Student & Community Partner Testimonials
SMART has pro
vided almost a thousand Cornell undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines with unique learning and service opportunities that have informed many career placements and progression. Since 2002, SMART has supported 123 projects and engaged over 700 students and 100 community partners in 27 countries. Many of our SMART alumni today hold prominent leadership positions within the international development sector and serve in both multilateral and international organizations such as the United Nations, TechnoServe, Catholic Relief Services, and Botswana Institute for Development. Equally, others are serving as civil servants (USA, Netherlands, Mongolia, Botswana), researchers and educators within internationally renowned colleges (Cornell, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Perdue, UNC Chapel Hill, and Peking University).
SMART Project teams consist of between 4-6 students who come from both undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as different academic backgrounds from the eight colleges in Cornell. Following are some of the testimonials we have received from the various partners and students.
“The Cornell team [SMART] has done for my company in 10 days what would otherwise take months and thousands of dollars to do through local service providers.” – Rajinder Mand, Managing Director of Zanobia Seeds, Tanzania
“These students are young with many ideas that can create substantial positive impact. Together, we were able to explore some markets that we did not even think we could reach. Additionally, the SMART team came at the time when we were developing our marketing and rebranding plan and the students provided us with a lot of helpful input.” – Brian Mugisha, CEO of Golden Bees Ltd., Uganda
“It is rare that a small company like ours gets a multi-skilled team of highly talented individuals looking into it, dissecting it, and coming out with tailor-made recommendations that we can now use to re-engineer and re-innovate our business system.”
– Gichanga Karanja, CEO of Freshco, Kenya
“The students were able to learn and actually exceeded our expectations. We were amazed by thedetailed and through work they managed to do with the limited time they had with us. Theymanaged to sieve through the information provided and get to the main issues.”
– Yoliswa Gumede, CEO of Cappeny Estates, South Africa
“[The students] Visited all our farms and suggested brilliant ideas on irrigation system, labor management, marketing and promotion.”
– Fannie Gondwe, Executive Director of Perisha Agro and Packaging Enterprise, Malawi
“The Cornell team has done for my company in 10 days what would otherwise take months and thousands of dollars to do through local service providers.”
– Rajinder Mand, Managing Director of Zanobia Seeds, Tanzania
[My engagement with SMART has] “taken my company to the next level…. Getting such services from local consultants would have cost me the shirt on my back.”
– Frank Taylor, Managing Director of Wild-Foods, Botswana
Student Testimonials
“My time as a SMART fellow has equipped me with crucial soft and hard skills and opened several doors for me. During our field research trip to New Orleans, I learned how to apply several qualitative research methods that later on helped me in my work at the World Bank. Through SMART I was exposed to possible career pathways in the field of economic development. A visit to the regional economic development organization in New Orleans highlighted how I could merge my interest in working directly with communities to advance regional economic development with my analytical and financial background. I am very grateful for the opportunities, skills, and friendships I gained from the SMART program and I am thankful for the incredible mentorship I received from the SMART faculty.” –Jasmin Higo, Master of Public Administration, 2023
“I learned as much in two weeks 
as I would in an entire semester. My eyes were opened to real-world problems never discussed in engineering classes. This has been a highlight of my Cornell experience.” – Alexander Li, 2020 SMART student
“It wass amazing. It’s the best thing I’ve done so far at Cornell and I learned more in those two weeks than I did the entire last semester.” – 2014 SMART student
“SMART completely opened my eyes to what project based development actually looks like, within the first few days I realized that this is a space for creatives and visual learners and thinkers.” –2019 SMART student
“The course was fantastic! I learned more in this 10-day trip than I have ever learned in a full semester of in-class work.” – Megan Gutleber, SMART student
“While in Mongu, we had to answer to real people, with real problems, and provide them with real answers. This was not just a classroom exercise or simulation, but it was real life.” – Marion Smith, SMART student
“Perfect experience. I would include SMART in 100 things to do before graduation.” – 2014 SMART student
“After completing the SMART experience I have realized the opportunities I have to use my degree in a way that can benefit many communities.” –2019 SMART student
“The SMART program places you in the perfect position to contribute your expertise to a problem that will have an impact on the lives of others. In my opinion, the SMART program is an experiential, education model that all universities should look to.” – 2013 SMART student
“[The most meaningful aspect of SMART was] working in a team that brought in their diverse perspectives. The insights that they brought from their disciplines were meaningful and stimulating. I genuinely got excited tackling problems with my team on the ground in real time.”
-2019 SMART student
“I found that the experience on the ground was a powerful tool to engage my past academic knowledge. Also, it allowed me to learn beyond case studies to understand the real drivers of sustainability and development issues.” –2019 SMART student
“SMART challenged me to work on developing creative solutions to business obstacles in a developing market. Conducting research in the field closely with businesses and getting to see various aspects of their value chain allowed our team to gain a unique view of the industry and emerging market.” –2019 SMART student