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The International Business Development Internship
Leadership Initiatives is working to end extreme poverty in Northern Nigeria through entrepreneurship and innovation. As part of the International Business & Development Program, Leadership Initiatives identifies small business owners who live under $1.90 a day, have little formal business education, and are struggling to provide for their family’s basic needs.
Once business owners have completed training, Leadership Initiatives pairs International Business & Development Interns with a business partner and business mentor. Interns are given the opportunity to help tackle major issues at the grassroots level by working directly with small business owners to support and incubate local entrepreneurs. Students will work with Leadership Initiatives staff over the course of nine months to provide income-generating solutions that focus on food supply, women empowerment, environment and sustainability, personal care, and mobility.
The International Business & Development Internship aims to introduce interns to the complexities and challenges of running a small business and working within community development. Interns will gain an understanding of the unwavering commitment, focus, and determination required to work within this field. From working with interns, local business owners will have new knowledge of entrepreneurial skills they need to create business opportunities that will contribute to socio-economic development and significantly transform their lives.
Our Internship Team
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Megana Madhurakavi
Robbinsville High School
Class of 2026
Megana Madhurakavi is a freshman in High School. She is a curious student who always takes any opportunity in her path.
Megana is the co-founder of an organization which educates children by teaching them real-life morals which they can interpret through stories. She won the title of Global Youth Ambassador of SDG & Carbon Neutrality Activity presented by the United Nations and UNIDO, and she has won many national dance competitions for the Indian classical dance, Kuchipudi.
Megana is excited to be a part of the International Business Development Internship as she loves putting her ideas together to make an impact. Megana wants to acquire many crucial skills here, and use them to further develop her future.
Genevie Hong
Mark Keppel High School
Class of 2023
Genevie is a senior at Mark Keppel High School. She is an athlete, leader, and scholar who takes both Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment courses.
At school, Genevie was involved in several sports including Cross Country, Waterpolo, Track & Field, and Tennis. She holds several leadership positions such as being the Interpretive Speech Captain of her Speech and Debate Team, historian for FBLA, Secretary for a coding club called KeppelHacks, and President of her school's UNA-USA club. During her free time, Genevie enjoys being in outdoors, hiking or biking.
Genevie is so excited to be participating in the International Business & Development Internship this year. She's ready to broaden her soft and hard skills, learn more about the business field, and aspires to one day start her own non-profit.
Crystal Ojiako
Jordan High School
Class of 2025
Crystal Ojiako, a 15-year-old Nigerian-American junior at Jordan High School in Fulshear, Texas, Growing up with immigrant parents and even immigrating to the United States at the age of seven, as well as travelling extensively outside of immigration due to the nature of her parents' jobs, taught Crystal that the world is a place full of injustice and inequity.
However, she also learned about the importance of community from watching her parents connect with various neighbours and give back in any way that they can, which has inspired her to work on skills such as writing, coding, organisation, and passions in cultural diversity, and learning in order to make an impact through leadership as the Marketing Director at The Front: Public Health, a non-profit that works to educate society on ways of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health as a community, and as the Outreach Manager of SEDY, which works to provide low-income residents with educational resources such as books and DVD, research as she frequently completes projects for organisations such as MedSight and the Justice for Education Project, and she contributes to Verste, a nonprofit dedicated to making research more accessible by creating simplified research papers, in addition to doing independent projects in fields such as dermatology and immunology, and friendship as she is a member of the Model United Nations, Quizbowl, and Around the World clubs at her school.
Our Business Partner
Isah Sani
Business Statistics
Isah was inspired through a friend and his father who worked in Cobbling. He saw that his friends were able to care for themselves and their family, so he wanted to be able to do the same.
Isah started as an apprentice and had 5 years of experience, then started his own business.
Isah Sani
About Isah
Through this business, Isah has been able to purchase a bike and build his own room and parlor safe container.
Isah hopes his cobbling business will employ more people from his community to give them an opportunity to make their own money and break the cycle of poverty. In turn, Isah hopes to expand his experience and get more educated.
Isah Sani
Community Impact
Isah Sani
Our Partnership
Our Approach
FINANCIAL TRACKING
Financially literate entrepreneurs make growth-oriented financial and economic decisions for their savings, borrowing, and investments. Our team is working with Isiyaka Sa’ad to create an effective financial tracking system for his business finances, receipts, and daily costs.
OUR ADVERTISING
Our team identified target markets and key demographics to create a customer acquisition plan. We are working with Isiyaka Sa’ad to redesign his brand and create effective marketing campaigns.
BUSINESS IMPROVEMENTS
Steady growth is a critical component of creating self-sustaining communities. Our team is working to identify key areas of opportunity for Isiyaka Sa’ad and design solutions with grant money to improve his business to foster growth.
Our Fundraising
$624 RAISED
$126 NEEDED
$750 GOAL
Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced some of the highest growth rates globally over the past 10 years. While this means that people in these nations have become more optimistic about their social and economic future, the region continues to face a myriad of historical problems. In order to continue steady growth and achieve a future of equitable conditions in the region, our International Internship Program team seeks to build stronger communities from the grassroots level through fundraising for community development.
Funds raised are used to implement community-based education programs, pay staff to run the operations on-site, and invest in training for local leaders. Leadership Initiatives uses fundraised money to develop a network of support for actionable change and accountability between our team, the Leadership Initiatives staff, and the community stakeholders we work with.
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