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Giovanni Ruffalo

St. Thomas Aquinas

Class Of 2021

Assisted In Launching A Start-Up Business In The Developing World With International Development Experts

Directed The Funding Of A Grant To Enact A Business Plan And Training Program With The Business Owner

Designed A Logo, Website, Advertising Plan And More With Nigerian Embassy Development Experts


My Business Consultant Training

Grant To Enact Solutions

Earned A Development

Completed (Click Here To Learn More)

Partnered With Top

Executives And CEO's

Completed (Click Here To Learn More)

Worked With Embassy

Development Experts

Completed (Click Here To Learn More)

Completed (Click Here To Learn More)

Consulted With A Business

In The Developing World



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Abdullahi's poultry farm business specializes in the rearing of broiler and layer chickens. Abdullahi's business helps ensure members of his community, especially children, have access to healthy and nutritious meat to supplement their diets.

Abdullahi hopes to employ many young men & women from his local community. Through the profits from the business, he hopes to support his wives and ten children. Poultry farming is a crucial service in his region, as chicken is essential to a balanced diet.

With the additional skills training from Leadership Initiatives, Abdullahi has made several improvements from other chicken farms in his region to allow him to feed more community members at a lower cost.

Abduhalli plans to have a minimum of three harvests per year and to employ five additional community members by 2020.

Story Of The Business

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Abdullahi is a 40-year-old man who lives in a small 2-bedroom apartment on Shira Street, Federal low-cost community, Bauchi. He was given the house to stay in temporarily while his business develops. He has three wives and ten children - four boys and six girls, ages 2 months through 27.

Abdullahi has over a decade in the chicken farming industry.

It has long been Abdhullahi's dream to open up this chicken farm and provide a stable life for his wife and children. Abdullahi also believes he has a better way to raise his chickens at a lower cost.

He hopes to pioneer these methods to lower chicken costs, increase food availability in his community, and eventually use his new resources to take in orphans from starvation.

Abdullahi is excited to use this opportunity to show others in his community that they can create locally sustainable businesses.

About The Business Owner

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Abduhalli has just launched his business, but the market demand has become readily apparent with multiple offers to purchase his chickens before they are fully grown.

This is due to the widespread health risks and problems associated with Vitamin B deficiencies.

It is the hope of Abduhalli and his customers that the amount of people diagnosed with Vitamin B deficiencies will decrease as a source of affordable, nutritious food becomes readily available.

Community members also hope that this new business will become a beacon of how the local community can create local businesses to solve local problems.

Individuals have already asked to undergo apprentice training to learn about Abuhalli's methods of chicken farming so that they too can one day open up a farm and help feed their community.

Community Impact

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1. Managing Expenses

Abduhalli needs to create, compare, and review different chicken farming methods to yeild the best growth harvests.

Creating a solution to this problem will allow him to feed more of his community and grow his business.

He also has to create a formula to know how much money to keep reserved for harvests that produce more chicken because of the additional feeding costs that will also incur.

2. Flooding & Predatory Animals

Abduhalli will become the first chicken farm in his region to use a raised chicken coup.

The goal of this new design is to have a natural defense against flooding during the raining season and decrease access to predatory animals, such as rats and dogs.

By employing these new methods, Abudhalli hopes to increase his chicken production by 10% to 15% per harvest.

Problems Facing The Business



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Meeting Our Business Partner

Our team began the solution-development process by having a one-on-one Skype calls directly with our business partner.

We learned more about his life, family, and business—as well as the issues he was having.

By discussing first-hand the problems our partner faced, our team successfully and efficiently began to brainstorm solutions to improve his business.

The on-staff translators and business development experts helped facilitate the process and ensured our team asked the right questions.

Each morning we held frank discussions about our solutions, the advice we had received during the day before, and the timeline to begin implementing our ideas in real-time.

Meeting Our Business Partner

Expert Assistance Workshop

Nigerian Embassy Business Consultation

Partnership With Top Executives and CEOs

Solution Review By Top Development Experts

Internship Program Highlights

Click On The Links Below

To See Each Highlight

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Expert Assistance Workshop

Our team then met with leading experts in the field of business and community development from top US companies, the State Department, the Pentagon, and leading Georgetown Professors.

These leaders included Professor Sarah Stiles of Georgetown University, who has received Georgetown's highest faculty honor, the Edward B. Bunn award, in 2014 and 2019, making her the only woman in Georgetown History to receive the award twice.

We streamlined our initial solutions and used their guidance to further our efforts in solving the issues our business partner was facing.

Our team advanced our communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills through hands-on project management and development.

By the end of the week, we had synthesized the advice of leading experts from across the globe for our grant proposal to transform the life of our business partner.

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Nigerian Embassy Business Consultation

The Nigerian Embassy invited our team for an exclusive tour, a presentation on Nigerian economic development, and a banquet with top diplomats.

We ate authentic Nigerian cuisine, immersed ourselves in the culture, and discussed problems facing our business partner, the community he worked in and the country as a whole.

At the end of the trip to the Nigerian Embassy, our team was able to work directly with Nigerian development experts including, a former ambassador to the United Nations.

Each expert gave new insights to our proposed solution and was able to provide us specific details to help shape our grant proposal to ensure the grant transforms lives.

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Partnership With Top Executives and CEOs

Throughout the course of the program, our team met with top CEO's from across the nation. They reviewed our solutions, offered advice on our grant proposal, and briefed us on the upcoming presentation.

This consultation gave our team the confidence and acumen to develop practical solutions and present them to the grant panel for our business partner.

John Hecklinger was one of the mentors we had the opportunity to work with. As the Executive Director of the Global Fund For Children, John had a unique insight into the grant proposal process.

John taught us how to present ideas to leaders from major companies and organizations and was able to give us advice we would use to refine our proposal.

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Solution Review By Top Development Experts

Our team presented the final solutions a panel of expert judges from Dartmouth, the UN, the State Department, the Pentagon, and the Nigerian Embassy.

This formal presentation allowed our team to practice our skills and measure the effectiveness of our communication, all while showcasing our efforts to transform the business we had partnered with.

At the end of the presentation, we were able to receive feedback on our grant proposal for our business partner.

Over the next four weeks, our proposal would be reviewed three more times by development experts and Leadership Initiatives sponsors before being approved and put into action in the Fall of 2019!



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Step-By-Step Solutions For Our Business Partner

How I Transformed A Business

Financial Tracking

One of the hardest aspects of establishing a new business is creating a proper financial tracking system. In order to maximize Abduhalli's profit, we have created a specialized and unique system for him to track his finances with.

We created a six-week expense tracking form that is easy to follow and will allow Abduhalli to have a clear visual of what his profit and expenses are for each week.

Improving The Layout

Abduhalli's chickens face many dangers while being prepped for sale. By improving the layout of the farm, many of these dangers can be erased.

This will prevent wildlife from having easy access to the chickens and allow Abduhalli to have a better view of any danger encroaching on his chickens.

My Solutions

My Business Plan

My Presentation

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My Business Plan

How I Transformed A Business

How I Transformed A Business

How I Transformed A Business

My Solutions

My Business Plan

My Presentation

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My Presentation

How I Transformed A Business

My Solutions

My Business Plan

My Presentation

Our Presentation

Our team presented the final solutions to a panel of expert judges from Harvard, the United Nations, the State Department, the Pentagon, and the Nigerian Embassy. Our presentation received high marks and the grant for our business partner received full funding.

This formal presentation allowed our team to practice our skills and measure the effectiveness of our communication, all while showcasing our efforts to transform the business of whom we were partnered with.


Our office in Washington, DC is open seven days a week - give us a call! A phone conversation allows us to answer your specific questions and provide you with contact information for previous intership participants and their families so that you can get a first-hand perspective.

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