De-Bug Provided Us with a lot of Insight about Economic and Racial Issues Small Businesses May Be Facing
This week in the Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative Program, our class went on a fieldtrip to local non-profit, Silicon Valley DeBug. For those of you who don’t know, the Neighborhood Prosperity Initiative Program or NPI is a class created for Business students to help get involved in the San Jose area through helping out struggling small businesses. In addition to working directly with the businesses, we, as students, get the opportunity to hear a number of business and non-profit professionals lecture us on the San Jose economy and community in general. This week, we listened to the employees of DeBug, which is a community organizing, advocacy and multimedia storytelling organization, speak to us about the origin of their organization. Additionally, we received a tour of their headquarters, which allowed us to get a better understanding of all that they do both within San Jose and on a national level. Personally, I found the visit extremely eye opening. I thought it was really cool how most of the employees were originally helped by the organization themselves. Additionally, I thought that it was cool to hear that they are starting to make an impact on a national level. All in all, I thought it was a positive visit for my class as a whole and provided us with a lot of insight about economic and racial issues small businesses may be facing.
In addition, to visiting DeBug we have all been making major headway with our companies over the last few weeks. As the school year begins to wrap up its crucial for us to start implementing all of the changes we want to make and using the grant money we have received to help them. Personally, my team is working with flower shop, Juanita’s Flowers. This week we have worked with them to create an official business plan and, on top of that, have worked with local high schools to coordinate corsage and boutonniere orders. These next couple weeks I hope to continue making changes to Juanita’s and fully take advantage of all the speakers lined up for the rest of the quarter.