A group explores social impact in Costa Rica and Ecuador
Nayna Anwar is a marketing professional for healthcare firm Humana and a student in the Kellogg Evening & Weekend MBA Program. She recently traveled to Costa Rica and Ecuador to study sustainable ventures as part of the Global Initiatives in Management, which is open to both full-time and part-time students. Get to know Nayna and why she says GIM helped her solidify her plans for after graduation.
I joined the Evening & Weekend MBA Program in 2022, and, for me, the international trips were a big selling point. They involve traveling in a way that you don’t do when traveling for fun. You focus not only on the culture of a place but also its business and education systems — the most integral parts of society.
Visiting Costa Rica and Ecuador almost felt like a more structured study abroad. We also got to travel with Full-Time MBA and Executive MBA students, which I appreciated as a part-time student. EMBA students tend to be separate and have their own campuses, and I loved getting to interact with them and further my network.
Combining international travel with sustainability and social impact married many of my interests. Professor Megan Kashner (lecturer in the Social Impact Program and director of social impact) was amazing. The biggest surprise was the level of company leaders and politicians that we got to meet with in the two countries. We visited Ecuador’s National Assembly, met with Nestlé Ecuador’s manager of sustainability and toured a variety of businesses that are making sustainability a priority.
We were divided into teams, and each group was responsible for a project deliverable after returning from the trip. Ours was around sustainable fashion, and we focused on a beachwear company in Ecuador. As part of the trip, we had to do our own research and schedule meetings within the industry we selected. At first it was really daunting to make connections, but it pushes you out of your comfort zone in a way that was great.
The experience made working in sustainability and social impact more attainable for us. It wasn’t greenwashing — we were able to work with the company and dig into the beachwear brand’s sustainability and impact. We did a lot of the heavy lifting when we were abroad. Once back home, we presented our consulting project to the clients and professors. It was nice to have camaraderie among our team members.
The organizers were really proactive and scheduled so many social events. There was a six-course meal, a lot of hiking, taking the teleferico cable car in Quito, hiking in the national forest in Costa Rica and exploring waterfalls. We really bonded because of all the shared experiences. I also formed a lot of my business school friendships on this trip.
The trip also changed my life in a way that I didn’t anticipate: It helped me realize what I truly want to do long term. I'm in the discovery phase of starting a sustainable garment factory back home in Bangladesh, which is one of the biggest producers of clothes. I want to focus on not only producing sustainable fabric, but also creating an infrastructure for the workers that addresses the gap of social inequity that women, who are the biggest percentage of factory workers in Bangladesh, face in their careers. I have been doing a lot of research and am currently working on the business plan. Luckily, I have built a great network at Kellogg, and have been receiving great feedback. I can definitively say that my GIM trip changed my life, and I am so excited about what is next.
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