As a businessman, UUP member Chris Scalzo knows a interesting opportunity when he sees one.

As a volunteer, he knows how good it feels to help.

So, when Scalzo, an associate professor of business and entrepreneurship at Morrisville, learned there were not-for-profit organizations that send professors and business professionals overseas to help grow businesses in developing nations, he investigated and offered his assistance.

That was two years ago.

In 2009, Scalzo traveled to Honduras with Winrock International, an Arkansas-based assistance program that sends volunteer experts to help sustain natural resources and increase economic opportunity all over the world.

In Honduras, he spent three weeks working with a consortium of 18 dairy farmers on cost analysis. That project won him the President’s Volunteer Service Award, a notable national honor given by the Obama administration that recognizes contributions volunteers are making in their communities.

KENYAN ADVENTURE

Scalzo was on the move again in summer 2010, heading to Kenya to volunteer his time working with a company called Soy Afric, which makes and sells soy flour and soy meal in Kenya and to the United Nations for emergency food relief programs. This time, he traveled with CNFA, a nonpartisan, non-profit Washington, D.C.-based group dedicated to stimulating international economic growth by nurturing entrepreneurship and private enterprise.

It cost Scalzo nothing but his time to make the trips; airfare, hotel, meals and incidentals were covered by the agencies that sent him. But these weren’t sightseeing trips; in Kenya, Scalzo put in eight-hour days working with Soy Afric executives and department heads during the three weeks he spent there in May.

Before he left, Scalzo spent two months researching soy production and processing, knowing he would need the knowledge once he arrived in Kenya. The factory is located outside of Nairobi.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

“I want to change people’s lives,” said Scalzo. “I can make the world a better place and I can show my own kids and my students that there are opportunities out there in the world, if you look for them. They need to see what’s going on around us. Its companies like these that we’ll be competing with in the next 20 or 30 years.”

Once in Kenya, Scalzo met with department heads to get an idea of how Soy Afric does business and what the company’s goals are. Using his business expertise, Scalzo assessed the information and offered suggestions to redesign the plant’s layout. He also worked to help the company set up a new financial and accounting system.

“This is a company that’s growing and they want to employ people,” he said. “These people want you to help, they want our advice. They’re looking at what we can offer and they will take what you have.”

RETURN TRIP

Scalzo is planning a return trip to Kenya in May 2011 to put a marketing plan into place that will help the company break into new markets; the company is looking at expanding into 10 surrounding countries, including the Congo, Tanzania and Uganda.

He might not be going alone, though. He submitted a U.S. Department of Education grant proposal to cover costs for two Syracuse-area school administrators and a colleague at St. John Fisher College to make the trek.

“Where they are now, that’s where the U.S. was in the 1930s,” said Scalzo of businesses in Kenya and Africa. “You’re looking at a group of people in Kenya who lift and unload 25-pound sacks of soy flour by hand, and these guys run. They’ll close that 80-year gap in 20 to 30 years.”

While Scalzo is disappointed that there wasn’t funding to bring students with him to Kenya or Honduras, his trips will result in some key teaching moments.

“These are real-life scenarios they will run into,” he said. “They can learn so much from these real-life situations.”

Scalzo certainly did. He’s learned a lot about life in Kenya, and the strong work ethic of the people there. Helping Soy Afric grow and succeed was far more rewarding than he ever thought it would be.

“These experiences were incredible,” he said. “I was a person who went with no expectations and got great adventures and experiences.”

—    Michael Lisi