Downtown Spotlight: Heart
Abby Gritter
This week we get a glimpse into the life of Abby Gritter: a Michigan native who who found her way back to Santa Barbara after exploring the world of microfinance and international development in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Honduras. After spending a few minutes with Abby, it is clear that she is passionate and driven. People are drawn to her intellectual curiosity and ability to confidently and authentically articulate opinions. She has high aspirations to make change on a global scale. Settling in Santa Barbara after graduation was definitely not part of the plan. The downtown program spurred Abby to re-evaluate her motives and focus more on who she is becoming than on what she is doing. This mental paradigm shift is what caused Abby to make the decision to stay in Santa Barbara and work for a ground-level social enterprise.
I got a whiff of fresh leather as I walked into Parker Clay where I met up with Abby. She quickly heated up her leftover pot stickers and we headed over to the courthouse lawn for a picnic. I asked Abby, “Tell me about your journey from Westmont Downtown to where you are now.” She took it from there, spending the next hour sharing her story. She participated in the downtown semester in the fall of her senior year. A Political Science major with an emphasis in International Development, Abby was initially drawn to the downtown program for its entrepreneurial vigor, project-based internship, and unique approach to learning. She never would have guessed that her biggest takeaways from the program would be connected to her faith and emotions.
I was surprised by how much of her growth as a social entrepreneur was connected to her internship. I asked her to elaborate on this and she eagerly mentioned how months before the semester began she met Ian Bentley, CEO and Co-founder of the Social Enterprise, Parker Clay (a a social enterprise that sells leather goods handmade in Ethiopia) for an interview at the French Press. Before the interview was over Abby had said yes not only to the internship (which would later become a full-time position) but also to a trip to Addia Ababa, Ethiopia to meet the team on the ground.
Abby’s understanding of her strengths and aspirations deepened as she worked with Parker Clay. She explained:
“Interning for such a small start-up company requires that I hold in tension the counterweights of specific daily tasks and a blank canvas of business activity to explore. The extra space in my internship allowed me to explore job functions, and I found I really gravitated towards operations and impact-related work.”
While this job was eye-opening and life-giving for Abby, she still wasn’t convinced that it was in line with her future career goals. As her internship concluded, she was offered a part-time operational job with the agreement to a full-time position upon graduation.
And this was a huge turning point in her story. Such an amazing and generous offer complicated her plans to leave right after graduation for a big city — preferably London, New York, or Washington D.C. — and work for a Fortune 500 company. Accepting the job with Parker Clay and staying in Santa Barbara would wreck the plan. In this situation, a simple pro-con list would not do. For Abby, this was an “emotion-fraught process of dealing with doubt, insecurity, and identity.” But she had resources. Her Westmont Downtown coursework required a personal portfolio in which she had reflected on her values and personal history. By revisiting what drove her, she was free to set aside the plan and take a deeper look at what she really wanted. Ultimately, that meant staying in Santa Barbara for the present. As she summarized,
“I’ve been learning and living into the fact that God’s a lot less interested in where I’m going and a lot more interested in who I’m becoming. Staying in Santa Barbara and working for a company I really believe in, with co-workers who are just as committed to a mission of promoting human flourishing as I am, has been personally and spiritually transforming and grounding.”
In her current role, Abby tracks the company’s financials, building sustainable foundations for both the business and the employees in Ethiopia. While she has some daily tasks, most of her time is unstructured, forcing Abby to create and implement her own projects. Since she values social impact, she has tailored her projects to maximize Parker Clay’s influence. She authors quarterly impact reports, and has recently launched the B-corp certification process to ensure overall transparency and sustainability. This position has opened her eyes to both the particular strengths and challenges that social enterprises face and honed her desire to work in social enterprise for the long haul.
Abby now has a clearer picture of how she can holistically embody her identity as a social entrepreneur. I asked her to expand on what it means for her to be a social entrepreneur and she shared: “It means I am a whole person, not just a rational self-interested profit-maximizer, but someone who cares about the person-ness of myself and everyone my business interacts with.”
Westmont Downtown not only gave Abby a clearer picture of her passion for social enterprise work and international development but also a broader understanding of her emotional intellect. She realized how her role as a social entrepreneur is tied to the type of person she is becoming and her identity as a child of God. To work and form a career as an image-bearer is not about building a resume or an ego. It’s instead about asking better questions that prompt self reflection. And ultimately, intentionally cultivating the spaces where you live and work, planting deep roots in your community.
