Project Report
| Nov 20, 2012
A thank you message from a soon-to-be graduate
By Michelle Hamner | Annual Fund Director
In three weeks, on December 7, 74 fourth year students will earn their degrees from EARTH University. Each gift from friends like you has helped to shape the experiences these students have had during their time at EARTH. We are excited to send them out into the world where they will no doubt achieve many great things.
We hope you enjoy the attached video from Nokubonga Mweli (South Africa, '12), who sends you many heartfelt thanks.
We also invite you to visit our website at http://www.earth.ac.cr/?lang=en on December 7 at 10:00 a.m. Central Time to view the live video stream of our Commencement activities.
View Noku's video on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krPHIPHr8g0&feature=g-hist
Links:
![Share on Twitter]()
![Share on Facebook]()
Aug 21, 2012
A Short Message from an EARTH Student
By Michelle Hamner | Annual Fund Director
We periodically receive updates from EARTH students and alumni, and I wanted to share one of those updates with you. Nokubonga Mweli is a current EARTH student who hails from the small town of KwaNyuswa in South Africa. She attends EARTH on a scholarship, funding for which is made possible by friends like you.
Noku is graduating soon, and she sent us this note about her future plans:
"I’m graduating soon, and I feel truly ready to go back home and make changes. I plan to give back to my community–both my country and Africa as a whole–not just by providing people with fresh food and safe water, but also by teaching my fellow people agricultural systems that will enable them to achieve self-sufficiency and create their own marketplace. As my Mom always said, it’s better to teach someone how to fish than having to simply give them a fish."
Noku is one of hundreds of EARTH students whose education relies on continued funding for our scholarship program. Thank you again for helping to support Noku's educational dreams and the dreams of those to follow in her footsteps!
![Share on Twitter]()
![Share on Facebook]()
May 23, 2012
EARTH's Entrepreneurial Education Focus
By Michelle Hamner | Annual Fund Director
![A student works on his entrepreneurial project]()
A student works on his entrepreneurial project
Thank you for your gift to EARTH University through our GlobalGiving project "Buy a Dream for a Student at EARTH University!" An EARTH education is unique in many regards, including our focus on entrepreneurial education. Recognizing the role of business ownership in stimulating rural economies, EARTH seeks to nurture entrepreneurial leaders with the capacity and commitment to empower their communities.
To do so, EARTH created the Jorge Manuel Dengo O. Entrepreneurial Projects Program, in which all students develop and operate a business venture during their first three years at EARTH. What makes our program unique? It gives students a meaningful opportunity for experiential learning about entrepreneurship that few institutions in the world offer. Even at business schools, most programs never offer students a chance to move beyond the planning and feasibility stages of a project.
In the program:
- Students must work in multicultural and mixed-gender teams to form a company;
- The company receives a loan from the University, with financial incentives awarded to innovative projects and to those with a positive environmental and social impact;
- Student groups share two thirds of the profits, returning one third of the profits to a revolving fund that will finance future projects;
- Students learn about ethical business practices, and ethical business behavior forms part of their overall grade.
Your gift to our project helps to fund the Jorge Manuel Dengo O. Entrepreneurial Projects Program and is an investment in job creation and prosperity for communities throughout the developing world.
Thank you again!
Links:
![Share on Twitter]()
![Share on Facebook]()
