The SAGE World Cup 2009 is an annual international business competition for high school students from different countries around the globe.  This year’s host is SAGE Brazil.  The competition ran from August 9 to 12, 2009.

Johanna Lyn Malicad and Kent Rey Murillo are fourth year students at the SKPSC High School who traveled all the way to Brasilia under the guidance of their Advisor, Engr. Rodolfo Solomon.  They were supposed to be accompanied by two other students, John Rei Dela Cruz, and Ena Angela Oculto, but skyrocketing airfares for the South American country proved to be all too challenging.  Still, it was not something that stopped half the team from representing the country at this international business competition for teens.

Indeed, the sacrifices paid off.  The team garnered the coveted Gold Medal or First Place of the ARTHUR BOSCHEE and EVELYN BALL INTERNATIONAL AWARD FOR SOCIAL ENTERPRISE.  Furthermore, the team also reaped the following SAGE International Awards for Best Social Enterprises Addressing the UN Millennium Development Goals:

3rd Place in Goal 1 (Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger).
1st Place in Goal 3 (Promote gender equality and empower women)
1st Place in Goal 7 (Ensure environmental sustainability)
3rd Place in Goal 8 (Develop a global partnership for development)

The International Award for Social Enterprise has been established in memory of Jerr and Ken Boschee’s father, Arthur Boschee, and in memory of Linda Ball’s mother, Evelyn Ball.  Arthur Boschee (1910-2000) and Evelyn Ball (1910-1993) were both successful small business entrepreneurs who took significant risks while building their businesses and had an abiding concern for the welfare of others.   Jerr Boschee is the Founder of the Institute for Social Entrepreneurs. The team received a plaque and a prize money of USD 2,000 for their business.  The International Award was first given at the 2007 SAGE World Cup and the first recipient was the SAGE Philippines team from Ateneo de Manila University High School.

The Sultan Kudarat team’s business strikes a balance between economy and ecology by coming up with an innovative use of palm fronds into cement blocks.  The final product proves to be 20% more economical than commercial hollow blocks used in construction. Palm Fronds Hollow Blocks is also fire-resistant and lightweight.  The business promises to address the acute housing shortage in the country and arrest the rising cost of construction materials. Their social venture, in the municipality of Isulan, trained over 100 male participants on the skills needed on the fabrication of palm frond, cement-bonded blocks used in construction. With this venture, the SAGE team also educated the residents on the environmental and health hazards created by improper burning of this agricultural residue.

Furthermore, this high school team also empowers T’boli women and their handicrafts who are also using a by-product of palm fronds discarded from palm farming.  The team dedicates some of their time to carry out education and skills training to revive the handicraft weaving business with emphasis on financial management, marketing operations and quality control.  The students aim to create business opportunities for this ethnic group while enhancing and strengthening cultural appreciation and preservation.

No louder cheer went up for any team during the final awards ceremony than when the SAGE Global staff announced this award to the Philippine team. Dr. Curtis L. DeBerg, SAGE Global Founder and CEO, said, “Rodolfo and his SAGE team, as represented by Johanna and Kent, should be very proud of what they have accomplished. The Philippines has come roaring back to the SAGE competition, having won the Third Annual World Cup in San Francisco, USA in May 2005.”

Rob Best, SAGE Global COO and one of the judges for the Boschee/Ball Award, said, “Johanna, Kent and Rodolfo simply won the hearts and souls of all 200 participants from 14 countries.”

Based on their performance, SAGE Global is seriously considering the Philippines as the host country for next year’s 2010 SAGE World Cup (eighth year). Other candidates include South Africa, South Korea, and USA.

SAGE Philippines is part of the Global SAGE Network, which adheres to the vision of “creating better futures through entrepreneurship and community service”.  It commits itself to the mission to create the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders whose innovations and social enterprises address the major unmet needs of our global community.

The Sultan Kudarat SAGE team competed and was declared Champion at the SAGE Philippines Cup 2009, an annual competition for high school students all over the country who have ventured into social entrepreneurship.  This year’s Cup was co-convened by the Philippine Council of Students in Intrapreneurship (PCSI) and the Junior Jaycees of Los Baños last June 20-21, 2009 at the University of the Philippines Los Baños.  The event was supported by the British Council’s Global Changemaker’s Grant, Youth Works Inc, and Studio 23.  SAGE Philippines would like to acknowledge Dr. George Sorio, Chairman of PCSI who personally made the team’s travel to Brazil possible.

The panel of judges (hailing from different countries themselves) will select the 2nd Runner Up, 1st Runner Up, and Champion teams. Special Awards shall also be given out:

>The SAGE International Awards for Best Social Enterprises Addressing the UN MDGs
>The Arthur Boschee and Evelyn Ball International Award for Social Enterprise
>The Grossman Family International SAGE Award for Environmental Stewardship

Good luck SAGE Philippines!

It features the speakers from our Seminar on Social Entrepreneurship, Ms. Reese Fernandez of Rags2Riches and Dr. Aida Velasco from De la Salle University.  The teams who competed at the Cup are also introduced.

We also would like to invite you to view the SAGE Global Annual Report of 2008, newly-released from the Global Office.

The British Council believes social entrepreneurship is an exciting way for young people to set up sustainable businesses for positive social change. In providing young people with opportunities to help them make a difference in their communities, they become enabled to act on their dreams and turn them into action.

Please log on to Social Entrepreneurship School Caravan to check the different schedules and cities.  Students are encourage to register online to take advantage of this opportunity.

The team was composed of high school students Kent Rey Murillo, Johanna Lyn Malicad, John Rei Dela Cruz, and Ena Angela Oculto.  Their College mentor, Mark Gersava, and Faculty Adviser Engr. Rodolfo B. Solomon were also present at the Cup, coaching them for their presentation and celebrating with them when they finally won the year’s most coveted Cup at the only high school business competition in the Philippines.

Aside from the opportunity to represent the Philippines at the SAGE World Cup in Brazil, the team also received an P8,000 prize grant from Youth Works Inc. to further work on their social enterprise, which satisfied the following SAGE Criteria of Civic Engagement, Environmental Sustainability, a Global Dimension, and Entrepreneurship applied to a new venture.  The team’s business strikes a balance between economy and ecology by coming up with an innovative use of palm fronds into cement blocks.  The final product proves to be 20% more economical than commercial hollow blocks used in construction. Palm Fronds Hollow Blocks is also fire-resistant and lightweight.  The business promises to address the acute housing shortage in the country and arrest the rising cost of construction materials.

SAGE teams from Colomban College and Polytechnic State College of Antique received the 1st Runner Up and 2nd Runner Up titles, respectively, with their projects.  An unexpected recognition was given to Elizabeth Seton High School through a Judges’ Special Citation for having “captured” the essence of a social enterprise.  Other teams that competed were from Western Visayas College of Science and Technology and Pangasinan State University.

SAGE Philippines is part of the Global SAGE Network which adheres to the vision of “creating better futures through entrepreneurship and community service.  It commits itself to the mission to create the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders whose innovations and social enterprises address the major unmet needs of our global community.

The SAGE Philippines Cup is an annual competition for high school students all over the country who have ventured into social entrepreneurship.  This year’s Cup was co-convened by the Philippine Council of Student Intrapreneurship (PCSI) and the Junior Jaycees of Los Baños.  The event was supported by the British Council, Youth Works Inc, and Studio 23.

You can view the photostream here.

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I must admit that right from the moment I received my invitation to the National Congress, I was nervous and intimidated from joining a roster of heavyweight speakers.  I had a tough act to follow especially since I was set to speak after Prof. Marlo Sanchez, a very charismatic entrepreneurship guru who has his own radio show, a broadcaster awardee, and most of all, a man gifted with the most wonderful sense of humor to boot.  The main premise of his talk was that in the time of an economic crisis, all of us should see it as an opportunity to start a business.  In fact, the worst time of putting up a business has already passed according to him.  In Philippine history, the economy was so bad in the 1980s when the entire country was revolting against a dictator; the Philippine peso depreciated in value from 13 pesos to a dollar to 29 pesos in a matter of hours and banks offered interest that was as high as 40%.  Our economy today is certainly much better off when government is very much aggressive to the formation of small-medium enterprises and banks are offering business-friendly loans.  Prof. Sanchez gave a positive encouragement to the young university students who were present at that Congress by telling them that putting up a business can be a means to achieving their dreams.

Another speaker, Undersecretary Lourdes Trasmonte from the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) also presented the latest statistics about young people in the Philippines and their plight when it comes to employment and entrepreneurship. [Never in my wildest dreams have I imagined having a top-level government official as a fellow speaker and she actually came early for my talk.]  One-half of the unemployed in the Philippines are young people in the ages of 15-24 years old.  Each year 1 million young people enter the labor force, who are less employable than their adult counterparts because of low qualifications and lack of work experience.  Finally she mentions that entrepreneurship for young people is the solution to this labor issue.  DOLE has already constructed the Youth Entrepreneurship Support program, which helps young people come up with a business from planning to access to seed funding.  Because of this, SAGE Philippines is currently requesting exploratory meetings with USec. Trasmonte and DOLE for a future partnership.

However, the most exciting part of the event was in the afternoon when teams presented their social businesses in the SAGE format.  These were college and high school students telling us about their projects in their respective communities from all over the Philippines, even as far as the conflict areas in Mindanao.  It is really a good thing that I don’t judge in any of the SAGE competitions.   I wouldn’t know which team to pick at all.  These students are so inspiring!  One of the teams that caught my eye has been running their social enterprise for three years.  They run a microfinance company, helping out families below the poverty threshold whose children are forced to work at a firecracker company so the parents can make ends meet.  Because of the team’s microfinancing and livelihood training programs, parents managed to have other streams of income aside from their day jobs and their kids do not have to work under dangerous conditions making pyrotechnic devices.

Other teams who presented their projects talked about preserving a native delicacy and helping out women into becoming entrepreneurs from their own homes.  One group decided to teach an indigeneous ethnic tribe a livelihood program and helping them sell their product! Another talked about implementing feeding programs for elementary kids while financing pedicab ownership for their mothers.

It is awe-inspiring to see young people make a difference in the world through their own communities.  It makes me love SAGE and being a country coordinator even more.  There are some reflections that I would like to share from this experience.  One, is that being 26 years old myself, I do have a lot to learn about running a nonprofit in a country who still has to understand that young people have to perform a role in changing society for the better.  In the PCSI conference, I was able to meet members of an older generation who actually believe in what we are doing.  Many of them gave their heartfelt encouragement and I am truly grateful to have met them. (Trust me, all of us do need the occasional pat in the back for the work that we are doing).   I worried that I made a mess in my presentation, there were some technical impediments that I encountered, some compatibility issues between powerpoint versions, but still some members of the audience approached me and inquired about SAGE.

Two, I also realized that young people are more effective in their work if they are better informed about the social issues they are facing.  During my talk, I have to say I encountered some blank faces when I asked the college kids how many MDGs there are.  None of them even knew what an MDG is, which was a little unsettling.  But they knew about the social problems in their towns and some of them came up with knowledgeable studies profiling their communities.  Maybe it is time that we put a research component in our programs.  I would love to see our websites carrying information not just about putting up social enterprises but also about concrete data about societal conditions.

Lastly, I’d like to offer some encouragement to my fellow volunteers and country coordinators in SAGE.  Even if there is a lot to be done, there are more opportunities than challenges.  Like what was said during the closing remarks by Mr. Rosenberg (forgive me for failing to remember his first name but I can tell you he was a President of Nasdaq when he was 29 years old), failure and success are both states of mind and it is better to choose the latter as an overriding attitude in achieving our global vision.

- Tess Garcia, Country SAGE Coordinator for the Philippines

The Philippine Council of Students in Intrapreneurship (PCSI) is a university based student organization with international affiliations in more than twenty (20) countries. In the Philippines, it is composed of more than 200 colleges and universities and has successfully staged five regional cluster orientations and two regional congresses this year alone.  National finalists, delegates from affiliate schools, and guests and benefactors will converge to honor the outstanding teams who implemented life-changing programs in their communities.

Due to numerous requests from schools, partner institutions, and the SAGE Global office, SAGE Philippines has postponed its national competition from FEB 28 to the month of June.

However, to provide assistance and to nurture the existing teams that have already signified their intent to join, SAGE PHilippines has made the following arrangements:

1.  All teams who have already entered the competition shall now be partnered with the Philippine Council for Student Intrapreneurship (PCSI) for mentoring and development of business plans and implementation. Your names and entries will be forwarded to PCSI.

2.  Because of a recent agreement between SAGE Philippines and Youth Venture Philippines (http://philippines.ashoka.org/youthventure), your projects are now eligible for a 20,000 loan as seedfunding.  In the next two weeks we will be sending forms for your applications.  YV Philippines will be providing training in how to manage your loans.  You will be one of the very first teams to take advantage of this opportunity.

If you have questions regarding these matters, please contact dannyl@sagephilippines.org

We shall be assisting you in the next few weeks to partner with YV and PCSI.  Please don’t hesitate to ask questions.  The implementation and development of your social businesses are important to us and this places you at a great advantage come competition day when you present your financial statements and annual report.

Some questions you may ask:

a. What if I will graduate this March 2009, will I still be able to compete?

YES.  Technically you have already entered your entries DURING the time of which you were in high school.  So even if you enter College this June, you are still considered as one of the candidates for the Championship title in SAGE Cup Philippines AND the SAGE World Cup in Brazil.

b.  Who are YV Philippines and PCSI?

Youth Venture Philippines and the Philippine Council for Student Intrapreneurship are institutions who have recently contacted SAGE Philippines to provide support to SAGE teams and their social enterprises.

In the United States, SAGE USA and YV USA has maintained a partnership for the past few years in order to provide young students the know-how in setting up and managing their businesses.

PCSI is currently managed by Dr. Robert Galindez, a member of the Global Advisory Board of SAGE Global.

IMPORTANT Reminders:

i. Please do not forget to sign up for an account at the SAGEPhilippines.org website.  If you have already signed up, please take note that we have been sending e-newsletters for the past few days to keep you updated.  If you have not received any of these please check your profiles and check the box that says you are willing to receive updates.

ii.  Please use the SAGE forums to communicate with the organizing team and the other high school teams that will be competing with you.

iii.  Please include in your presentations and reports how your project manages to satisfy the Millennium Development Goals.

iv.  You may now upload your entries at the site by using your login accounts.  If there are problems with this feature, please email info@sagephilippines.org

Good luck to all!

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Folks, we’d like you to take your time and visit the Millennium Development Goals website.  The SAGE Global family is determined to take part in the Millennium Campaign to End Poverty in 2015.

On the MDG site, you can click on any of the 8 goals and see how you can help your community through your projects.  For high school teams, this is the perfect opportunity to choose and study the cause that your social enterprises should serve.  Not only does this work well to your advantage come competition day, but you will certainly help SAGE in its contribution to the MDG deadline.

We would also like to highlight the new links on our online SAGE network:

SAGE Brazil

SAGE China

SAGE Germany

SAGE USA-Ohio

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We have released the new criteria for the competition.  You may download the new criteria from this blog entry. SAGE Criteria 09 (95)

REMEMBER: On competition day (MARCH 1) all presentations should be outlined according to the following:

1. Business overview

2. A Global Dimension

3. Civic Engagement

4. Environment Responsibility

5. Use of Mentors

6. Use of Business Advisory Board

7. Use of Media

8. Measured Results

All Annual Reports have to be given to the judges during the presentation. It should contain all information about the business, financial statements, and photos of your projects.  Minimum of 2 pages and Maximum of 4 pages.

GOOD LUCK!!!

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