on the subject. This passionate interest, combined with the financial experience obtained through a seven-month internship with Deloitte & Touche prior to my travels, led me to the Capital Good Fund at Brown.