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Student-Pitched Fish Farming, Carpentry Enterprises to be Funded
Students in St. Andrew’s International Development class made pitches for funding last week to a panel of social enterprise and international development experts.
On Monday morning, two of those projects were chosen for funding. Both enterprises are based in Haiti.
The first enterprise, Aidall, aims to use the natural resources of Lake Peligre in Cange, Haiti to develop a sustainable fish farming business. Twenty percent of the fish raised will be sold at a discount to local merchants and fifteen percent of the gross receipts will be donated to local schools around the lake. Seniors Caroline Simpson, William Fisher, Alexander England, Millicent Dye and Adam Tommer represented this project.
The second enterprise, Osse’s Communal Carpentry, seeks to develop a self-sustaining carpentry business in Mirebalais, Haiti that makes quality wood furniture and teaches young people the art of carpentry. Seniors May Wallace, Enzo Bascon, Julian Paulay and Bridgette Kontner pitched this project.
The proposals were part of St. Andrew’s International Development class, in which students partnered with aspiring entrepreneurs in South Africa and Haiti to create, develop and propose enterprises for funding by St. Andrew’s Haiti Fund. Throughout the year, students learned international and social enterprise development from co-Director of Service Learning Chuck James, the history of South Africa and Haiti from History teacher David Brandt and economics from English teacher Liz Kiingi.
Panelists included:
· Maurizia Tovo, World Bank Group
· Miriam E. Brandao, Inter-American Foundation
· Steven Koltai, Brookings Institution and Managing Partner at Koltai & Co.
· Simon Winter, TechnoServe
· Peter Yeo, United Nations Foundation
· Gretchen Hartley, Marriott International
· Geoffrey Chalmers, ACDI
Koltai, also the author of Peace Through Entrepreneurship, said he was impressed not only by the students’ ideas, but also by the pedagogy behind them.
“It is rare to find not only a course, but also an action program like the one at St Andrew’s, and particularly at this level,” Koltai said. “Students coming out of this course are going to have a huge leg up should they want to pursue any of the related areas to this course from entrepreneurship into international economic development.”
Final contracts and conditions will be negotiated before the enterprises receive funding.
Other projects pitched by students included a lighting, sound, and musical equipment rental service in Winterveldt, South Africa and a mosaic arts project in Jacmel, Haiti. Students representing these enterprises included seniors Caroline Ryan, Ashley Alexander, Justin Harmon, Liam Clark, Chris Smalls, Shelly Xie, Anthony Duruji, Alex Smith and Abbie Baldwin.
St. Andrew’s Episcopal School is a private, coeducational college preparatory day school for students in preschool (Age 2) through grade 12, located in Potomac, Maryland.