Where Yacine is from

Geneva, Switzerland

 

Who Yacine is

Yacine is strong enough to have her own opinions no matter who she talks to. That is completely the opposite of me so I think that is good for her and that is the reason I respect her as well. If she hates something, she can say “I hate it.” I still remember when we had the first team meeting. Yacine and I were teammates in the first team at Hult. We had not met each other before the first meeting so it started with, “nice to meet you.” Then, one member suggested that we wore the same colored clothes whenever we gave presentations in classes. I thought it was an interesting idea but wasn’t saying either Yes or No. However, Yacine clearly disagreed with the idea.  At other times she happily says,“that’s a good idea!” when others shared their thoughts about another topic. I thought it was great! Yacine is the one who has her own standards to judge anything, so she can say ‘good’ or ’bad.’ I am not saying that Yacine is always right, but it is true that nothing is wrong. I am saying that she believes in herself enough to convince others.

Yacine is a good observer too. Whenever I talk to her about our classmates, I notice that she knows not only who they are, but also how they look and which mood they are in that day. I think she knows how to grab the essence of things. For example, a story that Yacine shared with us during one class still stays in my head. It was a story about a village. In the village, women go to the lake to scoop water every day but the round trip takes 2 hours. One guy thought it was horrible so he built a train system between the village to the lake to make it easier. However, the women got mad at the system because the system took their precious time. The 2 hour commute was the only time that the women could have conversations with each other and share everything with each other. It was an example demonstrating that people should help others in ways that the others want or need, not in ways that you think are the best. The story is still a profound lesson for me, and for all social entrepreneurs.

Oh, Yacine is such a fun person! I cannot count how many time we hung out and had fun at  a party or clubs until we got drunk.

 

Awesome Episode

The RV trip that Yacine and I went on with other classmates of ours Oli, Anissa, Thom, Marysia, Teresa, Alexander — during Thanksgiving last year was epic!! BBQ, grocery, Thanksgiving dinner, watching an American football game, movie night, drink, party, etc. Pictures will tell you more so I will put photos.

 

The Power of MSE

What Yacine 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 Yacine 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!!