Mark Rossol | Persuasive Speech

I. Need: An old Chinese proverb goes like this, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” That is the sentiment I want to try to
convey to you today. We hear a lot about the poverty right here in our back yard and in
Mercer County, but will simply giving them food or support really help fix this problem? I am
not trying to belittle the efforts of the tremendous amount of service done in our area, but I
would like to introduce a new idea to the discussion—Microfinance.
a. Imagine a single mother, her husband just left her and she has 3 kids and no college
education. How do you think she feels knowing that she has to go ask for food and
clothes for her kids? Hoping other kids don’t make fun of them at school. She is a
very talented seamstress but doesn’t have the money to make anything of it.
i. She is one of the 750 families receiving aid from the Grove City Food Pantry.
b. Or imagine a blue collar dad, worked in the steel industry and was laid off. Now how
does he face his wife and kids after repeated attempts at finding a job, only to meet
failure? Maybe he has an idea for a business but no money to feed his wife and kids
let alone get a loan to start a business.
i. He is now one of the 13.8% of Mercer county residents below the poverty
line. And one of the nearly 10% unemployed in Mercer County (bureau of
labor stats).
II. This is where a Micro-finance opportunity like that offered by Grameen America in
partnership with Grove City College could have a huge impact.
a. Grameen was started by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus in
Bangladesh, by offering loans to start small businesses. He believes what worked in
India and Africa can also work in one of the world’s wealthiest countries where the
poor do not have good access to banking and are propped up by welfare and
handouts.
i. How it works(www.grameenamerica.com)
1. Individual below the poverty line finds a group they trust
2. The group then does some financial training and they together open
a saving account.
3. Each borrower in the group gets a loan with no collateral or credit
history.
4. Weekly meetings are held to keep in contact, and borrowers begin
to repay the loan and deposit into savings.
5. Once it is full repaid they can apply for another loan.
b. One criticism of Grameen and other Microfinance firms coming from a Time
Magazine Article titled “Can Microfinance Make It in America?” is the high interest
rates they require, which is largely a product of overhead costs and leg work getting
everything organized. This is where the partnership with Grove City comes into play.
Using college students for the legwork reduces costs, allowing Grameen to lower
their interest rates which would help out the loan receipts and giving students the
 opportunity to help in the community and apply learning from the classroom to real
life.
i. They would be an interdepartmental group for any interested Students,
although it might mainly be business or entrepreneurship majors.
ii. They would help take ideas from those desiring loans to every step of the
way.
1. Entrepreneurship majors would help them develop a business plan
or take a look at a current business plan and update it.
2. Finance Majors would help them figure out how to be profitable or
turn an unprofitable business into profitability.
3. Other business majors would help with management, efficiency and
marketing
4. Communication majors would be able to help with public relations.
5. Sociology would help work out demographic info in the area to help
define markets
6. Education majors could help teach the classes.
7. And anyone who wants to help can be a part and contribute.
III. I see this resulting in a win-win-win scenario
a. First and foremost, the recipients of the loan receive much needed help to turn
around a business or create one from scratch. By seeing their own success and
belief and trust from others.
b. Second, College students, especially entre and busa students will get hands on
experience in developing business plans and seeing how a business runs which will
coincide with their education and prepare them even better for the future.
c. And finally I believe the larger community of Mercer County wins because it could
see an increase in entrepreneurship, deepening of community bonds by loan groups
growing together and being mutually dependent, and by hopefully creating more
jobs so that even more people can get out of poverty or unemployment.
IV. In closing I am reminded of a personal anecdote and an essay G.K. Chesterton wrote
during WW2 in response to an essay prompt: “What do you believe is wrong with the
world.” By saying simply “I am.” And the story is of my Father is growing up and even to
this day if he sees a piece of trash on the ground he picks it up and throws it away every
time and one time I asked him why he does it. This was his response, “If everyone in the
world picked up one piece of trash a day think how much cleaner the world would be.”
Let’s share in the sentiment of Mr. Chesterton that we all are individually responsible to
one degree or another for the ills in this world, and regardless of whether or not you
help with Grameen and micro financing I will end by asking you this question: “How will
you, even by a simple act like my father’s, try to make our community and the world a
little bit better each day?” Thanks.
Works Cited
Grameen America. Young Professionals Guidebook. Guidebook. New York: Grameen America, 2010-
2011.

Kiviat, Barbara. "Can Microfinance Make It in America?" Time Magazine 11 Jan 2009.

Statistics, Bureau of Labor. Unemployment Rates by County in Pennsylvania. January 2011. 22 March
2011 <http://www.bls.gov/ro3/palaus.htm>.