Songyue Xu
New York University Abu Dhabi
Through my six-week long internship with King’s College, I worked at Bihani Social Venture to lead an organizational-level project on impact calculation. The past six weeks have been quite fruitful regarding my internship output as well as my personal development. With the support from the faculties in King’s and my dear colleagues from Bihani, I managed to build the first impact calculator model for social enterprises in eldercare in Nepal. This impact calculator will help not only Bihani to better monitor and evaluate its impact footprints, but more importantly, other social enterprise in Nepal to use Bihani’s model as a foundation upon which more localized and context-specific impact calculations could be implemented.
Besides my meaningful internship output, I’d also like to reflect on how my internship experience has helped me develop as a person. More specifically, I want to highlight my learning on social enterprises, project management, and aging as a social issue. Through cross-functional collaboration with my colleagues at Bihani, I have learned how social enterprises like Bihani can operate efficiently and sustainably. I have also practiced my skills in leading a project, especially about time management and the agility to adjust the project plan along the way. Lastly, the multiple field visits to elderly care homes have made me to reflect on the pervasiveness of ageism, and have also made me think about how I would personally approach aging in the future.
I’d like to emphasize how fortunate I feel about having some exposures to the local Nepali culture. I greatly appreciate the amazing Nepali dishes I have had, the friends I have made from King’s College, the night outs in Thamel, the cultural immersions at Pashupatinath and Bhakapur Durbar square, as well as the breath-taking snow peaks in Pokhara. I am immensely grateful for the warm hospitality of my Nepali friend Raunak Shrestha from NYUAD. I felt extremely honored to participate in the wedding ceremony and reception of Raunak’s cousin.
Lastly, I’d like to thank King’s College and BIhani Social Venture, as well as the many people, including Anuj Tiwari, Sumira Shrestha, Santoshi Rana, Prashant Kalauni, and so many other. It has been a memorable summer – Nepal till the next time ☺.
