On October 9, the Universidad Europea hosted for the first time in Spain, and as part of Social Entrepreneurship Week, the Laureate Global Fellows program; an initiative that recognizes 20 international social entrepreneurship leaders for their projects that have generated a positive change in their communities and sectors. This edition included social entrepreneurs from 17 countries, including Spanish representative Cristina Balbás, 2016 JES Award winner for her project Escuelab. The international young social entrepreneurs attended the “Youth and Education, agents of social change” meeting held at the Villaviciosa de Odón Campus, and which put the finishing touch to Social Entrepreneurship Week.
Some of the winners also took part in the round table “Citizens of the future, citizens for the world” where they stressed that “social enterprises are the businesses of the future, and their leaders must be able to detect the real needs of people in order to design solutions.” After the meeting, Cristina Balbás and the other award winners were the protagonists of “Stories of Impact”, where they shared the motivation and experiences that led them to launch their initiatives with students and professors from the Universidad Europea.
During Social Entrepreneurship Week, Laureate Global Fellows program winners worked in specific training and mentoring sessions designed by Laureate and the International Youth Foundation to further develop their projects with online support and consultancy, custom training, access to global network opportunities, promotion and funding, as well as improved visibility. They also took part in team building sessions to further strengthen their bond and reinforce their ties with YouthActionNet, a major international network of social entrepreneurs with over 1,500 members.