It’s a dynamic team: Aaron Kirsh has the financial knowledge, Nicole Kone is involved with community outreach and Elliot Sanchez has the university connections. Together, they have developed an idea for poverty alleviation in New Orleans that Bill Clinton personally recognized.

Kirsh, finance senior, Kone, English writing senior, and Sanchez, philosophy senior, are in the process of developing a loan system that will give people in the low-income bracket the opportunity to start their own businesses and earn a better salary. They should have the Loyola Microfinance Initiative entirely organized by the beginning of the fall semester, Sanchez said. Loyola will provide the money, and students will run the program.

The three seniors developed the idea during the Clinton Global Initiative, a conference at Tulane University that students from across the globe attended last month to discuss and attempt to solve global issues. Out of 700 groups, theirs was one of nine that Clinton acknowledged as noteworthy plans.

“He thought the idea had a lot of great potential,” Sanchez said. “It really helped a lot of other people understand how much potential the idea has for New Orleans.”

What Kirsh, Kone and Sanchez are creating is called a microfinance service. People who earn a small income and are interested in starting their own businesses are loaned money from an organization – in this case Loyola – to jumpstart these ventures.

Most of the services are simple, such as sewing, catering and childcare. However, these businesses can’t launch because their would-be creators live paycheck to paycheck. Microfinance services provide the money to start the business, and the loans are eventually paid back through the earnings of the new businesses.

Loyola has promised about $10,000-$15,000 to start off with, Kirsh said. By December, they hope to qualify for grants and loans that fund microfinance organizations.

During the summer, local churches, the organization’s Web site and Jesuit centers will offer the Loyola Microfinance Initiative as a service to people who need it. The people who apply will go through an application process. If microfinance is not the best option for them, Sanchez said, students will help these people find the services they need, such as immediate housing or short-term need.

The fact that students will run this organization is what makes it unique, Kirsh said.

“Some of the major problems large organizations like the Peace Corps have is that … their business is not to train people,” he said.

“Their business is to develop. What we want to do is create a place where people can study development and be able to go into the workforce without the need for training and have the experience already behind them.”

A support group of microfinance organizations and lawyers will help guide the initiative whenever students have questions.

Student from any major can bring something to the organization, Kone said. English majors can teach research skills, advertising majors can help promote the program, sociology majors can assess the effectiveness of the program and Spanish majors can break communication barriers.

“Give me a major, and I’ll give you something that we’ve thought about,” she said.

In addition, professors have expressed interest in making student participation in the Loyola Microfiance Initiative a part of their syllabus, most notably business professors Brett Matherne and John Levendis, Spanish professor Blanca Anderson and political science professor Roger White.

“Usually, you see either a microlending institution or students in a classroom studying about how to alleviate poverty,” Sanchez said.”This is the first example we can find anywhere in the country where students actually get the knowledge by working hands-on in the institute.”

Katie Urbaszeswki can be reached at [email protected].