The UAC-CP’s Business Institute recently announced the top three winners of the first Entrepreneurship Challenge.

The three winners were announced following a long process of 64 students researching and developing viable business plans that respond to social and economic demands of communities rural area.

1st place: Ecotourism major Giovana Lopez. Her idea is a hammock camping business in the tourist friendly town of Coroico in Nor Yungas.

2nd place: Ecotourism major Leonardo Maleca. His idea is making jipijapa crafts – traditional and functional art made from palm leaves of his home in the TIPNIS territory of Bolivia.

3rd place: Agronomy student Wilfredo Collanque. His idea is to provide affordable and convenient transportation with a motorcycle taxi business for the College and surrounding communities.

The prize money was sponsored by friends and donors of CPF. The money will be used as capital to allow the three winners to launch their business plans.

In 2017 the UAC-CP inaugurated its Business Institute to improve the economic situation of youth from Bolivia’s rural area by helping them to develop the academic knowledge, practical abilities, and critical thinking skills necessary to create and manage successful businesses. Funded in part with a grant from the Inter-American Development Bank and matching funds from the Katherine B. Andersen Fund, the Business Institute combines practical training and academic studies to teach and model business development to UAC-CP students, graduates, and youth from the local area.