Raphael Sees Cross-Cultural Collaboration as a Means Toward Community Innovation

I’ve been lucky to have been exposed to a wide variety of multicultural experiences–experiences that have shaped my career and the manner through which I approach problems.

Despite being born in Lagos, Nigeria, I spent the majority of my adult life in Muscat, Oman: an oil city with a large expat population. There, I grew up with friends from literally every single corner of the world—so I had to learn how to communicate with people from all walks of life. This experience helped me learn that despite all of the differences we have as human beings, we really are all the same—and so much good can come from us working together as a community.

After a stint at the British School of Muscat in Oman, my international experiences led me to Knox College. There, I majored in International Relations and Business—and was also part of a large multicultural collective that was the soccer team. The team had 38 players from 21 different countries. This experience again confirmed my belief that cross-cultural collaboration was a powerful tool in enacting change, as we worked together to reach the first two NCAA Division III tournaments in school history. Some of us even teamed up at the Galesburg Area Chamber of Commerce, where we balanced our different perspectives on projects to support small businesses in their efforts to recover from the pandemic.

Even though my time at enFocus has been short up to this point, I’ve tried to bring this multicultural, collaborative spirit to my projects while working together with other very talented Fellows from all over the world—and I feel like we’ve already made a tremendous impact on the lives of folks living in the South Bend - Elkhart Region, all while developing my own skills. In particular, my projects with the Emergency Rental Assistance Program and Commuter’s Trust have given me problem-solving and data management toolkits that have increased my ability to think critically and quickly and that have set a solid foundation for my overall professional development.

I’m so excited to be here; I can’t wait to learn more, and I’m looking forward to collaborating with so many others from all sorts of different backgrounds to create meaningful change.