We’re back with an update about Anna’s heroic Ironman 70.3. On Sunday the 30th of September, she did it! She came 45th in the female 30-34 category, in just over 7 hours. The 1.9km ocean swim took her 43 minutes; the 90km bike ride in the wind and mountains, 3 hours and 27 minutes; and the 21km run (in the 33 degrees heat of a sweltering midday sun), 2 hours and 40 minutes.

It was brutal, harsh, and it challenged her, but Anna never gave up. What tells us this about Anna’s character? Anna’s character: no matter how hard it gets, she gets it done. She raised €1660,00. What a fantastic achievement! 

Why a volunteer challenges herself to support EduMais?

Well, Anna loves challenges, even creating them to push herself and take others with her. The challenge was on when she started volunteering as a teacher with EduMais in 2017: it was her first time ever teaching groups of children, and she loved it! 

 

The entrepreneurship course

You can read in more depth about the entrepreneurship course elsewhere on our blog. We seek to serve the students in their needs by empowering them with the knowledge of what it takes to be an entrepreneur, helping them to gain more confidence and learn new skills. 

So what did we do? For seven months, two hours a week, our students were provided with the opportunity to picture themselves as business owners. They designed their business projects, which offered solutions to problems in their communities, from beginning to end. This involved, among other things, market research, working the Canvas Business Model, financial planning, a marketing plan with an elevator pitch in English, and a presentation of their full plan, all in English. 

As Anna loves to push herself, she pushed and pulled the students every single moment. Over the course, they gained entrepreneurial skills and competencies and, just as importantly, confidence, especially in English. The most exciting, challenging and even most stressful moment for the students was the big day on the 30th of October. It was then that all students had to present their designed business projects to a panel of Brazilian entrepreneurs/business owners in English. 

 

 

Presentation assessment

We used several criteria in assessing business plans and presentations. With these, we aimed to take into account the fact that while students have different abilities, we believe that everyone can do their best. 

These criteria included:

• What was the student’s attendance rate across the course and what kind of presence were they in the classroom?
• What was their effort level? Had they always done their homework?
• How engaged were they in resolving problems for their community and their project?
• Who had shown they were willing to do the work and to push themselves out of their comfort zone?
• Which project was the most structured and professional?
• Who gave the best presentations of their business plans? 

Using these criteria, we measured the performances on the 30th of October, in order to decide who to support with the money that Anna raised.

The awards

Ana Carolina and Isabele identified the problem of homeless cats and dogs in the community. Their project, Carolisa, will save homeless and sick animals, providing them with care and a family. 

Ana Carolina and Isabele stood out from the others: it was clear they made a formidable, balanced team together and this was visible in the result.  They were focused and created the most structured and professional project, while Isabele also won the elevator pitch contest earlier in the course. They had both evidently absorbed the course material and produced an extremely worthy project.

 

3. Students awarded for individual performance during the presentation: Vinicius Rangel and Deborah Alves

Vinicius’s ‘VARREDURA’ is a project that aims to revitalize Saint Roman Street in the Pavão-Pavãozinho and Cantagalo community by removing abandoned cars, putting down asphalt, and cleaning graffiti from the walls.

Deborah identified the need of women in the community to work on self-esteem. ‘Their Day’ is socially and totally focused on women’s well-being, to help them make progress both in their professional and personal lives. Being well with oneself is also important for a healthy life. Events will be held one or two days a month. Treatments for hair, skin, and nails will be provided alongside talks about feminism, how women are seen in society, and how they can impose themselves on it. ‘Their Day’ aims to empower women by showing them just how capable they are. 

Both Vinicius and Deborah showed so much passion, love and dedication for the content of their business plans and the problems they hope to solve. The panel was incredibly touched by their presentations, making them both highly deserving recipients of the award.

The next step

All of the awarded students will receive financial support to aid their future developments, provided that they come up with a plan for the next step. This might be going to university, starting their business, signing up for a course, or another investment to support their development. We have already received some requests for support: Roger wants to invest in a new computer and Dandara would like to buy a tattoo machine. 

We’re all so proud of the great projects they have created! EduMais is also extremely grateful for Anna’s astonishing efforts to raise money to support the students on our entrepreneurship course. 

Without the generosity of those who donated to her fundraiser, however, those efforts would have been in vain. So a huge thank you to everyone who donated: you have helped to give these worthy students an opportunity to construct their futures!