Where Tchonte is from

Abidjan, Lagunes Region, Cote d’Ivoire

 

Interview

What was your dream when you were a kid? What was the reason?

As a kid I wanted to be a doctor. I dreamt about building two hospitals, one for the rich people and another one for the underprivileged. I wanted to be able to help the one less fortunate who couldn’t have access to better health services.

 

What was your dream when you were 18 years old? What was the reason?

At 18 years old, I was a bit lost. I started a bachelor in Finance without a specific dream in mind. However I loved writing, so I thought maybe one day I would become a writer.

 

What made you start thinking about social entrepreneurship/social enterprises? When was that?

I started to think about social entrepreneurship in 2014. I used to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. I loved the smile on the people receiving their houses. I discovered Tony Meloto on Facebook and his work in Philippines with Gawad Kalinga. I also randomly met people who worked in social enterprises to improve things in Africa. It made me realize that we could use business for social benefit.

 

How much do you think social entrepreneurs play an important role in the world?

I cannot estimate the current impact of social entrepreneurs in the world. However I believe we can do much more than what is currently being done. How role is to show that we don’t need to wait for external help. We can be the change we want to see as Gandhi said. We can start working and lead others toward a revolution.

 

What would you say to future social entrepreneurs / those who are interested in social entrepreneurs?

I would say if you don’t do it, then who will? Just start.

 

What is your favorite quote? Who said that quote?

My professor of Women in Leadership during the last module told me “You have a powerful voice, used it”

This will probably be my favorite quote forever because now I always use it as a reminder to act and say what I think.

 

Who Tchonte is

Tchonte is a powerful tackler (sometimes even physically). She believes in herself and she delivers each word with strong willpower. In fact, she is a great speaker, presenter and debater, showing her strong will and beliefs. Once, she was been chosen as the greatest speaker at a Toastmaster competition at Hult San Francisco campus. ne of my classmates even said once, “I don’t want to debate against Tchonte.” It describes her well.

Tchonte loves books, reading a lot, tweeting about books that she read and posting on Facebook. On her blog she writes about books and even recently started filming herself in videos to talk about those books.

Tchonte was not only my teammate in my third team at Hult but also my club mate at Unicef at Hult, so I know what she is passionate about: education. It makes sense, right? I believe that the reason why she loves reading books comes from this passion. Tchonte loves learning and also cares about giving the opportunity of learning to others, especially kids.

 

Awesome Episode

I think you already figured out the strength of Tchonte, but she is actually a lovely person as well. She comes and hits me, tackles me and teases me. She loves taking photos so I cannot count how many selfies with me she has taken.

Tchonte’s favorite thing to do is comb down my hair. She said that she likes to do it because my hair feels soft (actually my hair is far from soft). When I put gel in it, she gets mad. Lol.

Then, Tchonte wrote about me. Do you want to check it out? It was an honor for me. Merci, Tchonte!

http://leschroniquesdetchonte.com/keisuke-and-the-business-of-changing-the-world

 

The Power of MSE

What Tchonte is holding is a symbol called “go-en(ご縁)”, which means ‘fate’, ’destiny’ and ’special tie.’

I believe that it is meant to be that we met in San Francisco! I studied Social Entrepreneurship with Tchonte for a year, saying “We will make the world a better place.” I would love to spend the rest of my life with MSEs (Master of Social Entrepreneurship; my classmates) until the very day I die. They have already completely changed my life.

At the same time, however, I also think that we should not be together all the time, because that is not the reason why we learned Social Entrepreneurship. That is not how we will deliver the impact we want to give to society and to the world.

I think MSEs are like dandelions. We were seeded at the first day at Hult and we bloomed on our graduation day. Our mission is that we spread all over the world like dandelions and seed the future, the next generation, from each place where each of us has landed.

本当にありがとう(Honto ni Arigato-); Thank you very very much for everything!! The world needs you! Let’s make the world a better place together!!