Junior Luke Swallow solves small Nigerian business problems

By Megan Sullivan

Assistant Circulation Editor

Mira Costa junior Luke Swallow sends his efforts overseas in order to help Nigerian small businesses brainstorm solutions to problems they may face.

Swallow participated in the International Business Alliance Program over the summer, which is run by a non-profit called Leadership Initiatives. The IBAP pairs students with businesses in underdeveloped countries, and they are then responsible for projecting a business plan for their assigned companies. At the end of the program, students compete for an internship to aid small foreign businesses through Leadership Initiatives, which Swallow won, leaving him with the internship.

“During the camp, I got a look at what the interns would do and be like,” Swallow said. “I also got to compete for the position with my peers. It was great insight into what the next few years will be like as I work alongside this program.”

Link: The International Business Alliance Program is run by Leadership Initiatives and chooses a new group of students to work with struggling businesses each year.

Swallow is paired with a welding shop in Nigeria and is currently working with the store owner, Hamza, to come up with solutions for issues that Hamza is facing within his business. Some of these problems include advertising and collecting materials for his store. He works directly with Hamza over Skype and email through which they talk at least once a week.

“I work pretty closely with Hamza, and we speak fairly regularly,” Swallow said. “I know the names of his family members and have gotten to interact with them too. It is really rewarding to know the person that I am helping while also creating a lasting relationship with him.”

Although the camp was in July, the internship will last for the next two years. The amount of time he spends working for the business varies depending on the intensity of each problem that arises. One problem that Swallow encountered was the six-hour round trip Hamza faces to get materials for his shop. He also had a hard time organizing ways to advertise. Swallow helped Hamza figure out a way to coordinate with other local businesses by splitting up the trips and only commuting once a week to get supplies in order to make the business thrive at its highest ability.

“Each problem Hamza brings requires a different amount of focus and attention,” Swallow said. “For example, it took a lot of thought to figure out how to get the other local businesses to work together to help each other advertise, but now we have developed a great system for promoting both Hamza’s and their own businesses.”

Part of the internship requires Swallow to form a team of students in the South Bay to help him develop more solutions for the given problems. He chose his team based on the new ideas that he hoped each person would be able to contribute to the project. Swallow’s team includes juniors Kade Barr, Chandler Coate, Toby Kamish, Alena Lakha and Ian Lockwood.

Photos: Swallow and his team prepare business solutions for a company in Nigeria

“I am glad that I have the opportunity to better a community other than my own,” Barr said. “This program is going to give me great experience with business and with helping others.”

Swallow said that although the culture and language barrier can be daunting at times, the entire experience is extremely helpful to him and will help him to succeed in his future. The problems that he faces require him to apply his knowledge of every aspect of his daily life in order for him to create helpful and clever solutions that might help him later on through his work in communications and business.

“There is a cultural barrier between me and Hamza, which makes identifying the problem hard, but I am starting to familiarize myself with the skills of running a business,” Swallow said. “It is really cool to use everything I know and use it to make a difference.”

Link: Swallow and his team keep a monthly journal that has updates about their business plan.

Swallow plans to continue working in the field of international relations throughout college, and when he graduates, he hopes to do something with international business; however, he has not yet figured out the specifics.

“This internship is my opportunity to get a feel for the field and see how I would want to pursue it,” Swallow said. “It will give me the experience necessary to see if this would be something I like doing.”