Editor’s Note: The following information was provided by the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Seven business students from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater traveled more than 7,000 miles to New Delhi, India in February 2023; deepening their organization’s commitment to a project impacting 400,000+ lives. A video of their experience will premier, along with a student discussion panel, on Tuesday, April 4, 2023. The event begins at 5 p.m. and is open to the public: Hyland Hall, room 2307, on the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus in Whitewater WI.
Shown left to right: Alan Braatz, Grayden Gruchow, Emma Agricola, Dakota Fiebranz (Dakotagraph), Kate Richmond, Lydia Coatney, Hayley Anne Potter, Arnish Gupta and Margaret Wolfgram (Combat Blindness International).
The student group is from the College of Business and Economics chapter of Enactus. Enactus is devoted to creating socially conscious CEOs. There are more than 1,700 chapters in thirty-six countries using the positive power of business to improve the quality of life and standard of living for people in need. The UW-Whitewater Enactus chapter earned a National Championship for their program called Project Aadya in 2021.
Project Aadya focuses on training young women in the poorest communities of northern India to perform free, in-home vision screenings in an area with one of the highest rates of preventable blindness and visual impairment in the world. The women are trained by Dr. Shroffs Charity Eye Hospital in Delhi. The project is funded by Combat Blindness International, Madison. And the strategy and process are refined by the UW-Whitewater student team.
Dr. Choton Basu, a professor at UW-Whitewater’s College of Business and Economics and the faculty advisor for the Enactus group, said, “Project Aadya is important because it provides free and low-cost eye care to hundreds of thousands of people. More, the program provides a living wage to impoverished young women whose future prospects would have otherwise been very limited. The women become vision screeners as well as leaders in their villages. It provides them with job skills and a clear career pathway, but it also changes their communities. When you educate and empower a woman, she is able to financially support her family, demonstrate the power of education, recruit more women, and have compounded direct impact on her village. These are areas where the average income for women hovers around $2 a day. Project Aadya helps to change that—and provides the health benefit.”
“It is not only the Indian screeners who are impacted,” continues Basu. “The Whitewater Enactus students were also affected. They had the opportunity to travel to Delhi, India’s capital. But they also visited rural villages witnessing first-hand how plans made on Whitewater’s campus are literally changing lives. They learn that their college education, their career choices, can change lives around the world. At UWW we take pride in having our students apply their learning. It is about “doing” and having an impact on the world.”
High-impact practices are stressed at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Dean Paul Ambrose says, “A business degree is a milestone and is certainly something to celebrate. But an enhanced college experience elevates the power of owning and applying knowledge. Students who participate in co-curricular activities outside the classroom while at the College of Business and Economics (CoBE) or in internships or travel study programs graduate with a different outlook. They demonstrate a superior mastery of knowledge and skills and are more valuable to their future employers. That is why all classes at CoBE are taught by our faculty and staff—not teaching assistants or other cost-saving resources.” Ambrose continues, “We are Wisconsin’s largest business school for a reason. We have specialized faculty and staff with real-world experience to make classes engaging, dozens of championship-winning student organizations, and ample opportunity to foster relationships between students and our business partners. At CoBE, we offer more than a degree. We offer students the opportunity to have experiences that permanently impact their lives.”
About:
Combat Blindness International is a non-profit organization in Madison, Wisconsin. Their mission is to eliminate preventable blindness worldwide by providing sustainable, equitable solutions for sight through partnerships and innovation. Learn more at combatblindness.org.
Dr. Shroff Charity Eye Hospital was established in 1914 and is one of the oldest and largest eye care institutions in India. Learn more at www.sceh.net/
Enactus is a network of leaders committed to using business as a catalyst for positive social and environmental impact. They educate, inspire, and support young people to use innovation and entrepreneurship to solve the world’s biggest problems. Learn more at enactus.org
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater College of Business and Economics (CoBE) is Wisconsin’s largest business college. It is home to the top-ranked, single-school, online Masters of Business Administration (MBA) program in the state, graduate and undergraduate business programs, and business programs for military and veterans. It is also the only college in Wisconsin that offers an AACSB-accredited Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) degree program. CoBE is in the top 2% of the world’s business schools having earned both AACSB and AACSB Accounting Accreditation. For more information on the College of Business and Economics, visit uww.edu/cobe or email cobe@uww.edu.
