When liberal arts students start businesses

On September 4, the final broadcast of season 5 of the show Shark Tank Vietnam caused a stir on social networks thanks to an impressive deal: SeeSaw.

The startup that offers a set of mental health care products won a handshake of 2 billion VND for 30% of shares and received a "golden ticket" from two investors at the same time. What made this deal special was that Dao Hai Nhat Tan - co-founder of SeeSaw - was only a 3rd year student at Fulbright University Vietnam when the program aired.

FACULTY OF ECONOMICS | FULBRIGHT UNIVERSITY VIETNAM

Starting from a simple but unique idea: a set of cards with questions designed on a psychological basis so that players have the opportunity to talk to themselves, a group of students from Fulbright University including Nhat Tan, Minh Phuong, Do Quyen, Yen Nhi and Thuy Duong developed it into a non-profit project.

The project won first prize in the "Vietnam Social Innovation Challenge" and "Mekong Business Challenge" competitions, then competed in a global startup competition in the US before developing into a potential startup company.

SeeSaw is just one of many social impact startups initiated by students at Fulbright University Vietnam. Recently, at the graduation ceremony of the second batch of students in June 2024, many attendees were amazed when they heard about the project "Hearty Plant automatic hydroponic solution" by new graduate Pham Hoang Lan. This urban gardening model combining technology and agriculture helped Hoang Lan receive a master's scholarship at the University of California, Irvine (USA).

Another unique startup model for humanity is HNVision, initiated by two engineering students at Fulbright - Viet Hoang and Hoan Nhi. HNVision is a software that supports the visually impaired in using household appliances. By simply scanning the information on the control panel of a device with a camera, the application can read the information aloud, helping the visually impaired to operate easily. Viet Hoang is also a visually impaired person, the projects are both to help the community and himself.

New graduate Tran Thao Nguyen is known as a potential young leader in the field of STEM and Robotics when managing the FIRST®Tech Challenge tournament project - a robotics competition for students from grades 7 to 12. Thao Nguyen's major is... Social Studies. However, at Fulbright, students are given the opportunity to study in a personalized way, so Nguyen chose to study an additional major in Integrated Science .

For Nguyen, the interdisciplinary academic foundation at Fulbright, combined with the technology foundation, has contributed to creating the foundations for you to research and solve challenges. Because the optimal solutions to difficult challenges often lie at the intersection of many disciplines from engineering, society to economics .

Meanwhile, the girl who won the "golden ticket" of Shark Tank Nhat Tan said that group exercises in class helped students improve many essential skills for startup work. For example, having a convincing and inspiring fundraising presentation on Shark Tank was partly due to practice through countless presentations in Fulbright classes.

Pham Hoang Lan, in particular, highly appreciates the courses on entrepreneurship and innovation at Fulbright. Typically, the course on Design and Systems Thinking not only equips students with the skills to find available answers but also creates conditions for them to discover their own goals or problems they want to solve in the community.

Dr. Phan Hoang Lan - Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Creativity (CEI) - said that at Fulbright, the concept of entrepreneurship and innovation has gradually expanded: many programs and activities focus on equipping students with innovative thinking to apply to solving practical problems.

Typically, in March 2023, 11 students in the "Open Innovation with Enterprises" program were divided into 2 groups, each group in charge of the challenge of how to "Improve customer experience when shopping and using May10 men's shirts" and "Develop marketing activities to raise awareness and interest of Gen Z about Uniqlo's sustainable fashion product lines in Ho Chi Minh City". They worked together and proposed new, youthful but equally profound ideas.

Or in the project "Challenge to solve water problems in the Mekong Delta" (MWC) 2023, many highly applicable projects of Fulbright students have been invented to solve water problems in the West such as the ecological agriculture project "Mekoxa: Providing a direct online buying and selling channel for agricultural products between farmers and consumers", "V-Biotechnology: Treating aquaculture ponds with microalgae and recovering algae biomass as animal feed"...

According to Dr. Phan Hoang Lan, through all activities related to startups and innovation, students do not necessarily have to establish companies and develop businesses, but more importantly, they will build an entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking. The luggage of startups and innovation will help students develop the ability to think independently and solve complex problems in a flexible and innovative way.

"At Fulbright, innovation will be human-oriented, human-centered and for human development. That is the philosophy that runs through Fulbright's training programs and activities on entrepreneurship and innovation," said Ms. Lan.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/khi-sinh-vien-giao-duc-khai-phong-khoi-nghiep-20240627214332285.htm