SEED Student Profile: Kevin Rotsaert
Students at the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development are both enterprising and empathetic, qualities we like to encourage here. Whether the class is about social entrepreneurship or ecological economics, the lesson at the end is that success can't be measured in dollars.
Kevin Rotsaert is one student that gets this philosophy. Kevin is an Environment and Business student with ambitions to start a business. He also has a passion for international development, derived from numerous volunteer experiences abroad and a lifetime of moving around the globe (his father is an airline executive).
In his mind, these two passions do not have to be mutually exclusive:
"For years I have wanted only to pursue international development but quickly realized through my travels and volunteer experiences that there was always one main barrier to development and assistance: [access to] capital. With that in mind, I decided to pursue my business ambitions as a means of one day having enough capital to effectively generate unrestricted change."
In the meantime, Kevin is organizing a trip to Guatemala next May where he and a group of 20-30 UWaterloo students will build six new classrooms. The project will contribute to the growth of a school that is achieving 100% literacy in an area where fewer than 55% of the local population can read and write. If you are interested in joining the trip, contact Kevin for details.
Are you blending business with benevolence? Tweet us using the hashtag #goodbizUW: