Updates on the expansion

Sup everybody,

I wanted to go into the Guatemala expansion a little more and tell you who is actually down there trying to make it happen.

On the CES side we have Carrie Magnusson. She is helping us with everything logistics with our UNC team but is also coordinating with my friends in the City.

Now, a little blurb on my friends. There's four of them so I will talk about each according to their university:

Universidad Rafael Landivar: Javier Morales and Julio Barrios. Two of my closest friends in Guatemala. They are both really excited about the idea of having a Nourish at their school. This university is the one I am feeling the most confident about. They actually have a "service philosophy" as the backbone of the university, but it has not been taken too seriously by students, at least from my perspective. I have heard from other sources that they are trying to change their entire approach to teaching and revamp everything, which means that something like Nourish International is right up there alley. Julio is studying International Relations. He has organized a visit to CES with all four of them to meet with Carrie (tomorrow, Feb 26). Javier is just kind of starting school, so I'm not sure what academic path he's going into. He is meeting this Friday (March 2) with a faculty member that is in charge of "University Social Responsibility." We are very excited about this meeting.

Universidad del Valle de Guatemala: Jose Toriello is my brother and is studying Eco-tourism. His university is a little different but for now he is working on visiting Nebaj, the area where our Nourish team will be working, with his class to do a tourism assessment.

Universidad Francsco Marroquin: Alejandro Abril is another close friend and is studying Law. His university has a lot of resources and already has a some similar programs that Nourish could fit well with. Specifically he has expressed interest in the election knowledge of the areas and is considering a visit to educate the local population about the election process considering that Guatemala is electing a new government in November.

They will all meet tomorrow to discuss Social Entrepreneurship and brainstorm about ways that Nourish, CES and their respective universities can collaborate this summer. I can't wait to hear what develops from the meeting.

That's all for now, I'll have some interesting updates by the end of the week.

Peace.