Smith Students Awaken Entrepreneurial Desires in Tibetan Youth

The Central Tibetan Administration (AKA theTibetan Government-in-exile) aims to create a more self-reliant culture among Tibetan refugees by encouraging its people to become successful entrepreneurs. Spearheading this initiative, the Tibetan Entrepreneurship Development Initiative (TED) orchestrates entrepreneurial incubators, financing support, and inspires youth entrepreneurship.  To amplify their efforts on youth entreprenreneurship, TED turned to a team of University of Maryland graduate students at the Center for Social Value Creation, Robert H. Smith School of Business. The team of four students – three pursuing their MBA and MS degrees from the Smith School and one working on a master of public policy -- took on a project to co-develop an entrepreneurship program for the Central Tibetan Administration, based in Dharamsala in northern India, and its school system there. It’s the first on-site international project for the Center for Social Value Creation’s award-winning ChangeTheWorld.org Nonprofit Consulting Program (CTW) that has students gaining real-world experience in semester-long projects with nonprofit organizations. 

After a competitive selection process to participate, the CTW student consultants began working with the Central Tibetan Administration in February 2015. The students were charged with developing an entrepreneurshipprogram to get Tibetan youth excited about entrepreneurship and to design hands-on learning activities that willprovide the youth with an understanding of the skillsets involved in entrepreneurialism, In March, the Smith students traveled to India for a week to conduct interviews with local entrepreneurs, run focus groups with students and meet with government leaders. Smith’s Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) funded the participants with $1,000 grants for their travel to India. 

“The impact of this project is huge – it’s the foundation of the Tibetan government’s entrepreneurial initiative,” said Pammi Bhullar, director of the ChangeTheWorld.org Nonprofit Consulting Program. “Essentially, they [TED] are hoping entrepreneurship is going to bring the next generation out of this state of dependency to become more self-reliant. This is a very different way to look at entrepreneurship – using entrepreneurship to lift up a refugee community.”

Bhullar travelled with the students and organized the project with the Central Tibetan Administration’s Tibetan Entrepreneurship Development Initiative. The group was in Dharamsala during the government’s parliamentary meetings and had the opportunity to sit in on the process and meet the Prime Minister, the Speaker of Parliament, and the Finance Minister. The group was recognized for their work. 

The students will deliver final recommendations for a co-curricular framework in May. The program will be piloted at the Tibetan Children’s Village, a school in Dharamsala that the team visited. Upon it’s success,  the co-curricular entrepreneurship program will be rolled out to the nearly 70 other Tibetan schools in India. 

To learn more, come to the ChangeTheWorld.org Symposium on April 21, 2015 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., where the CTW Consultants will be presenting their final recommendations.  RSVP here.