Bienvenidos to my Blog!

Hello Family, Friends, and Curious Readers,

Thanks for stopping in to see what I am up to. This is my first blog, and I hope not to bore you too much with the details of my life. But rather hope to offer you some insights into development work, the highs, the lows, and well the boring.

But before I move away for 27 months, let me give you a little information about myself before I lose a steady internet connection.

So after graduating from Boston College in 2005, I decided I wanted to learn Spanish and "save the world" so I moved to Cusco, Peru. I began by volunteering for The Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco by researching and writing a small business plan for the organization. I continued to work with the organization until February of 2008, when I returned to the US to prepare for my move to Madrid, Spain for 15 months to study an International MBA at IE Business School. And now, after a year of searching for the perfect development job, and taking odd jobs in the meantime, I have joined the Peace Corps and am volunteering again. So wish me luck, and PLEASE someone stop me from volunteering again!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Local Business Plan Competition-Take Two


The second business plan competition was held last Thursday at one of my schools. We had 15 groups participating and only 1 group could advance to the Regional Competition which will be held this Thursday (although supposedly a Tropical Storm is coming so we shall see what happens). The small event went well, and after about 3 hours of judging and another 45 minutes of deliberating, we had our winning team. It is hard to describe their product, but it can be best explained as a little cabin (used to decorate a house, or restaurant) made of cinnamon sticks or a box (covered in coffee beans and grounds) to served as a decoration and an air freshener. They will be trying to sell their product as a gift for corporate conferences, or decorations for restaurants. I am interested to see how far they will be able to take this product.

The rest of the groups (those that did not win) were mainly jewelry, decorations for houses, or products made of recycled materials. One group actually produced a bottle of wine made from grapes. It tasted pretty good, however their business was not very feasible considering the grapes cost about $4USD a pound and their wine was more expensive than a bottle from Chile here.  Another notable product was the scorpions made from wire. They were pretty cute, and I bought one to serve as a souvenir of my time in Nicaragua (although I have only ever seen one), but it was small and I figure I can put it on my Christmas tree one day. Here are some pictures of the groups presenting their products.

My Counterpart who is Sandinista, could you tell?

This picture frame is made from recycled paper... not wood!

My scorpion

Oh my gosh! A scorpion... oh thank goodness it's not real!



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1 comment:

  1. JulieOctober 25, 2011 at 7:56 AM

    Interesting to see all the product ideas the students designed with such limited budgets. Love the baskets, are those made of paper, too, like the frames? Also, great acting job with the scorpion, if it wasn't for the caption, I would have thought it was real.

    Best of luck with the Regional Competition!

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