Bridges of Hope (BOH) is a fair-trade brick and mortar store in Mount Vernon, Indiana, with a mission of empowering artisans by providing a dependable and fair market for the selling of handicrafts. Fair trade is an alternative way of doing business—one that builds equitable, long-term partnerships between consumers in North America and producers in developing regions around the world. BOH sales of these unique items from around the world have been predominantly in store, but they were already kicking around the idea of an online store when the pandemic accelerated their need for one. BOH Director Teresa Rynkiewich reached out to Dr. Abbas Foroughi, USI Chair of Management and Information Services. “In the past, Bridges of Hope was blessed to have two USI students work as interns, and we were very pleased with their development in marketing for Bridges of Hope. Dr. Foroughi shared my request with several professors and Professor Kasra Pourang graciously accepted,” she said.
These types of projects create opportunities for computer information systems and computer science students to get experience and show how the skills they are learning in the classroom create real-world impact. However, senior projects were already well underway for the semester. Still, CIS instructors wanted to support this initiative. Kasra Pourang, Instructor in CIS, met with representatives from BOH to assess their online needs. He developed a shopping cart in Shopify, so the BOH online presence—website and Facebook—now centers around their online shop. With the click of a mouse, shoppers can purchase unique items crafted by farmers and artisans in Africa, South America, Asia and other developing regions around the world. .
As part of the project, Pourang trained BOH workers how to maintain the content on their website and update products. “Thanks to the USI Romain College of Business, in particular Kasra Pourang, Bridges of Hope's online store is up and running at www.bohfairtrade.com,” said Rynkiewich.
“Since Mr. Kasra Pourang joined our CIS faculty, his contribution to our major has been outstanding. In addition to teaching a computer information systems introductory course, he also teaches our data analytics courses, such as machine learning, data management and business intelligence, as well as web development and database courses,” noted Foroughi. “Mr. Pourang is a great colleague and a true asset to the CIS discipline. We are very fortunate to have such a talented individual on our faculty, who, despite a heavy teaching load, generously shares his expertise to benefit not only our students, his department, the RCOB and USI, but also the community.”