Chelsea Chan and Mark Fernan Mateo, MLUC’s BSBA Management Management and NLUC’s BS Agribusiness Management students, respectively were members of a team— along with students from Brazil, India and Indonesia— that was recognized as one of the best three teams in the Social Business Design Lab project during their participation in the Virtual International Social Business Summer Program (ISBSP) 2021, hosted by the Daffodil International University, Bangladesh, in collaboration with Dhaka’s Yunus Centre and the Association of the Universities of Asia and the Pacific (AUAP).

Their team presented the concept of ECO-WRAP, which is “a social business that aims at substituting materials of plastic into many eco-friendly products addressing the problem as rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them.” The idea’s inception was prompted by the thrust to solve a social problem with a sustainable social business plan. In the Design Lab segment, participants worked on a particular social problem to find and discuss among the members under different teams to solve with a sustainable social business plan. Teams were given merit on the value proposition, social impact, market potential, team strength, and financial model of their business ideas.

Meanwhile, another DMMMSU delegate, Fernando Camelon, Jr., SLUC’s BS Fisheries student, was part of another team that presented during the event as participants engaged in cross-cultural activities and celebrated the friendship together in the session on ‘Networking Activity’. Participants actively took part in Spin Game, dancing, singing, mimicry, storytelling in their own languages and showcased their culture in this multicultural platform. Camelon’s team became one of the three best teams of the game.

With the motto ‘New Minds for New World’, DIU hosted ISBSP 2021 from August 14-18, 2021 on a virtual platform with the lively participation of 134 social business enthusiasts from 37 universities and 21 countries across Asia, Europe, Africa, North & South America. ISBSP brings “the innovators of the world together; where the young leaders will utilize opportunities to reconnect and create more social coherence not only during the [COVId-19] crisis but also afterward.” (Joshua Justin Lee Bautista)