Students write about “Social Entrepreneurship. Cultivating Positive Change in Kyrgyzstan” for the SIDP essay competition

November 15, 2016

On October 28^th, 2016, AUCA held an award ceremony for winners of the “Social Entrepreneurship. Cultivating Positive Change in Kyrgyzstan” essay competition. AUCA’s Students Initiative Development Program (SIDP) organized the competition, coordinating a jury of AUCA and UCA (University of Central Asia) professors. Ten students submitted their essays and three won prizes. Competition winners received: $100 for 1^st place, $50 for second place, and an AUCA-branded USB flash drive and T-shirt for third place.

“Motivating students to learn more about and realize what is social entrepreneurship was the core idea for this competition. I hope this competition gave them the opportunity to carry out good research and understand how it can be helpful for the country’s development,” said Anatoliy Fedorenko, SIDP Coordinator.

First place went to Elmurod Tojidinov, the European Studies Freshman, “Well, once I received the email about this essay contest, the topic of the essay really interested me as I was curious about Social Entrepreneurship. New projects and ideas to tackle social issues have always intrigued me. The main idea of my essay is about organizing special schools for adults. I think this is a good idea is that unfortunately, in our culture most adults do not have a chance to develop their educational conditions. Because of that, they hardly try to change their lives. So, if some learning centers for adults were organized, they would work to enhance their personal development and their thinking about the current state of the world. In the long term, it would bring considerable developments into our society. To be honest, I did not expect I would win, but I believed my essay grab people’s attention and it happened. Even if I had not won this competition, it would have nonetheless been a beneficial exercise. I looked up more information about the topic which could be useful for my further studies and personal development.”

Aliya Ismailova, a sophomore in Business Administration, took third place. She commented, “In my essay, I spoke about the project I coordinated this year called TIFE (Teenagers in Free Enterprise). I explained this project helps schoolchildren improve their skills and find their own path in life. I was very interested in it. I want to work on social entrepreneurship projects, and I think they are urgently important for our society. If social projects give people aid, social entrepreneurship projects help them earn their living. These are sustainable projects. I began to understand this activity better and I am happy to take a part in these kinds of competitions.

"I really think I benefited by participating in the Social Entrepreneurship Essay contest. Even though I generally knew what Social Entrepreneurship is, while researching and analyzing my topic, I discovered some of the major principles of Social Entrepreneurship projects. In my essay, I wrote about the projects I have implemented. My projects were designed to help society with address issues like hunger and environmental sustainability. By implementing even small social entrepreneurship projects, we can improve our communities,” said Sevara Tadzhibaeva, a freshman in Business Administration and the 2^nd place-winner.

“I wish students become more active in extracurricular areas too. They can give people great opportunities. Yes, a theoretical base is important, but it is necessary to know how to put it in practice. Through SIDP I attended a lot of trainings. There were really successful speakers from a variety of consulting companies. They give me an impetus for improvement, and I am happy that there are programs providing these opportunities.”

* The Students Initiatives Development Program has been working for more than two years to help students implement of their ideas. The program assists students specifically by developing their leadership capacity and entrepreneurial thinking skills through project management. The program’s ultimate goal is to prepare graduates who envision and realize their own projects, companies or NGOs towards the development of Kyrgyzstan. The program also provides individual consultations and mentorship for students during the implementation period of their projects.

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