HP and Junior Achievement Empower Students Across the Globe to Better Compete in 21st Century Workforce
Sep 22, 2011 PALO ALTO, Calif., HP and Junior Achievement, the
world’s largest organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people
to succeed in a global economy, today announced the winner of the first Social
Innovation Relay, a global competition where teams of students from 11
participating countries designed projects that could have a significant positive
social impact.
Students who participated in this interactive, web-based
competition were coached throughout by HP employee mentors to think like
innovators while developing skills that will help them grow into globally
minded, socially responsible entrepreneurs.
A team of high school
students from Nizhnekamsk, Russia, took home the global title for Fortuna, a
simple and sustainable business concept designed to encourage citizens to
manufacture and sell products created from recyclable waste materials,
potentially driving profit and also reducing landfill.
To expand the
project’s reach and impact, the students integrated into their project
activities such as trainings, awareness events and grassroots campaigns designed
to encourage recycling and share best practices in sustainability. In terms of
scale, the project would first be rolled out within the local community, and
then disseminated to a wider, global audience via web-based activities. Indeed,
many of the finalists integrated an information and communications technology
(ICT) component into their project designs.
HP and Junior
Achievement
HP and Junior Achievement have partnered for 20 years on
youth-focused programs, enabling thousands of students to receive real-world
skills and hands-on training that focus on entrepreneurship and ICT by
participating in programs such as the Social Innovation Relay.
HP plays
an active role in these programs and goes beyond traditional corporate
sponsorship by not only donating funds and equipment, but also tapping into its
vast technology expertise and mobilizing members of its more than
300,000-employee workforce to participate via mentoring and
volunteering.
Regional
winners
The following is a list of winning projects from the 11
participating countries:
- * Brazil – a system of bracelets and sensors to help visually impaired people increase their mobility and safely move through urban settings.
- * Bulgaria – a plan for a greenhouse that will grow plants specifically for clearing the air of noxious substances and helping to ensure clean drinking water for the planet.
- * China – a nonprofit global organization that connects companies and private donors with people in need, for both charitable and educational purposes.
- * India – a plan to eradicate illiteracy and poverty by providing educational services to low-income children with the help of students, the unemployed, governments and corporations.
- * Kenya – an educational curriculum aimed at empowering local communities to change their attitudes toward education, promote social cohesion and spur economic activity.
- * Romania – a storage, administration and communications system designed to achieve regional and global food supply balance by offsetting deficits and redirecting surplus food.
- * Russia – an initiative focusing on processing and selling waste materials that also educates businesses on sustainability and recycling best practices.
- * Slovakia – a website that helps to educate, empower and connect youth across the world to address global issues that directly affect them.
- * South Africa – a concept for combating climate change and reducing unemployment by generating electricity using carbon dioxide produced in local factories.
- * United Kingdom – a sustainability club that rewards points to members for purchasing or using approved environmentally friendly products or services, with an accompanying website where members can redeem points for eco-gifts.
- * United States – a website that matches would-be volunteers with local organizations that fit their personal interests.
“Programs such as the Social Innovation Relay equip students with crucial
skills they need to succeed in school and beyond, ensuring that in the years to
come there will be a crop of entrepreneurs looking to develop the next big idea
with positive social impact. Participating in this program gives HP a chance to
tap into our most vital resource – our people – and help drive social innovation
forward.”
* Jeannette Weisschuh, director, Global
Education Programs, Office of Global Social Innovation, HP
“The HP
mentors who participated and the HP technology used in the competition were key
in making the Social Innovation Relay a success. This year’s winners
demonstrated real out-of-the-box, original thinking in conceiving and developing
their projects, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some end up being
implemented.”
* Caroline Jenner, chief executive
officer, Junior Achievement Young Enterprise (JA-YE
Europe)
“Participation in the Social Innovation Relay taught us
communication and business skills, and also made us more confident working in
teams. Through this program, we learned that business can and should have a
positive impact on society and the environment. It was great being able to come
up with new ideas, designs and technologies that could address environmental
challenges and improve our quality of life.”
* Andrei
Kubyshkin, student and captain of winning team from Nizhnekamsk,
Russia
More information about HP’s work in social innovation to support
social entrepreneurship is available at HP’s Office of Global Social Innovation
website.
About JA Worldwide® (Junior
Achievement)
Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization
dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global
economy. Through a dedicated volunteer network, Junior Achievement provides
in-school and after-school programs for students which focus on three key
content areas: work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Today,
124 individual area operations reach 4 million students in the United States,
with an additional 5.8 million students served by operations in 119 other
countries worldwide. For more information, visit
www.jaworldwide.org.
About
HP
HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful
impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest
technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal
computing, software, services and IT infrastructure at the convergence of the
cloud and connectivity, creating seamless, secure, context-aware experiences for
a connected world. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at
http://www.hp.com.
© 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The
information contained herein is subject to change without notice. HP shall not
be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.