Mosamba

My name is Cameron Thornton Morris. Born in San Franisico, CA, raised in the serene streets of Oakland, CA. Oakand is home! My interests are many, a  randomized sample includes: watercoloring, watching the Brazilian Serie A, cultivating and eating heirloom tomatoes and tickling my pretentious palate with fine beer.

I’ve lived a life blessed with opportunity. At the nubile age of 15 I set sail, left the nest and and ventured to Santa Cruz, Bolivia where I  spent the next 6 months attending the Santa Cruz International School and playing soccer with the socially minded Tahuichi. A chance soccer field encounter sent me on my way to Porto Alegre, Brazil, where I would spend the next year attending the Pan American School of Porto Alegre and playing soccer for the Brazilian club Gremio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense.

Before I got in over my head with South America and soccer my mom summoned me home to graduate from High School. My senior year of High School went by quickly and before I knew it I was on my way out the door again. This time I was headed to Santa Clara University with the intention of playing soccer, and occasionally studying. That plan quickly dissipated when a weirdish back injury effectively ended my soccer career and sent me soul searching for the next two years.

Without the time drain of soccer practice and soccer games I found myself drawn to a place I hadn’t previously spent too much time, the library. The last two years of college I feverishly studied and consumed knowledge. My major was economics with an emphasis on poverty and development. I was inspired by the likes of Jeffrey Sachs, Daron Acemoglu, and David Card. By the time I graduated I felt pretty smart.

Post-grad I once again found myself slumping through the green pastures of South America. With a couple months and a little money I did some traveling, highlight being skiing in Tierra del Fuego. Upon return things took another strange turn. After several months of unemployment, Sergey Brin (or a very low ranking member of his HR department) offered me a job at Google. The internet? What’s that? I wanted to save the world, tackle issues of development, and go back to school to study more econ, but I couldn’t say no to Sergey and his henchmen. After a year at Google, yep you guessed it, I went back to South America. This time I  got valuable work experience at a small start-up in Sao Paulo before turning back to San Francisco to work for another start-up. BASTA! No more technology related work (except for Kiva hehe).

The primary reason that I applied to the Kiva Fellows Program was to turn back to the ideas I was passionate about in college. It has been several weeks  that I have officially been a Kiva Fellow and I am relishing in the decision I made. The next chapter of this story will be revealed on this blog. Stay tuned!