Service Learning Initiative: Thailand and Cambodia Trip : Center for Social Innovation (CSI)

Innovations in Human and Economic Development

Spring break

Trip Description
From Past Trips

What are the optimal approaches to poverty alleviation, economic development, reduction of inequality, and the development of human capabilities and freedoms?

To help explore these questions, our trip to Thailand and Cambodia offers perspectives on poverty and economic and human development. It introduces innovative models and provides insight into the interrelated issues of labor, gender, human trafficking, and public health.

Journeying from Cambodia to rural Thailand and then to Bangkok, you observe two countries’ varied approaches to similar problems, sheding light on the complexities facing social entrepreneurs working to make a lasting impact in this region.

Trip highlights

Meet with the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), and learn about its approaches to rural development and social enterprise.
Meet with social entrepreneurs pioneering effective nonprofit, private, and public sector models for social impact.
Visit Better Factories Cambodia to understand labor issues in the garment industry.
See Angkor Wat, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the many wonderful places that demonstrate the deep history and varied architecture of South East Asia.

About our partnership with the Population and Community Development Association (PDA)

PDA was founded in 1974 by Mechai Viravaidya to provide family planning education to rural Thai women. PDA is known for its holistic approach to health and economic development, and was honored for its success with the Gates Award for Global Health in 2007.

We have partnered with PDA since 2007 to provide students with firsthand exposure to the challenges of human and economic development.

Stanford GSB students contributed to PDA’s Barefoot MBA program by creating teaching modules to provide basic business education to aspiring entrepreneurs. These modules have been successfully adapted by PDA to the context of rural Thailand and are now available as a toolkit—the Barefoot MBA Curriculum—for microfinance institutions around the world who want to help microbusinesses get off the ground.

Faculty Advisor

Jesper B. Sørensen
Robert A. and Elizabeth R. Jeffe Professor of Organizational Behavior

What did we learn during past trips?

	2010 With Carole Robin, a lecturer in organizational behavior at the GSB serving as trip advisor, students explore sex trafficking and economic development issues. Human Capital and Economic Development: Taking No as a Question The Stanford Business Reporter by Craig Porter, MBA Class of 2011
	2009 With Myra Strober, Professor Emerita with a focus on gender issues at work and women in management, students explored the use of innovative models in urban and rural development and how they can create economic and educational opportunity.
	2008 With JD Schramm, a Senior Lecturer in Management at the GSB specializing in management communication, as trip advisor, students explore sex trafficking and economic development issues. Students create the Barefoot MBA curriculum for rural aspiring entrepreneurs
	2007 On the inaugural trip, students were accompanied by social entrepreneur and Stanford lecturer in management, Rick Aubry.

“We were encouraged by the type of questions [the students] were asking and also by their openness to learn about our organizations and the issues facing Cambodia. The faculty contributed to this positive experience by engaging fully and showing compassion for the issues we face.”
-Helen Sworn, Chab Dai (Holding Hands) Coalition

Center for Social Innovation

More content

Follow us :