College students get $135K seed funding for businesses
Puerto Rico Products Association President Ramón Pérez-Blanco hands out awards to winning students.
With the goal of preparing college students to join the island’s business community, the Young Entrepreneurship Education System (YEES!), in collaboration with the Puerto Rico Products Association, recently held the second edition of the College Business Fair, during which 20 finalists received a combined $135,000 in seed funding for business creation.
“At YEES! we’re committed to developing and implementing business education programs to contribute directly to the training of young entrepreneurs and thus help them take their first steps into the business world,” said Rosaleé Córdova, co-founder of YEES!.
“The College Business Fair represents a unique opportunity to contribute to universities in their educational agenda to provide students with development alternatives relevant to the current economy,” she said.
In this second edition, 548 students from 14 college campuses participated. Twenty finalists were chosen during the first round of evaluations, chosen from seven competition categories. They moved on to a six-month mentoring cycle comprising education sessions focusing on specific business topics and visits to companies.
Aside from the monetary prizes, the winners also received a one-year membership to the Puerto Rico Products Association.
