While he normally spends his summer traveling for fun, this year was out of the ordinary for SUNY Morrisville Professor Christopher Scalzo.
Scalzo, professor of business, spent three weeks as a consultant — sharing his expertise in Kabba, Nigeria, where he worked with a team on a five-year strategic plan at the Kabba College of Agriculture. The college is a division of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, located in West Africa.
“I saw the opportunity online and thought it would be very interesting to do this,” Scalzo said. “I always welcome assisting in the world and learning about different cultures.”
Volunteer work overseas is not new to the Liverpool resident, who has been on nine business consulting ventures — two of which were virtual. He’s been sharing his vast experience as a former consultant handling budgeting and forecasting financials for various companies and in academia, overseas for more than a decade.
While his global philanthropy has been a catalyst for companies and farmers in developing nations, it also has been important in the SUNY Morrisville classroom, where he has taught for 22 years.
“These trips will help students in their future career, providing an experience that broadens their perspective about business, culture and the world,” he said. “I bring this back to the classroom and it is applied learning that students would not normally get.”
His consulting includes three trips to Kenya, one to help a soy and maize-producing company enhance its operations, and another to Lebanon to assist several companies in the organic food industry with creating a business model and conducting financial analysis. He also ventured to Nanjing, China, where he taught macroeconomics at Nanjing Institute of Industry and Technology (NIIT).
During a trip to Honduras, where he helped dairy farmers with financial analysis of farms and operations, he was recognized with the President’s Volunteer Service Award, a prestigious national honor which lauds volunteer service.
“We accomplished what we needed to,” Scalzo said about his trip to Nigeria. “I am happy to utilize my experience to help other areas of the world.”