Upon graduation, Lisa Backstrom (Marketing '04) accepted the invitation to work with the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, West Africa. With running water and electricity unavailable, it was clear that Lisa’s mission would not be easy. Lisa took on the challenge and spent the next two and a half years as a Small Enterprise Development volunteer, making a major impact on businesses and organizations throughout that area.
“Throughout the majority of my service, I lived in a small village in the southwest of the country. There I worked with multiple women’s groups on projects including microfinance groups, small business training/resource fairs, and small business creation.”
Lisa also spent time in Ouagadougou, Burkina’s capital city working with two international art organizations. While with these organizations, she used the business skills she acquired at UNI to improve the process of ordering and pricing products, implementing a system of production management including quality and inventory control, managing the logistics of orders from western buyers, and better managing customer relationships.
Lisa finished her Peace Corps service in December of 2006 and is now back in the United States. Since arriving home, Lisa has come to realize how important her UNIBusiness education has been in her success as a volunteer.
With a minor in French, Lisa had an advantage over other volunteers as she could immediately communicate and assist them in their needs, but it was her marketing and business knowledge that gave her the foundation to carry out her projects.
“It helped me to understand accounting practices well enough to explain its most basic levels to my village microcredit groups. It aided me in developing content of various business trainings that I organized for villagers and future volunteers that I was asked to train. It additionally helped me to spot the problem areas of the art organizations with which I worked, allowing me to understand ways in which we could improve their products and services in order to make them more competitive.”
As a student, Lisa had obtained a Certificate in International Business and she feels this, along with her French and marketing expertise, helped her to understand the intricacies involved in doing business cross-culturally.
Lisa hopes to continue to work in international development with an organization in Washington, D.C. "I have no doubt that my education from UNI and my service with the Peace Corps will continue to service me welll as I move onto this next phase."
Updated 25-Oct-07
