The first sign of being an entrepreneur is wanting to fix something. This is the idea that stood out to me most from our session today with Farah, founder of the Center for Cross Cultural Learning, and one that impacted how my group navigated the entrepreneurship exercise.
Today, our group in collaboration with Moroccan university students was tasked with developing business ideas in small groups. Instead of immediately brainstorming ideas, my group talked about what annoys us and what we find to be inefficient. Answering these questions turned into a conversation about issues we individually face that others face too and gave us a chance to learn about each other’s lives. I was surprised to learn that dorms are usually only available for students whose parents do not work, and if commuter students want to live near campus, rent is expensive. In addition, one girl in my group had an experience where her train from Casablanca to Rabat was delayed two hours on an exam day, but luckily she had given herself enough time to get there. There are also not many part-time opportunities to work and even if you find one, the pay is not sufficient.
Through this conversation, we discovered something we wanted to fix: the lack of accessible housing for Moroccan university students. Working in a group with students from Pitt and the local university was very beneficial because we had both the first-hand perspective on housing challenges at Moroccan public universities and the perspective of what university housing looks like back in Pittsburgh. Talking together and sharing ideas led us to the idea of creating affordable university housing with short-term and long-term options. For the short-term option, students could pay for a room for the night if they had an exam early the next day and wanted to stay on campus. We also thought that the rooms could be rented to tourists when there were not as many students occupying the rooms.
One challenge we ran into was how the business would be established. Would it be a government or university initiative? With the Moroccan students’ insight, we decided the housing would be started and owned by the university.
In addition to housing, our group further discussed the possibility of dining halls, other facilities, and car rentals to help students get around the city. Continuing to think about how we could add to our business reflects the concept Farah mentioned of an entrepreneur’s mind never stopping, rather always thinking about how they can make their business better and add value.
Ultimately, each group today proved that background does not matter and that starting small even when you do not have the resources is okay, two things Farah mentioned. My favorite part of this activity was getting to know my team members through working together as well as applying my learning. I also learned just how much diversity can help a team thrive.