After taking a few weeks off for a service project, a field trip and Columbus Day, it was nice to be back at The Pirates House for the weekly RCSE meeting. Two members received their Blue Badges - Jon Hartz and Michael Solomon. Congratulations! A charity of the quarter was drawn and Greenbriar Children's Center will be the recipient of all money raised from Fines, Raffle and Happy during 2nd Quarter. After all business items were discussed, Laura Lane McKinnon introduced our speaker, former GRSP student Brendan Mungwena.
Brendan is currently a Junior at the Armstrong Campus of Georgia Southern University and chose to stay on after completing his GRSP year in order to further his education so he can increase his chances of making an impact when he moves back home. He said he has noticed a political protest pattern in Zimbabwe and decided to look into it more deeply to understand what is happening. He feels one of the biggest problems facing his country is the unstable currency. Many cost of goods keep increasing. For example, a liter of gas has skyrocketed from $1 per liter to $15 per liter just in 2019. Zimbabwe has agriculture, minerals, tourism and wildlife and Brendan believes his country is not living up to its potential.
Since Brendan has been here in the United States, he has won an award as best Resident Advisor and was chosen to represent Georgia Southern at the American Economic Association annual meeting in Atlanta. He has also started a charity where he is collecting soccer donations to send to children in Zimbabwe. Past President Cody Hetzel has been working with Brendan on this endeavor. Brendan takes inspiration for furthering his education from the current and former Finance Ministers of Zimbabwe. He concluded by thanking RCSE for our continued financial support of his education.