Thailand Social Entrepreneurship Study Abroad: Week One (Bangkok)

(Front note: These notes represent my own interpretations of our program thus far.)

We have been in Thailand for just over one week, and with our initial time in Bangkok done, I wanted to share what we have been doing (...greetings from Chiang Mai!).

As a quick overview, we are a four-week, six-credit program with two courses in two colleges and students across the University of Delaware.

Students are signed up for DIST301: Disability & Diversity in Thailand (Dr. Laura Eisenman, College of Education and Human Development) and ENTR451: International Social Ecosystems: Thailand (me--Dr. Stephanie Raible, Lerner College of Business and Economics). We have traditional class sessions at the beginning and end of each week, with the middle being packed with rich academic site visits, coordinated in partnership with Burapha University (BUU) in Chonburi, Thailand (shout out to Dr. Theeraphong "T" Bualar, along with his colleagues, Art and Bode and their entire team). If you want to run a Thailand program in any discipline, I would be happy to do a warm introduction.

DAY 1: Arrival day. Everyone arrived at different times on the arrival day (Jan. 3rd), so the students napped, checked out the nearby mall and eateries, and recharged at the rooftop pool. We had a group meeting once everyone arrived, answered some immediate-term questions, and outlined our weekend schedule.

DAY 2: Chatuchak Weekend Market & Group Dinner. To battle the jetlag (a 12-hour time difference), we opted for a very popular cultural trip: the Chatuchak Weekend Market. Students wove amongst hundreds of market stalls with food, spices, clothing...pets (!), you name it, they likely have it! After getting lost multiple times, I spent extra long looking at the animals while sipping an iced Thai tea.

We capped the night off with a group dinner with one of the best views in Bangkok at the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, 84 floors up, with a rotating observation deck. I learned that being in the middle helps, as the railing on the central part of the sky deck does not move with the flooring (hence, my laughing at being pushed backward and forward at the same time).

DAY 3: Wat Arun. Prof. T (in purple) recommended that a popular activity at the temple, Wat Arun, would be to learn more about Thai traditional dress by trying it out ourselves. I think we had too much fun with this activity. We were dressed with custom-designed looks full of jewelry and beautiful fabrics. We got to pick our base color (I went teal), but the rest was the local team. We also did some color-blocked, rainbow photos because, well, why not?!

DAY 4: Class sessions and the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (APCD). We kicked off class with introductory concepts. Dr. Eisenman with the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and some basic lenses of how disabilities have been regarded, and me with an introduction to social innovation and entrepreneurship, ecosystems, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A lot of definitions and basics to orient the week of visits.

Then, as part of the Ministry of Human Development and Human Security, we learned more about the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and its role in encouraging those with disabilities to both survive and thrive. We were starting from a broad, governmental perspective, introducing the important mechanisms of the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Act's Articles 33, 34, and 35, which influence both DIST and ENTR perspectives.

DAY 5: Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD), 60+ Bakery, Cafe, and Kitchen, and Bangkok School for the Blind. We, then, visited The Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD), which plays an important part in disability empowerment, representation, advocacy, and training in Thailand and the ASEAN region, broadly. According to its website, APCD "is a regional center for those with disabilities and development. APCD was established in Bangkok, Thailand as a legacy of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002, with joint collaboration of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, the Royal Thai Government, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Government of Japan."

As part of this visit, we got to see their social enterprise initiatives: the 60+ Bakery and Cafe and the 60+ Kitchen. These initiatives are staffed by people with a variety of disabilities, including leadership and managerial roles. We got to meet their staff, go behind the scenes in their kitchens, and eat a delicious catered lunch by the 60+ Kitchen. I also bought a dark chocolate bar from their cafe--again, lovingly made by those employed by the 60+ Bakery and Cafe. This was a good introduction to how social enterprises are supporting the employability and training initiatives of APCD.

Next, looking from a family and schooling perspective, we visited the Bangkok School for the Blind, where students with visual impairments are able to receive a commuter or residential education, custom catered to the needs of the visually impaired. Our students commented on how happy the students were and how beautiful and extensive the school's campus seemed. Students were encouraged to explore the arts, music, and sports, as well as learn academic and vocational skills. Many of their students have more than one disability, so the school tries to find vocational pathways that can serve a variety of skill sets and interests.

This was an emotional visit for many of our students, as they got the opportunity to work alongside them in their beading exercises and to play sports with them. It was a super special visit from start to end.

DAY 6: Autistic Thai Foundation (including For ALL Cafe and Art Story) & Dots Coffee. I was PUMPED for this day. The Autistic Thai Foundation plays such an important role across the ecosystem, serving as a school, training center, advocacy group, and grantor. Of interest to my area, it also supported the establishment of the For ALL Cafe and Art Story, two social enterprises. For ALL Cafe offers franchise cafes for those in the disability community and their families, along with free training on how to run and start a cafe--regardless of whether they choose to establish a For ALL Cafe or not.

...And then, there's Art Story, which is a social enterprise art collective of artists and design, media, manufacturing, and operations professionals with disabilities, primarily autism. When we were there, they were packing up a social procurement order from a big national entity. I won't name names, but we all both recognized and "Oooooh"ed at the entity. They also do B2C products through manufactured products (e.g., mugs, t-shirts, scarves, bags, laptop sleeves, etc.), prints, and unique, signed pieces. This was a fun visit, and students (and faculty) lined up to bring home some cool products by their artists. The artists of Art Story also offer art classes to the public, in case you're local!

One of the students learning animation created a custom piece welcoming our group, as shown below, "Welcome Delaware."

With two locations in Bangkok(as well as many pop-ups and event carts), Dots Coffee is a business that centers on employing people with visual impairments in roles across their cafe and mobile cafe locations. Co-Founded by Julien Wallet-Houget and Gavin Kuangparichat, Dots is trying to create an exceptional coffee shop experience that pushes the needle for the empowerment and public visibility of people with visual impairments. Their visit presented interesting discussion points for the inherent paradoxical nature of social entrepreneurship and how cultural perceptions influence social enterprise scaling and the entrepreneurial ecosystem broadly. I love what they're doing, and we had a conversation afterward trying to convince them to set up their next location in Delaware.

Hey, it could happen, but I'll wish it so in the meantime.

DAY 7: Population & Community Development Association (PDA, including Cabbages & Condoms Restaurant) and Friendly Design Foundation with Mr. Krisana Lalai. We got to visit one of the O.G. social enterprises of Thailand, Cabbages and Condoms, with strong impacts over decades in both family planning (affecting opportunity, health, and educational outcomes) and reducing STI transmission, especially HIV/AIDS when it was nowhere near as manageable as it is today. While its affiliated organization, PDA, has many hats (e.g., schools, training centers, policy liaising, public health services, advocacy), it also supported a portfolio of international social enterprises, from hotels and resorts to cafes and restaurants and gift shops. Provocative topics and arguably kitschy decor (see the condom Santa and Christmas tree), all with a high impact. This visit helped to position the difference in the efforts of social enterprises with publicly supported topics versus ones that might be challenging or contentious, including how to navigate such work within an entrepreneurial ecosystem, which we explored in class the next day.

Next, we drove over to the Friendly Design Foundation for talks by two long-time friends of the program. We learned about physical accessibility efforts throughout the country, with a special focus on inclusive--or "friendly"--design. We also got to explore how physical access for tourism and leisure is an important sector for improvement, and we learned how they have collaborated to run conferences, tours, and other initiatives to promote, showcase, and test accessibility throughout the country. Mr. Lalai also featured our visit and our group in a series of Facebook Lives, available here (navigate to January 9, 2025).

To read on about our Thailand study abroad experience, check out Part 2 (Bangkok to and Part 3 (Chiang Mai>Chon Buri>Bangkok) of this study abroad mini-series.

Dr. Stephanie E. Raible is an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship (Business Administration) and Faculty Director of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware. She has received institutional, local, national, and international awards for her work as an entrepreneurship educator, including being recognized as one of the top 50 Undergraduate Business Professors by Poets & Quants (Dec. 2024). She is on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE, 24-27), and in Spring 2025, she will be a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at the Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) in Innsbruck, Austria. She is co-author of the book, "Social entrepreneurship: A practice-based approach to social innovation" (with J. H. Kucher). Her research interests center on entrepreneurial identity, women's entrepreneurship, and career transitions. Her top initiatives in practice are fostering interdisciplinarity in entrepreneurship education and mentoring students and junior faculty.