Men's Soccer Summer Spotlight – John Dale
8/15/2018 10:57:00 AM | Men's Soccer
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Davidson student-athletes are scattered near and far during the summer months. Few remain in and around Davidson, but most are out in the world taking a break from campus life. However, all are staying fit and preparing for their respective upcoming seasons, while adding extracurricular experiences to their development. Below junior John Dale shared with us his 2018 summer experiences.
This summer Davidson afforded me the incredible opportunity to take my computer science and liberal arts skills to Africa for six weeks.
I was looking for something different this summer. I am a computer science major interested in world economics and politics and I wanted to see the world. One day in March, I opened a computer science newsletter that highlighted a company started by a Davidson alumni who was looking for computer science majors to help develop their startup mobile banking application in Tanzania and I got really excited about their mission. The company's name is NALA and their mission was to increase financial inclusion in Tanzania.
I stayed up late on a Saturday night writing my application and then I emailed the alumni about how much this internship would mean to me. A few days later I had a phone interview, which went well. A few days after that they called me back and told me I got the internship. I was ecstatic!
Sometime during this process, the Career Development Center emailed Coach Spear about summer grants for internships and Coach forwarded the email to the team. Davidson gives out thousands of dollars in grant money every year to students for summer internships. I started writing my grant application when I was interviewing but it was a tight squeeze as the grant application was due almost a week after I got the internship offer. I cranked on the grant for a week and submitted it. A few weeks later I got the news sitting in my computer science class that I had gotten the grant! Davidson's grant program is amazingly generous and provided me with the exact funds based on my calculation for the trip to be of no cost to my family or me. I was headed to Africa for the summer to work for NALA!
NALA is a fintech company that is a part of a wave of companies that are disrupting the traditional banking system around the world. The goal of NALA is to provide financial access and tools to improve the lives of Tanzanians. Concretely, NALA is developing an android application for Tanzanians as smart phones are becoming omnipresent in the developing world. I worked this past summer for NALA as an Android and data analytics coder. I developed scripts and programs for the company throughout the summer to help the business team and development team better monitor and provide progress reports on the growth of the company for key decisions and investor relations. In the 21st century, data is the new oil, so it was really great to use my computer science skills to get a hands on experience at a startup.
Working at a startup is great in the sense that you wear multiple hats all the time and this is where I found my liberal arts experience really applicable. For instance, in one given week working for NALA; I would be presenting data findings to the entire NALA team on Monday, coding on Tuesday, writing the technical outline for the company's privacy and security policy on Wednesday and being a sales man for the NALA on Friday. Working on multiple projects and switching hats was second nature to me as it was essentially exactly like going to Davidson. History of gardening on Monday, computer class on Tuesday, Russian lit class on Wednesday, then back to more computers on Thursday and Friday while playing soccer during the week. In the modern entrepreneurship world and in life in general, having a positive attitude, being willing to learn and applying your intellectual capabilities on a consistent basis is what sets you apart and makes you successful and that's exactly what Davidson teaches students through the liberal arts curriculum. Be positive, be curious, and be consistent.
On top of the career skills I learned, living and working in Tanzania allowed me to learn and experience so much of the historical, socio-economic, political, and cultural present and past of Tanzania. The company took us all over the country from living in Dar es Salaam, to the historical slave port of Zanzibar to the Rock City of Mwanza and the sisal farms of Morogoro. I had an action packed internship that was unforgettable and let me experience and meet people from all backgrounds in the country and expanded my worldview immensely. From my experience, I learned so much about the opportunities and challenges of the developing world and Tanzania. During my time, I learned some Swahili, which is a creole language in East Africa.
Staying connected to the team over the summer was relatively easy thanks to the digital age and the Internet; I had access to WIFI most of the time. The captains made sure that we were staying fit and involved in soccer through a combination of activities that we competed on for points. The coaches connected to me a few times to check in and chat.
One highlight of the summer that I'm sure everyone can attest to was the world cup. Following the world cup in Africa was literally like watching a Coca Cola Commercial. People would crowd around open shops, into restaurants and bars to watch. The camaraderie of watching the matches was electric. Tanzania is on the same time as Moscow so this made watching the World Cup that much easier. I really enjoyed watching the host country Russia do so well, but I am glad I picked France to win it all from the beginning. Allez les bleus!
I am excited for the team this season as I believe we have a maturing team and a dynamic freshmen class coming in that will help increase competition and raise the overall level. Coach has prepared a great schedule for this season that will test us and push us to rise to the occasion. I am excited about the addition of Coach Findley as I think his previous experiences and the brief spring practices I had with him are indicative that he and Coach Spear will be a great team along with Coach Tyson to push us to our potential this season. It's amazing to me that I am already in my Junior year, it is a reminder to me that college soccer is short and a privilege and I need to make the most of my time on the field. Go Wildcats!
Davidson student-athletes are scattered near and far during the summer months. Few remain in and around Davidson, but most are out in the world taking a break from campus life. However, all are staying fit and preparing for their respective upcoming seasons, while adding extracurricular experiences to their development. Below junior John Dale shared with us his 2018 summer experiences.
This summer Davidson afforded me the incredible opportunity to take my computer science and liberal arts skills to Africa for six weeks.
I was looking for something different this summer. I am a computer science major interested in world economics and politics and I wanted to see the world. One day in March, I opened a computer science newsletter that highlighted a company started by a Davidson alumni who was looking for computer science majors to help develop their startup mobile banking application in Tanzania and I got really excited about their mission. The company's name is NALA and their mission was to increase financial inclusion in Tanzania.
I stayed up late on a Saturday night writing my application and then I emailed the alumni about how much this internship would mean to me. A few days later I had a phone interview, which went well. A few days after that they called me back and told me I got the internship. I was ecstatic!
Sometime during this process, the Career Development Center emailed Coach Spear about summer grants for internships and Coach forwarded the email to the team. Davidson gives out thousands of dollars in grant money every year to students for summer internships. I started writing my grant application when I was interviewing but it was a tight squeeze as the grant application was due almost a week after I got the internship offer. I cranked on the grant for a week and submitted it. A few weeks later I got the news sitting in my computer science class that I had gotten the grant! Davidson's grant program is amazingly generous and provided me with the exact funds based on my calculation for the trip to be of no cost to my family or me. I was headed to Africa for the summer to work for NALA!
NALA is a fintech company that is a part of a wave of companies that are disrupting the traditional banking system around the world. The goal of NALA is to provide financial access and tools to improve the lives of Tanzanians. Concretely, NALA is developing an android application for Tanzanians as smart phones are becoming omnipresent in the developing world. I worked this past summer for NALA as an Android and data analytics coder. I developed scripts and programs for the company throughout the summer to help the business team and development team better monitor and provide progress reports on the growth of the company for key decisions and investor relations. In the 21st century, data is the new oil, so it was really great to use my computer science skills to get a hands on experience at a startup.
Working at a startup is great in the sense that you wear multiple hats all the time and this is where I found my liberal arts experience really applicable. For instance, in one given week working for NALA; I would be presenting data findings to the entire NALA team on Monday, coding on Tuesday, writing the technical outline for the company's privacy and security policy on Wednesday and being a sales man for the NALA on Friday. Working on multiple projects and switching hats was second nature to me as it was essentially exactly like going to Davidson. History of gardening on Monday, computer class on Tuesday, Russian lit class on Wednesday, then back to more computers on Thursday and Friday while playing soccer during the week. In the modern entrepreneurship world and in life in general, having a positive attitude, being willing to learn and applying your intellectual capabilities on a consistent basis is what sets you apart and makes you successful and that's exactly what Davidson teaches students through the liberal arts curriculum. Be positive, be curious, and be consistent.
On top of the career skills I learned, living and working in Tanzania allowed me to learn and experience so much of the historical, socio-economic, political, and cultural present and past of Tanzania. The company took us all over the country from living in Dar es Salaam, to the historical slave port of Zanzibar to the Rock City of Mwanza and the sisal farms of Morogoro. I had an action packed internship that was unforgettable and let me experience and meet people from all backgrounds in the country and expanded my worldview immensely. From my experience, I learned so much about the opportunities and challenges of the developing world and Tanzania. During my time, I learned some Swahili, which is a creole language in East Africa.
Staying connected to the team over the summer was relatively easy thanks to the digital age and the Internet; I had access to WIFI most of the time. The captains made sure that we were staying fit and involved in soccer through a combination of activities that we competed on for points. The coaches connected to me a few times to check in and chat.
One highlight of the summer that I'm sure everyone can attest to was the world cup. Following the world cup in Africa was literally like watching a Coca Cola Commercial. People would crowd around open shops, into restaurants and bars to watch. The camaraderie of watching the matches was electric. Tanzania is on the same time as Moscow so this made watching the World Cup that much easier. I really enjoyed watching the host country Russia do so well, but I am glad I picked France to win it all from the beginning. Allez les bleus!
I am excited for the team this season as I believe we have a maturing team and a dynamic freshmen class coming in that will help increase competition and raise the overall level. Coach has prepared a great schedule for this season that will test us and push us to rise to the occasion. I am excited about the addition of Coach Findley as I think his previous experiences and the brief spring practices I had with him are indicative that he and Coach Spear will be a great team along with Coach Tyson to push us to our potential this season. It's amazing to me that I am already in my Junior year, it is a reminder to me that college soccer is short and a privilege and I need to make the most of my time on the field. Go Wildcats!
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