global reach Africa teaches two Rollins students the lessons of a lifetime.
MBA student makes Tanzania his business SAM BARNS ’11 ’12MBA Major: Critical Media & Cultural Studies MBA specialization: Entrepreneurship & Marketing Hometown: Falmouth, Maine
community projects, and we will work with the people in the village to hand the business over to them. It will be village owned and operated.” Instead of hunting down private capital to build the lodge, Barns has taken the nonprofit route, securing 501(c)(3) status, but with an entrepreneurial twist. “We plan to raise $100,000,” he said. “Charities require constant funding, but we’ll use just this one block of starting funds and then it will begin to generate its own income.” In October, Barns and his future business partner Allison Crocker, who also will graduate from Crummer in April, got their website up and running, ready to take donations. Because they have spent considerable time on service-learning trips in the village of Mkyashi, Barns said they have a strong network of local expertise to help them get the project off the ground. They have put a good-faith deposit down, of sorts, on a parcel of land (by
‘‘I It used to be that a freshly minted MBA could think of only one destination: Wall Street. But soon-to-be Crummer graduate Sam Barns has a plan that’s a world away from investment bankers and bailouts. As soon as he’s official in April, he is going to Tanzania to open an eco-lodge in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. “The name we’re using right now is Tuko Pamoja Mkyashi, but we’ll leave it up to the village to decide what they want to call it,” he said. Barns will leave it to the villagers because it will be their business, designed for local ownership and local benefit. “I was always uncomfortable with the idea of going to some exotic place on vacation and staying in a fancy hotel, knowing that all of the proceeds were going to some foreign company instead of to the village,” he said. “The money generated by the lodge will go into
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was always uncomfortable with the idea of going to some exotic place on vacation and staying in a fancy hotel, knowing that all of the proceeds were going to some foreign company instead of to the village.”
paying tuition for the landowner’s children to attend a good local school) and have plans drawn up for a lodge with five guest huts. They even have a game plan for itineraries, which are anything but standard resort fare: guided hikes to waterfalls, yes, but also lectures by local historians; tours of banana farms, yes, but also taking tea with villagers. “Traditional tourism intentionally removes you from the locals,” Barns said. “But we want to provide that chance for connection—cultural and emotional and economic.” Barns emphasizes that Tuko Pamoja Mkyashi is not a charity. It’s a business with a soul. “My philosophy on service has changed,” he said. “It used to be doing something for somebody. Now it’s doing something with somebody. It’s a lot more dignified to use your education and your resources to help somebody help themselves.” ■ mkyashi.org
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