Meet Paul Petersen, a third-year student majoring in Business Management at the University of Utah, and learn about his insights and experiences from his participation in the Entrepreneurship and Prosperity Promotion course. Discover how this course, which travels to Ghana over Spring Break each year, has shaped Paul’s academic and personal growth. From consulting for local businesses to experiencing the rich culture of Ghana, Paul’s journey exemplifies the essence of how you can Enter Your Changemaker Era. Be inspired to embark on your own transformative journey.

INTERVIEWER: Tell us a little about yourself.
Paul Petersen (PP): In my freshman year, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I enrolled in a bunch of different classes. None of them were business, though I am a business major now. The one theme that stayed consistent throughout college was music. I’m a music minor, and I play violin in the University Philharmonia. I’ve been doing that since day one here at the University of Utah. I am a Business Management major in the David Eccles School of Business and an Information Systems minor. I’m in my third year, and since I bounced around and have a music minor, I will be here for five years.

INTERVIEWER: What made you decide to take ENTP 58080/6880 Entrepreneurship and Prosperity Promotion?
PP: I first got involved with the Center for Business, Health, and Prosperity through the David Eccles School of Business. I like the idea of making the world a better place using businesses. Later, for a class, I interviewed Dr. Stephen Alder, and he talked about using good business principles to make the world a better place. I thought that was fascinating because that wasn’t something I had even considered. I started seeing examples of that throughout Utah in businesses like Cotopaxi and Patagonia. I got more and more interested in making the world a better place through business. This class was the natural culmination of that desire.

INTERVIEWER: Tell us a little bit about the projects you worked on during the course.
PP: I worked with a group of three others to act as business consultants for a small company called G-Unit. It was a combination of a hotel, bar, nightclub, and conference center; it was a lot. We went into the project, and it was open-ended. It was hard. The open-ended factor forced us to find the problems that needed to be solved instead of a preconceived notion of what we should try to do. Our ultimate objective was to make the business better in whatever way we deemed most necessary. We went in blind and worked our tails off to come up with a couple of good online management strategies. Those were the two main areas we came away with as recommendations. G-Unit is in Somanya, close to Kpong, about twenty minutes away from Ensign Global College campus.

INTERVIEWER: Tell us a little about the prep work you did before heading to Ghana for the business consultation portion of the course.
PP: We had a hard time getting as much information from the owner as we wanted over the phone because of multiple factors such as scheduling due to time differences, etc. We felt like we went in without a clear idea of what we wanted to do. That completely changed when we got there. We hit the ground running. The prep work was more on the pitfalls of consulting, because as I mentioned, our objective was broad and undefined at first, making it easy to make mistakes when consulting. A lot of the prep work focused on making sure that we pointed ourselves in the right direction in the first place so that we didn’t fall into any of the classic consulting pitfalls.

INTERVIEWER: How has this experience impacted your next steps in your academic career?
PP: This experience encouraged me. Ghana is special, relative to other African countries, in that it has turned into a developing country. As a result, there is a lot of growth potential. As everything is still coming from the ground up, you can see that growth. You can see individual business owners through hard work and ingenuity becoming successful; it’s very apparent. Sometimes, it’s harder to see in America because bigger corporations and people are climbing corporate ladders. In Ghana, it is clear when someone has worked their way from the ground up and it’s very organic. That encouraged me because it shows the effect one person can have if they put in hard work and creativity. Everyone in the country was kind, so that was encouraging. I started waving at people, and everyone waved back.

INTERVIEWER: What was the most rewarding portion of the course and the travel?
PP: For the course, I learned a lot about teamwork. Since we went in with so little information, our team specifically had to grind for about three days. I learned a lot about my weaknesses and my abilities. I learned to be a better listener, as well.
For the trip itself, first of all, I learned that exercise does help with jet lag. Second, there is so much to experience, outside of the U.S. It is rewarding to see other cultures and how they define success. It broadened my view, for sure.

INTERVIEWER: Why do you think other students should take part in a Prosperity Science Internship or other courses that have student experiences in West Africa?
PP: Because you both learn new skills and you learn about yourself. I got a lot better at problem-solving and being creative. I was working in a group with three others who all had very different experiences than me, and they all had very valid solutions to our problems. That taught me to recognize that groups are more powerful than individuals. Second, I learned a lot about myself, how much I have to be grateful for, and how far humility can go. Being humble can go a long way.

INTERVIEWER: If there was a student on the fence trying to decide to take this course, what would you tell them?
PP: Dr. Alder is the most friendly and helpful professor I have ever had. A couple of times we went over to his house, and he made us hot dogs. We almost got him to play soccer while in Ghana. He is willing to go above and beyond for you. You can tell he genuinely cares about you, the program, and the people in Ghana.

INTERVIEWER: What was the most fun/exciting highlight of your time in Ghana?
PP: I have two experiences I want to highlight. The first is that we used a huge van to get around, and we had a driver named Ernest. He was a quiet, but kind guy. One day, as we were driving in a village, he just randomly pulled over to the side of the road, stopped, got out, and bought us all coconuts from a street vendor. We cracked them open with a machete and I got to drink fresh coconut milk and eat the meat. It was probably the single most authentic experience I have ever had in my life. Second, a bunch of guys on the trip got together and played soccer. We pulled in other people from around the Ensign Global College campus: construction workers, security guards, and other college students. By the end, we had four or five Ghanaian people playing with us. It was a blast.

INTERVIEWER: Any final thoughts to share with future students?
PP: If you go there wanting to make the world a better place, then that sets you up for the class very nicely. That’s a good mentality to approach the class and life with. If you are trying to make the world a better place, this is the class for you.

If Paul’s experience has inspired you, learn more here and join us for our next trip to Global Prosperity U experience in Ghana.

Read About Other Student Experiences with Prosperity U Global:
Prosperity Science Internship Experiences: An Interview with Dahlia Kraus
A First-Hand Look at the Prosperity U Summer Program