Building a community- I think I’ve shared enough lunches with everyone at reSET to know- this is a community.

During the week of October 21st reSET, the Social Enterprise Trust, had the great pleasure of welcoming Julio Mosquera Stanziola from Panama to join reSET’s staff as part of the Economic Empowerment Exchange Program, funded by the U.S. Department of State and managed by the University of Connecticut’s Global Training and Development Institute. Mosquera Stanziola’s residency at reSET began on Wednesday October 17th with a tour of reSET’s Community Space and an introduction to Social Enterprise an experience shared with 11 other Latin American Fellows from the Economic Empowerment Program.

Born in Panama City, Mosquera Stanziola pursued both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in the United States at the University of Florida and the University of Louisville Kentucky, respectively.

Upon returning to Panama, Mosquera Stanziola worked his way up in the world of Human Resources through an assortment of positions including, faculty member and external Human Resources Director for the University of Louisville at the Panama Campus. He also spent 12 years employed in various capacities from Training and Quality Assurance Manager to VP of Human Resources for Latin America while working contact centers like; Spherion, Client Logic, Citel, and at Dell Computers.

Finally, Mosquera Stanziola transitioned from the corporate work force to entrepreneurship, and joined forces with his father and brother to launch the Human Resources Firm, Grupo Julmos.

During his visit, Mosquera-Stanziola shadowed Michelle Cote, Director of Programs for reSET, and met and talked with the reSET staff, and learned about social enterprise. In turn, Cote will shadow Mosquera-Stanziola in Panama, and then meet in Costa Rica with a group of fifteen Fellows participating in the program to exchange what they have learned.

For reSET Blog readers, here’s a Q&A with Mosquera- Stanziola which talks about his interest in Social Enterprise and the ways in which he wants his partnership with reSET to influence his decision to launch another business that would help nonprofit organizations become sustainable.

MW: How did you become involved with the Economic Empowerment Exchange program?

JS: I saw it on facebook, and then I applied. I started looking into economic empowerment to understand more about the program and realized it was something I was interested in doing. When you look at most nonprofit organizations they are not empowered to make money in any way. I thought this was perfect.

MW: How do you think you can improve the economic stability of nonprofits in Latin America through business?

JS: I wanted to come to reSET to learn and see how other people are solving problems through business. That’s what being here at reSET provides me. I get to learn from you how reSET is shifting the thought process of people, and try to see how I can replicate some of those things.

MW: tell me about your perception coming into the experience vs. how you feel about it now?

JS: My perception changes every day. I didn’t come with tons of expectations so I’m very open-minded about what I am doing here. Every day my thoughts on what I want to do and how I want to do it change because I see new ideas or come to certain realizations of other things and it’s great. I’m learning from individuals and interactions. Looking at and listening to what others are doing and seeing how it applies is a huge learning.

MW: What experiences up until this point do you think you will be able to apply?

JS: The motivation and the spirit it takes to be a social enterprise, I enjoyed learning about reSET’s history, and it how social entrepreneurs are take passion and putting it into action. I know these things, but experiencing them through other people’s experiences is inspiring. I’ve been inspired by you guys and how reSET continues through this vision.

MW: reSET’s mission is to promote preserve and protect social enterprise in Connecticut, would you consider your newest venture a social enterprise?

JS: I want to look at it that way; the main purpose is to empower nonprofit organizations to be self-sustainable, so in a way they become a social enterprise. Sustainable in a way that they aren’t solely dependent on donations and grants, I want them to have access to other revenue streams to help their organization.

MW: Will you tell me about your new project?

JS: The new project is a combination of the 3rd project I work on. I was asked by a TV station to help them with a show called “Heroes for Panama”. The show focuses on nonprofits; I do an assessment of all the organizations asking what they have and what they need. Taking those thoughts I created a training program. In creating that training program I realized there were more needs, so I created other programs to meet those needs. I provide the push they need to organize themselves.

MW: Is that was sparked your interest in Social Enterprise?

JS: Yes, I want to start a nonprofit for nonprofits to help them become self-sustainable, and work on their organizational structures. I aim to create structures that will actually work for them, get them out of their cycle of struggle. I don’t want to see these nonprofits die or struggle until someone gives them money. I want them to feel empowered to take control of their own financial situation.

MW: How do you see HR playing a role in developing the Social Enterprise sector in Latin America?

JS: There isn’t much of a sector currently, for me this is the first time I’ve even learned of social enterprise, and of course because I don’t know it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but I’ve never heard about it before now. I want to do something I am good at, and helping nonprofits is a way I can have true impact.

MW: What do you think some of the major challenges will be?

JS: How do get these nonprofits out of their day-to-day and focus on a strategy to make them successful. They very rarely take the opportunity to sit back and create a strategy. Getting people to be interested and keeping them there to get them to continue with the strategy. That will be the next challenge; these nonprofits have no money already, I need to get them to see the value then I need to get them to pay for it.

After his week shadowing at reSET Mosquera Stanziola reflected on his time at the Social Enterprise Trust:

I have started thinking about ways to help businesses understand how they can be socially meaningful and make a profit at the same time. I want to work with organizations as their incubator partner, which has nothing to do with my original project, which I will continue to work on.

I love the phrase “always challenge your assumptions.” I learned it on day 1 and it really stuck in my head. I think in everything I am doing I will continue to think about it.

Learning:

I learned a lot from reSET, I learned that people flourish when given a sense of accomplishment and a taste of success. It keeps them motivated in a learning program like the Accelerator I liked that participants were not only being encouraged to succeed, but that they are actively succeeding just by putting in the effort to be part of the program. Success isn’t something happens, it’s something that is continuous because it depends on several aspects of an individual, including their personal life. That is one thing I had never really looked at, but after speaking with the entrepreneurs it became apparent that it was something that was important to them.

Building a sense of community- I think I’ve been in enough lunches with reSET staff to know that this is a community, and you have a community, that shows outside of this space. One that people can feed off of the energy, and engage in every day.