USC hosts Boost and Online Accelerator programs

February 3, 2019 00:21 am

Santa Clara University through its Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship (www.scu-social-entrepreneurship.org/gsbi), in partnership with USC-Center for Social Entrepreneurship (CSE) and the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc., conducted a training for Boost and Online Accelerator mentors last January 28, 2019 at the University of San Carlos Banquet Hall.

Facilitators were Andy Lieberman and Jeff Pilisuk of the Miller Center-Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI) with Bret Waters, a lecturer at Stanford University teaching entrepreneurship and innovation. Waters has been mentoring social enterprises for more than ten years, volunteering at the Miller Center to help entrepreneurs develop, refine, and scale innovative new ventures with emphasis on women's economic development and global climate resilience.

The University of San Carlos-Center for Social Entrepreneurship mentors (1st batch) with Miller Center-GSBI facilitators and SBE administrators and faculty members seated from left: Allan Gozon (SBE CSE), Jovenal M. Arnaiz (Chair, Business Administration), Lauro Cipriano S. Silapan Jr. (SBE Graduate Programs coordinator), Jeff Pilisuk, Andy Lieberman, Dr. Melanie B. De Ocampo (SBE Dean), Bret Waters (Stanford University lecturer and Silicon Valley mentor/consultant), and Dr. Corazon Anzano (SBE research coordinator).

The five-day program kicked off with the mentor training, followed by a two-day Boost Accelerator Program for micro-small and small enterprises and a one-day Online Accelerator Program for identified social enterprises, namely Organique, GEMS, Fishers and Changemakers, Que Alegre Organic Farm, and Pestales Agriculture Cooperative.

This third leg of technology transfer from Miller Center was capped by a planning session with SBE partners headed by Dean Dr. Melanie B. De Ocampo last February 1, 2019. Next week, the GSBI Team with SBE will visit discovery partners in Manila to further develop the envisioned social entrepreneurship ecosystem in the Visayas and Mindanao.

by Allan O. Gozon, SBE Center for Social Entrepreneurship

Tags: Business and Economics