If asked to describe New Jersey native Ben Prinz, one word in particular comes to mind: passionate. Those who know him are familiar with his outgoing nature and seemingly unstoppable enthusiasm, and those who don’t are quickly greeted with an extended hand and warm introduction.You may also recognize him as a contestant from “Mr. University,” Kappa Alpha Theta’s male beauty pageant held this past March to benefit CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate Association). What you might not know, however, is that the political science (and/or economics) major and Sigma Phi Epsilon brother is an avid traveler, missionary and entrepreneur, dedicated to global change through Kyklou International, the nonprofit organization he founded himself.
1. About what are you most passionate?
My biggest passion is, hands down, beauty, though. I’m obsessed with great music, natural beauty, great art, and the like. I also love people. There’s something really captivating about the struggles, the triumphs, the stories, the smiles of people. It may sound cliche but I genuinely find joy in the joy and happiness of others, and especially the once joyless, but we can talk about that later. Beauty inspires me too–to more deeply experience it in relationships, adventures, in life drives me forward. Grounding all my inspirations and passions, however, is the beauty of the story (which I think is true) and person of Jesus. He gets a bad rap because many who claim to follow him often twist his words and draw radically different conclusions from his life. To me, his call is one of surrender into love not selfishness, humility not “holier-than-thou”ness, joy not strait-laced anger, embrace not exclusion. I’d challenge you to take a peak at the actual story, at the person sometime–he’s quite captivating.
2. It looks like you’ve done a lot of traveling – what were these trips for?
The bulk of my travel has been independent journeys into various cultures on almost every continent, seeking to serve. Looking back, a lot of my travel has been rather silly—me or my team thinking we were accomplishing some large feat and slowly but surely changing the world. But more recently, over the past two or three years, I’ve had the opportunity to embark on some meaningful adventures that have really rocked the way I think about basically everything.
3. Of the places you’ve been, which has been your favorite and why?
Well, that’s a tough question–depends on what you mean by favorite. The place that’s captured me most, however, is Uganda, hands down. When I first went to Uganda, my junior year of high school, I spent about three months living alone at an orphanage and teaching English and math to war and natural orphans. So often I hear the cliche experience of “They’re so poor and so hungry and yet they’re so happy! How is it possible?” Before my time in Uganda, I was quite susceptible to ascribing this, what Chimamanda Adichie calls, “single story” to the lives of really complex individuals. In Uganda, I began to see people I was trying to help not as people I was trying to help, but as people. People, like me, who had fears and dreams and talents and families and traditions. I saw beauty not simply in their resiliency or in the contrast between their happiness and their apparent situation, but in their stories as deep, contemplative, valuable, complex human beings. In Uganda, I developed real friendships, not just this fake Western-I’ve-come-to-rescue-
4. Tell us more about Kyklou International, the business that you founded. What kind of business is it?
Kyklou International (pronouced KeyClue) is a nonprofit social investment and consulting firm empowering organizations in the developing world to flourish sustainably. Essentially, we partner with organizations in order to enable them to develop independence so that they can continue and expand their work of real, locally-grounded and owned growth. For example, we’re working with with our first client, St. Mary Kevin Orphanage, the orphanage I mentioned above, in building a sustainable pig farm from which the orphanage will acquire an alternative source of revenue from which they can finance their work. We focus on holistic sustainability through, not just providing organizations with financial independence although that’s definitely our primary goal. Thus, the pig farm will provide a venue for the older children to work, learn a trade, and fund their future education. The big thing in pig farming these days is alternative uses of pig manure including production of bio gas. To make a long story short, SMK, once the farm reaches its intended scale, will no longer depend on unreliable energy companies but will posses an internal, sustainable energy source and possibly a good to provide to the local community! Kyklou partners with organizations to envision and implement such organizationally and contextually specific projects which will enable the organizations to continue to foster grassroots growth sustainably.
5. What made you interested in doing this? Where do you envision Kyklou going in the future?
Well, I’ve always been interested in development work, but my last trip to Uganda really opened my eyes to the necessity of empowering local growth and change, not Western-imposed and funded expansion. Kyklou was started as a venue to simply aid this orphanage, but we’ve been approached by about three organizations since our creation who are interested in our services. At this point, however, the rest of KI’s board of directors and I have decided to restrict any expansion of our work to our first client for the next eight months. Then, we’ll explore the (likely) possibility of partnering with more organizations! My personal dream for KI, as Kyklou’s founder, is for the organization to become the global leader in such sustainable efforts, changing the way people think about doing good and doing well.
6. What are your plans for the future?
Oh boy. Well I’d love to see Kyklou take off as I said. But at the same time I definitely want to go to law school after college. Not sure I want to practice law, although that is not out of the picture. I’d love to start other ventures like Kyklou. I’ve considered becoming an urban minister. Maybe politics? Wherever I end up, I want to be a leader and I want to have a real impact on the lives of many. So career plans: pretty clueless. Career goal: Help people flourish.
For more information about Kyklou International, visit the organization’s website at http://www.kyklou.org/.