The group of entrepreneurship educators will be at Babson College for a week developing projects focused on responding to needs they have identified within their communities. To provide them with support prior to their trip, the Luksic Scholars Foundation organized a space for them to hear from former participants regarding their experiences and advice.
A new cohort of Chilean educators representing various higher education institutions will travel to the United States on March 26th to participate in the Babson Luksic Fellows program – an initiative led and taught by Babson College, a leading university in the area of entrepreneurship, and developed in collaboration with the Luksic Scholars Foundation.
It consists of a week-long immersion on Babson College’s campus during which the Scholars will work alongside mentors assigned by the university on improving and implementing projects they have previously developed in Chile which seek to respond to certain needs they have identified in their areas of work.
Creating a sense of community
In order to provide the group with pre-program support, the Luksic Scholars Foundation organized a virtual event to convene the 10 participants selected for this year’s edition, alongside two previous participants of the program.
Bárbara Silva, Director of Economics and Business for the Center for Sustainable Electromobility Acceleration (CASE), participated in Babson SEE Antofagasta program in 2018 and Babson Luksic Fellows in 2019. Regarding her experience, she recounts that “the most relevant thing for me and the group with which I traveled was to take advantage of the number of professors and experts that the university has.” She also spoke upon the importance of the feedback provided by the mentors, saying that “it helped transform our [groups’s] projects”.
As for her advice for this year’s Scholars, Bárbara emphasized the importance of “organizing meetings with relevant professors in their respective areas, sharing and networking with colleagues, and ultimately, making the most of what’s offered on the university’s campus. I still keep in touch with my group – we continue to get together and have even developed joint projects.”
Salvador Lagos, Business Manager for Incuba Udec and Associate Professor at the University of Concepción, attended the Babson SEE Chile program in 2019 and Babson Luksic Fellows in 2020. Regarding his time as a Babson Luksic Fellow, he noted that “the [Babson] professors are very open to sharing their advice and experiences and are good channels of contact. That was one of the main advantages that I was able to gain from the program.”
Networking
The event also featured a networking portion in which the Scholars presented their project ideas to the rest of the participants to receive feedback and find commonalities amongst their work.
Some of the project’s themes included encouraging the connection between the physical and natural sciences within entrepreneurship, updating teaching techniques on this same topic, promoting the importance of good ideas, creating spaces to strengthen female entrepreneurship, and improving general teaching practices within the classroom.
Gabrielle Trasatti, Community Coordinator for the Luksic Scholars Foundation, said that “we hope this has been a valuable space for you before your program. As a Foundation, we hope to be able to continue providing you with these kinds of spaces.”
Participants of the 2023 cohort:
- Cristián Cuevas, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Coordinator at the University of Tarapacá.
- Flavia Perazzo, Design Manager for the Entrepreneurship Department at Federico Santa María University.
- Francisco Gutiérrez, Entrepreneurship Professor at the Technological Faculty of the University of Santiago.
- Jaime Díaz, Associate Professor and Director of the Master’s Degree program in Computer Engineering at the University of La Frontera.
- Roxana López, Technology Manager for the Science Plan 2030 at the University of Concepción.
- Diego Molina, Academic and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Sciences and the Institute of Exact and Natural Sciences of Arturo Prat University.
- Flavia Zacconi, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy and the Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering Department at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
- María Inés Díaz, Head of the Geo-Measurement and Cartography program, Department of Engineering, Science, and Technology at the Bernardo O’Higgins University.
- Ricardo Seguel, Executive Director of the Startup School at Adolfo Ibáñez University.
- Rodrigo Perez, Academic and Secretary of Liaison of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities at the University of Antofagasta.