The Texas International Education Consortium (TIEC) has signed an agreement with the U.S. Embassy in Panama to conduct a two-week intensive entrepreneurship program for youth ages 16-21 in the province of Colon, Panama. Local organizations, working with the U.S. Embassy in Panama, including Fundacion Amanaceres, will select 40 participants for the program. Drawing on our multi-institutional resources, we will work with Texas university faculty to design and deliver the instructional components. The program will be conducted in Colon, Panama to ensure high impact, efficiency, and collaboration with organizations serving youth in the region.
“I am so pleased to announce that the Texas International Education Consortium is gearing up to do a program in country in Panama later this year on youth entrepreneurship,” said TIEC President and CEO Robin J. Lerner. “Taking our Consortium educators to Panama is our first effort to go to where the needs are.”
In addition to administering the program in country, the Youth Entrepreneurship Program (YEP) addresses the need to engage youth in an underserved region and provide an intensive skill-setting workshop that will focus on entrepreneurship, leadership, persuasive speech, developing a pitch, goal setting, and conceptualization.
The program will be taught in Spanish using bilingual instructors and will provide the youth participants the opportunity to improve their quality of life, elevate their future living standards, and build self-confidence to succeed in a globally interconnected world and competitive marketplace.
“This program really reflects TIEC’s central mission of internationalizing education around the globe,” said Dr. Ryan Buck, Vice President of TIEC. “This program is giving underprivileged youth the chance to gain vital skills that will give them a leg up in their future. Using TIEC’s multi-institutional approach we are sharing our knowledge and experience with young people that need these skills the most. Delivering the program in Spanish allows more youth in Colon to engage in this exciting opportunity.”
The program’s activities include negotiation, bartering, persuasive speaking, leadership, goal setting, and conclude with a competition where participants will pitch their idea to a group of professionals in a model similar to the popular television program “Shark Tank.”
This program will build on the many skills and talents the youth have developed up to this point and harmonize with the training conducted by local organizations working with the U.S. Embassy in Panama, including Fundación Amaneceres.