Spandan Sigdel, C’29

The first time that Spandan Sigdel, C’29, left his home country of Nepal, it was to travel to Sewanee to start his first year of college. The second time he left his home country, there was also a Sewanee connection: He had secured an internship with organic rice distributor Jasberry in Bangkok, Thailand, an opportunity made possible in part thanks to the Sewanee Freeman Asia Fellowship, which provides selected students with up to $10,000 in funding for an internship experience in East or Southeast Asia.

Inspired by having seen previous Sewanee students’ Freeman internships and certain that he wanted to gain real experience with marketing and finance over the summer, Sigdel got to work researching Asian companies that matched his interests. “I wanted to set up my own experience rather than have a third-party provider arrange a placement, so I did a lot of research online and became interested in Jasberry,” says Sigdel.

A social enterprise focused on eliminating farmer poverty while producing and distributing a purple superfood rice, Jasberry drew Sigdel’s interest as much for its mission of social good as for the many and varied opportunities to learn that the internship would provide. Juggling many tasks throughout the summer, Sigdel was able to dip his toes into digital strategy (by working on the company’s LinkedIn and other channels), investments (by researching and writing briefs on prospective investors), and market research (by building and completing a scorecard for over 60 organic food distributors in key markets).

They were tasks that Sigdel found himself uniquely well prepared for following the completion of his first year at Sewanee. A member of both Green’s View Capital, Sewanee’s student investment club, and the consulting club, Sigdel was able to enter his internship with demonstrated experience performing research and crafting investment strategies. Suddenly thrust into a more formal corporate environment—where novel experiences included occasional meetings with Thai celebrities—he counted on guidance from his Sewanee professors for professionally navigating his surroundings.

“My first year at Sewanee definitely prepared me to succeed at Jasberry, both directly and indirectly,” says Sigdel. “I arrived in Thailand with some technical expertise to carry out my responsibilities, but also with the soft skills to adapt to a new environment and be able to fit in.”

And while seemingly every day on the job brought with it a new challenge or opportunity, one part of the experience looms especially large in Sigdel’s memory: a field trip to Chiang Rai in northern Thailand to visit some of the farmers responsible for growing the rice that Jasberry distributes around the world.

There to follow up on the company’s social impact moves—they’d raised farmer compensation from a more typical 50¢/day to $5/day—Sigdel interviewed the farmers for a social media feature. Over dinner with the farmers and their families and a session of “parachute planting” (planting seedlings in the field by literally throwing them rather than individually hand placing them), he got an up-close view of both the work underpinning the enterprise and the tangible, positive effects it was having.

And for Sigdel, seeing all the components of his summer come together in a way that grounded the company’s business in the stories of real people crystallized that the experience was going to mean more than just networking and career preparation.

“This was one of the best summers of my life. I learned a lot from the internship—and I learned even more from having to find my way in a new country on my own,” he says. “I am undoubtedly a different person because of this experience.”