When you are only one person, trying to change the world can seem like a huge struggle.
But if you keep going and don’t give up, you could greatly impact it for the better. Amazingly, we can learn that this is possible not only from our lives, but also the lives of many youth and young adults, like Benjamin McAfee.
BEGINNINGS ARE OFTEN HARD
Benjamin McAfee grew up in the Dominican Republic with missionary parents, and always felt the desire to help people. His parents left the Dominican Republic to give him a better opportunity for attaining his goals. Once in the United States, McAfee excelled at almost everything he did. He recognized that the United States offered him many choices, and he never took that for granted. In high school, McAfee was very active and played volleyball, was president of various clubs, and achieved high remarks academically.
COLLEGE COMES OUT OF NOWHERE
One thing was for certain, McAfee knew that he would not have enough money to fund his college education. Thus, his senior year he applied for a multitude of scholarships. He was awarded the Toyota Community Scholarship, Kiwanis, Walmart, Ronald McDonald and several others!!
When he received the Gates Millennium Scholarship, he really did not know how it would change his life: “I really did not know the magnitude of the scholarship until I received the acceptance packet and read through it, this scholarship is definitely a blessing as it will help me out with my future plans.” Yet miraculously after his search for scholarships, Benjamin was accepted into every college he applied to, but he ultimately chose to attend Georgetown’s Edmund Walsh School of Foreign Service.
Benjamin was very active on campus and received various awards for his commitment to excellence his freshman year. He majored in International Affairs concentrating in Latin America in order to pursue his passion for learning about the effects of post-colonial racism in Latin America.
During his Georgetown career, he learned much about himself and decided to pursue an outside interest in business. Benjamin applied for the Career Prep Program with the Management and Leadership for Tomorrow, a non-profit organization that provides support for racial minorities that are interested in business. It was through this fellowship that he learned a career in business could also be used as a vehicle for creating social change.
Designed specifically for prepaid users all over the world, the Dream Mobile Phone is designed for social media access. (Photo courtesy of Dream Mobile)
APPROACHING HIS PURPOSE
During his final year at Georgetown, he was approached by a student named Reza Handley-Namavar to join a business called Dream Mobile.
Handley-Namavar, who is the CEO of Dream Mobile, wanted to create a company whose mission is to provide affordable smartphones for students in South Africa so that these students could be able to utilize their smartphones to simplify their lives. Since most African smartphones are not subsidized and typically cost over $400, many are unable to afford them.
The company’s first smartphone will retail for about $200, which research indicates is an ideal price in South Africa. Dream Mobile also seeks to provide opportunities for students in South Africa by creating a direct sales micro-franchise model that will employ students and award them an income through commission. In fact, their Android smartphones are distributed through a direct peer-to-peer sales model.
The company’s Dream Reps (fellow students) promote, sell, and deliver the phones to their friends and community. “Dream Mobile aims to alleviate the financial burden of these high costs and our hope is to give these students opportunities to not only utilize technology to simplify their lives, but to provide them with business skills they can apply in the near future.”
As the company’s Chief of Strategic Partnerships, McAfee says his experience has been very rewarding as applies the company for grants and look for prospective partners for Dream Mobile: “This has been a rewarding and humbling experience, I have learned a lot about myself and it has caused me to step out of my own comfort zone and discover important skills that I did not really know transferred into the business world. I think that my passion for applying for scholarships back in high school actually benefited us for this company as I at times would spend all night working on grants and accelerator programs.”
Dream Mobile is gaining much momentum, and South Africans have grown quite fond of the phones. (Photo courtesy of Dream Mobile)
MILESTONES IN PURSUING HIS PURPOSE
McAfee said he is truly thankful and blessed to have the opportunity to help Dream Mobile change the world. Recently, the company became a semifinalist for the coveted Echoing Green fellowship that chooses among 3,000 different social enterprises and only awards 10% to become semifinalist. Dream Mobile also became semifinalist for Hubs Ventures, won third place for a social entrepreneurship competition sponsored by American University, and was recognized at the University level for its innovation.
As McAfee looks forward to the future, he hopes to help the company gain momentum even more internationally. In fact, the company has just acquired the necessary documents to be a company in South Africa, and on July 29th, it had its South African opening ceremony drew in hundreds of people. Dream Mobile is gaining much momentum, and South Africans have grown quite fond of the phones.
Looking back on his involvement in Dream Mobile, McAfee says, “Being apart of this has definitely changed my life. Trying to navigate my way as I pursued my purpose was bit of a challenge in the beginning. But I think the process went smoother, because all along I tried to continuously pursue my passions and remained true to myself as I tried to improve the world…”
What an amazing young man!
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