The St. Jude team and their Advisers pose with Dr. Curtis DeBerg, Founding Chairman of SAGE Global.

St. Jude High School is the SAGE Cup Champion for 2008. Their business idea was simple yet engaging. The team recycles used paper into handmade specialty paper that will be used by their schoolmates in St. Jude as a cheaper alternative to paper bought in regular school supplies stores. The team plans to use their profits into helping vocational programs and teaching other youths to explore paper-recycling as a livelihood alternative.

The St. Jude team will present their business to the consortium of Mendiola schools to encourage other students to go into entrepreneurship.

Ateneo De Manila High School

location: Quezon City

The team psychs up for the World Cup in Ukraine.

The Ateneo De Manila High School championed SAGE Cup Philippines in 2007. They flew to Odessa in Ukraine to represent the Philippines at the SAGE World Cup. The Ateneo boys were not able to place in the World Cup but they managed to garner a special award. Jerr Boschee, Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Social Entrepreneurs (www.socialent.org) presented the Arthur Boschee and Evelyn Ball International Award for Social Enterprise to the the team making the Philippines as the first ever recipient of the award.

Their business recycled old tarpaulin posters into trendy school bags. They managed to hire a coalition of unemployed tailors to sew their bags thereby earning them the Award. By giving employment to breadwinners and lessening plastic waste from the environment, the Ateneo team certainly deserved the publicity they received from GMA7’s Mel & Joey, ABS-CBN’s Pangkabuhayan Program, and a short article in Entrepreneur Magazine’s November 2007 issue.

Christian School International

Location: Laguna

Christian School International won second place in the 2008 SAGE Cup. The team turned a science project into a business. They banked on the medicinal value of Acacia Tree leaves as a topical medicine for dandruff and other minor skin irritations.

They came up with a range of affordable products: naturally-made soaps, ointments, facial wash, and foot scrubs made of Acacia leaves extract. They believe that these products can be replicated in other tropical Third World countries.

Reedley International School

Location: Quezon City

Location: Quezon City

The SAGE Team from Reedley International School boasts an innovative business venture from the bane of farmers and gardeners: weeds. Their social enterprise explores “good weeds” as source of food and raw materials. This new venture is focused mainly on the propagation of the use of weeds mainly as an innovative source of nutrition.

Baras National Science High School

Location: Baras, Rizal

The SAGE team from Baras focused on vermiculture. Vermiculture is the end product of fruit and vegetable peels by earthworms. It is a formidable type of organic fertilizer that utilizes no artificial components or chemicals. The Baras SAGE Team was able to engage the mentorship of the local municipal government in their project. They also managed to get the town involved by focusing more on waste segregation and organic farming. Their project was inspired by the town’s title as the First Organic Farming Town in the Philippines.