Conor Grennan on voluntourism

Admin

In 2004, Conor Grennan travelled to Nepal to volunteer at a rural Nepalese orphanage for two months. He confesses that while the trip began as a means to sound impressive in front of his crush, it was a life-altering experience, which he chronicled in his 2010 book titled ‘Little Princes’.

“After a while, I really fell in love with these kids and grew to love the life of the village. I liked them so much that after two months of being there, I went back a year later.”

Grennan spent the next few years working with the orphans of the decade long civil war which only ended in 2007 and taking on the complex and risky mission of reuniting trafficked children with their families. He also founded Next Generation Nepal, an organization that works in reuniting trafficked children with their families.

The 41 year old who now serves as dean of MBA students at New York University Stern School of Business, encourages more young students to volunteer, irrespective of their reasons for doing so. He notes that it is more important to go out there and do the work, irrespective of one’s personal motives.

“The amazing alchemy that happens is that once you start doing it, your motivation happens to change.”

You can read the full article here.