Workshop Day with Local Businesses
Author: Thomas Consolino | Major: International Business | Semester: Summer 2022
Hello y’all! My name is Thomas Consolino, and I am a senior at the University of Arkansas studying International Business. This past summer I took part in an eight-week program called Special Projects with Peacework located in Dangriga, Belize. During the eight-week period, I lived with five other students as well as worked with the Belizean governing body of tourism, a private tourism umbrella organization, and many small businesses around the town in an attempt to improve the tourism industry in Dangriga.
When I first heard about this opportunity from Dr. Amy Farmer, the Faculty Leader in charge of the program, I immediately knew it was something that I needed to be a part of. Because not only did the program allow me to live in foreign country with a culture different than that of the United States, but it also gave me an interesting topic that I needed in order to write my thesis over.
Although the official program began in the middle of May, the process of it all started a few months before leaving for Belize. In January, Dr. Farmer told us that the exact details of the project were unclear, but that it was definitely centered around improving the poor state of the tourism industry in Dangriga. In addition, I did my own research about the Belizean tourism industry and about the country of Belize to see if I could find what problems existed and if there were ways to improve the situation. After doing a good amount of research, it became very apparent to me that one of the major problems was the lack of an online presence of the small businesses and Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA). The businesses and BTIA lacked a lot of important information on Google/Google Maps as well as the use of social networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, and TripAdvisor, as a marketing tool. After this discovery, I immediately began brainstorming ideas that I thought could help the small businesses and the BTIA. What I thought could be most helpful to the small business owners would be workshops about using social media to market their businesses and/or one-on-ones with business owners to help build their online presence.
After many months of preparing and waiting, the day finally came for us to depart to Belize. During the first couple of days of the program, we met with our Belizean boss who set objectives for us to complete during the 8 weeks. As it turns out, two of the objectives were the two ideas I had as solutions that I had come up with prior to arriving in Dangriga. So, it was nice to see that my boss and I shared the same ideas. Then throughout the following seven weeks we carried out the objectives, which consisted of analyzing the online presence of each individual company in Dangriga, riding my bike around town to meet business owners, creating workshops to teach business owners about social media marketing, and much more. Additionally, we would meet with our boss on Zoom or in the office to give weekly reports and go over what we planned on doing the following week. In every meeting that we had with our boss, we always received really positive feedback from her. Although our group sometimes felt like were doing easy tasks or only making small improvements for the business owners, she appreciated every single thing that we did to help the community. Which in turn, made me want to do more.
This trip definitely contributed to my professional development and bettered my skills in the workplace. Even though I had done research prior to the start of the program, I still felt a little lost and confused when I first arrived in Belize. Which I feel is totally normal for someone who is in a new job or foreign country for the first time. Because I did have those feelings of unknowingness, it just meant that I was forced to do lots of adapting to my surroundings, asking questions, and problem-solving to get my work done. Me being able to practice and better these skills definitely made the trip worth it.
After the completion of this project, I will begin to write my Honors Thesis over the eight-week experience. In addition, I only have two more semesters of college left until I graduate. Then it will be time to show the world what I have learned at the University of Arkansas over the past four years. This program was extremely beneficial for my future because it has always been a dream of mine to work and live in a foreign country. And this program gave me a possible glimpse of what my future work life could look like. Although my dream doesn’t take place in Belize, the countries I see myself working in share the same relaxed work environment and mindset that we don’t have in the United States. The experience of living and working in a culture that I wasn’t familiar with, for me, was the greatest thing I got out of this program.