Two Delegations of IMBA Students Compete at the 2019 Hult Prize Regionals in Vietnam
Date :
2019-05-28
Department :
Office of International Cooperation (OIC)
By Office of International Cooperation (OIC)
Local and foreign students of National Chengchi University’s International MBA Program (IMBA) came together to compete for the Hult Prize regional title in Ho Chi Minh City from April 4th to April 6th 2019. Two NCCU delegations had advanced from the local Campus Competition and were given the chance to represent National Chengchi University abroad and to introduce their innovative ideas to an international audience.
Hult Prize, also known as the ”Nobel Prize for Students”, is an annual competition that encourages young people around the globe to solve the world’s toughest issues. Throughout the prestigious competition, university students are being empowered to develop for-good, for-profit businesses in the form of a social and sustainable enterprise. Quite particular about this competition is further, that it allows the winning team to turn their idea into reality by granting them $1 million in seed capital for their venture.
This year’s challenge set by the Hult Prize Organization is to create a business model that will generate 10,000 jobs for the youth. By doing so, the competition attempts to address three of the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); no poverty (goal 1), quality education (goal 4), and decent work and economic growth (goal 8).
The first NCCU team having qualified for the regionals in Vietnam bears the interesting name “Matchbox”. The educational start-up is composed of its four members: Victoria Pixabaj (Belize), Massiel Morales (Nicaragua), Charles Chen (Taiwan), and Ashton Ebenhoeh (USA). The group’s aim is to provide extensive Online Education Training to underprivileged youths in Latin America, so that they are skilled and ultimately prepared to be employed in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industries.
Massiel Morales - one of the four bright minds of Matchbox - shared the team’s approach by stating that “we partnered with fundamental corporations in Nicaragua to ensure our idea was credible. Having done that, our hopes going into the regionals round were very high. We believed we had solidified our idea. Today, we continue to feel the urge to positively impact the lives of many young people so that they can access decent jobs.”
NCCU’s second representative team, “Cuate Soda”, generated the idea of establishing a unique retail company with a twist. Team members Ana Victoria Herrera (Colombia), Freddy Gutierrez (Guatemala), Nicole Engelbrechtova (Czech Republic), and Alex Chang (Taiwan), jointly aim at providing nutritious beverages with an affordable price to every person suffering from malnutrition. Top quality is thereby mixed with an outstanding service, as they are reaching out to neglected communities and empower the youth by becoming franchise owners. “We did our research and met professors for feedback regarding our business model. We thought of the market need and how the product could be sold in a better way,” said Ana Victoria Herrera.
Both teams’ journey started with the local Hult Prize Campus Competition at NCCU, wherein they competed against four other teams. According to Matchbox, winning the on-campus round represented a priceless and joyful experience. According to the sharing of its members, they felt rewarded for the hard work and dedication that all of them had invested into this project. Besides the well-deserved feeling of reward, IMBA Alumnus and 2015 Hult Prize Winner An-Nung Chen of IMPCT, along with a number of IMBA professors, collectively served as the judges during the initial stage of the competition and assisted all teams in further refining their ideas.
The regionals in Ho Chi Minh City lasted for three consecutive days and accommodated a total of 44 teams from a variety of Asian nations. The competition consisted of networking events, presentations of business models, peer to peer feedback, and a visit to Ton Duc Thang University. Although Cuate Soda and Matchbox did not win in the Ho Chi Minh regional summit, team members still highly valued the learning process and the experiences made during their competition journey and chose not to give up on their individual and/or group entrepreneurial dreams.
Matchbox member Ashton Ebenhoeh highlighted in this regard that “We have not given up on our idea and we will continue to try. We all learned from each other and did our best. This is not an event that we will soon forget.” As for aspiring business students, who wish to enter venture competitions, Matchbox advised students to be committed, dedicated and motivated. While Hult Prize is certainly not the only business competition that exists, both teams agree that it has been a truly enriching experience and hence encourage their fellow NCCU students to get out of their comfort zones and do likewise.
Local and foreign students of National Chengchi University’s International MBA Program (IMBA) came together to compete for the Hult Prize regional title in Ho Chi Minh City from April 4th to April 6th 2019. Two NCCU delegations had advanced from the local Campus Competition and were given the chance to represent National Chengchi University abroad and to introduce their innovative ideas to an international audience.
Hult Prize, also known as the ”Nobel Prize for Students”, is an annual competition that encourages young people around the globe to solve the world’s toughest issues. Throughout the prestigious competition, university students are being empowered to develop for-good, for-profit businesses in the form of a social and sustainable enterprise. Quite particular about this competition is further, that it allows the winning team to turn their idea into reality by granting them $1 million in seed capital for their venture.
This year’s challenge set by the Hult Prize Organization is to create a business model that will generate 10,000 jobs for the youth. By doing so, the competition attempts to address three of the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); no poverty (goal 1), quality education (goal 4), and decent work and economic growth (goal 8).
The first NCCU team having qualified for the regionals in Vietnam bears the interesting name “Matchbox”. The educational start-up is composed of its four members: Victoria Pixabaj (Belize), Massiel Morales (Nicaragua), Charles Chen (Taiwan), and Ashton Ebenhoeh (USA). The group’s aim is to provide extensive Online Education Training to underprivileged youths in Latin America, so that they are skilled and ultimately prepared to be employed in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industries.
Massiel Morales - one of the four bright minds of Matchbox - shared the team’s approach by stating that “we partnered with fundamental corporations in Nicaragua to ensure our idea was credible. Having done that, our hopes going into the regionals round were very high. We believed we had solidified our idea. Today, we continue to feel the urge to positively impact the lives of many young people so that they can access decent jobs.”
NCCU’s second representative team, “Cuate Soda”, generated the idea of establishing a unique retail company with a twist. Team members Ana Victoria Herrera (Colombia), Freddy Gutierrez (Guatemala), Nicole Engelbrechtova (Czech Republic), and Alex Chang (Taiwan), jointly aim at providing nutritious beverages with an affordable price to every person suffering from malnutrition. Top quality is thereby mixed with an outstanding service, as they are reaching out to neglected communities and empower the youth by becoming franchise owners. “We did our research and met professors for feedback regarding our business model. We thought of the market need and how the product could be sold in a better way,” said Ana Victoria Herrera.
Both teams’ journey started with the local Hult Prize Campus Competition at NCCU, wherein they competed against four other teams. According to Matchbox, winning the on-campus round represented a priceless and joyful experience. According to the sharing of its members, they felt rewarded for the hard work and dedication that all of them had invested into this project. Besides the well-deserved feeling of reward, IMBA Alumnus and 2015 Hult Prize Winner An-Nung Chen of IMPCT, along with a number of IMBA professors, collectively served as the judges during the initial stage of the competition and assisted all teams in further refining their ideas.
The regionals in Ho Chi Minh City lasted for three consecutive days and accommodated a total of 44 teams from a variety of Asian nations. The competition consisted of networking events, presentations of business models, peer to peer feedback, and a visit to Ton Duc Thang University. Although Cuate Soda and Matchbox did not win in the Ho Chi Minh regional summit, team members still highly valued the learning process and the experiences made during their competition journey and chose not to give up on their individual and/or group entrepreneurial dreams.
Matchbox member Ashton Ebenhoeh highlighted in this regard that “We have not given up on our idea and we will continue to try. We all learned from each other and did our best. This is not an event that we will soon forget.” As for aspiring business students, who wish to enter venture competitions, Matchbox advised students to be committed, dedicated and motivated. While Hult Prize is certainly not the only business competition that exists, both teams agree that it has been a truly enriching experience and hence encourage their fellow NCCU students to get out of their comfort zones and do likewise.