Construye Tus Sueños Business Plan Competition

In mid October we had the annual Construye Tus Sueños business plan competition in the capital. There were 100 kids representing 45 business plans that were there for three days to either watch or compete. Twenty-four groups competed in front of a small group of judges, eight were invited to compete a second time in front of everybody and all the judges, and four were chosen to have their business plans fully funded. 

I brought two groups from my business classes, one of which competed. She did not win, but both groups say they now have an idea of how good you have to be to win, and they are both planning to come back and compete next year.

Overall it was a great conference, very professional and the kids learned a lot. I learned a lot as well, and we have a laundry list of things to tackle to try to make it even better next year, principally by moving from 3-4 awards to a 0% micro loan model which will allow us to fund more plans, include more partner organizations, encourage well thought-out budgets, and improve accountability since just dropping 60,000 pesos (about $1,600) on a few kids from the campo has been shown to potentially do as much or more harm than good. 

Now that the conference is over, we have to begin the process of dispersing the funds to the winners and maintaining accountability that the money is being used for its state purposes, fundraising for Construye 2012, and planning out the tasks and responsibilities of the new leadership team. There are eight coordinators on the leadership team and our ambitious goal is to identify all the tasks and ambitions of Construye for 2012 and assign responsibility for each one to a coordinator by the time everything dies down for Christmas. I will probably have some specific tasks assigned to me as well, but my primary role is to coordinate the team and make sure the whole thing is coming together. 

Personally, in addition to leading the coordinating team, I will facilitate the business curriculum again this year. I also hope to have two or three Dominicans who have completed the course co-facilitating with me. 

Anyway, more to come as things progress. Kristy and I are both swamped, but I’m excited about the projects we are tackling this year. 

Friends at Construye!

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