Our 2008-2009 executive board!

Cecilia, presently a senior at Penn, helped to get the club off the ground in its early stages as vice president, and now as president hopes to establish Penn MFC with a strong following at Penn and as a leader among student microfinance groups. Cecilia is a Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) major and a Classics minor, and studied abroad in Athens, Greece fall semester of her Junior year. Cecilia has interned at the UN, where she began her interest in microfinance, at Women’s World Banking, a global microfinance network based in New York City, and this past summer spent one month in Guatemala pursuing a student program in social entrepreneurship. Cecilia has helped to organize Penn’s first and second undergraduate Microfinance conference, to connect the club to outside microfinance organizations, and to establish ties with similar student organizations and the Penn administration. Cecilia hopes to go abroad to see microfinance in action and to pursue a career in international development. Cecilia is thrilled to be working with such a fantastic board this year!

Andrea is a senior in the Wharton School with concentrations in Finance and Management. She first learned about microfinance as a freshman and was happy to have found a field that combined her interests in philanthropy and business at its core. Consequently, she became involved with Penn MFC two years ago as a part of its first Conference Team and then as the Co-Conference Chair last year. She also analyzed opportunities to provide debt and equity financing to MFIs for a microfinance-focused asset manager as part of a Wharton FAP. One day, she hopes to be able to consult to MFIs.

Jacky is a junior from Hong Kong, China, and is the current treasurer of the club. He is majoring in Philosophy, Politics, Economics at College and concentrating in Finance at Wharton, with minors in East Asian Studies and Mathematics. He is interested in exploring more about the role of microfinance in development. As part of Wharton’s Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) last summer, he has been doing an independent research designing a computer simulation model to study financial sustainability and social impact of microfinance (a preliminary version of the model could be found here. Last year, he also worked with Greg (our webmaster) and Jeffrey (our ex-treasurer) to develop a web portal for student.

Xenia Kolesnikov is the secretary and member of the Penn Microfinance Club. She is originally from Ecuador and Russia but lived most of her life in Chile. She currently is a junior doing an individualize concentration. Xenia loves to meet new people and learn about new things. She joined the microfinance club after working on the Colombian Initiative and after interning for 6 weeks in Bangladesh where she had the chance to see how the microcredit program impacts people's lives. Outside of MFC she is part of the Wharton Leadership Ventures, CAB and MUSE.  In her spare time she enjoys taking pictures, wondering around Philly and cooking for her friends.

Vivian is a Wharton sophomore with intended concentrations in Finance and Marketing.  Vivian became interested in international development during high school when she founded her own nonprofit organization called World In Hands.  Since then, she has done development work in Kenya, Honduras, Tibet, various parts of China and most recently Bali, Indonesia.  During her free time, Vivian likes to cook and doodle with crayons.  

Tyler is a sophomore in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.  He hails from a small rural town in Southern Maryland and became involved in microfinance during his first semester at Penn.  This past summer, Tyler traveled to Bali, Indonesia, with seven other Penn students as part of the Bali Microfinance Initiative.  As education chair, he is in charge of informing the Penn community about microfinance through speaking events.  Tyler enjoys playing piano and tennis and looks forward to exploring the world.

After eight-weeks in India teaching elementary school students English, I realized there might be a more effective means to implement the tools and skills I have learned to help the less fortunate. Pursuing a dual-degree in The Wharton School and The School of Arts & Sciences, has allowed me to take classes that are both quantitative & qualitative. The mix eventually guided me to the topic of microfinance and its ability to use those quantitative skills found in institutional banking and apply them to clients who need credit the most.

Currently, in the Penn Microfinance Club (MFC), I am the internship chair and it is my responsibility to help provide internships as well as guidance to those seeking a summer internship in the field of microfinance. Microfinance has flourished across the globe and consequently there are a myriad of internships available to students that I will hopefully be able to serve to your preferences!

A long with internship chair, I am working on the Colombia Microfinance Initiative (CMI) and Bali Microfinance Initiative (BMI) this year so if there are any questions in regards to specific MFC subgroups or internships in general please contact me at vincelee@sas.upenn.edu.

Ana Maria is a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences with a Philosophy, Politics and Economics major. During the summer of 2007 Ana Maria interned at Grameen Bank in Dhaka, Bangladesh where she oversaw the microcredit management system at the grassroots level (including new group formation, loan proposals, loan disbursements, monitoring, reporting, and accounting systems). In addition, in 2007 Ana Maria also worked with the Philadelphia Development Partnership in the JP Morgan Good Venture Competition to obtain $25,000 to support PDP’s new microfinance e-commerce initiative. Finally, last year Ana Maria completed a Microfinance Field Application course at Penn in which she participated in a consulting project with Small Enterprise Associates to research the marketplace for socially responsible investment in microfinance, particularly program related investments from small foundations.

Julia is a senior in the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, majoring in International Studies and French and concentrating in Finance and Management.  She has been a part of the Microfinance Conference for the past two years and is excited to continue to build awareness through this year's conference.

Coryell Stout, currently a senior, is a Political Science major and African Studies minor. Although she had always possessed a passion for international development, her fascination with microfinance first developed during her junior summer internship at Citigroup. Her semester abroad in Ghana, during which she interned for CARE International in their disaster relief efforts, further propelled her interest in microfinance. This past summer, Corey was finally able to gain first-hand experience in the field of microfinance. Selected as one of the University of Pennsylvania's Global Development Initiative Scholars, she traveled back to Ghana to work for Plan International. Corey spent three months assisting in Plan International's Village Savings and Loan Scheme, a form of microfinance that relies on the mobilized savings of the rural poor group members to distribute loans amongst themselves. She hopes to help the Penn Microfinance Club to expand their activity to Africa, specifically Ghana.

Greg is a senior studying economics and poltical science, and is the current webmaster for the Microfinance Club. He also does layout editing for the Pennsylvia Triangle, a publication of the School of Engineering & Applied Science.