On March 13, the Armenian final round of the Diamond Challenge youth entrepreneurship competition took place in Dilijan Community Center. During this round, the teams of Goris, Meghri, Yerevan, Dilijan, and Ijevan presented their ideas to the selection committee.
According to Armine Hovhannisyan, the president of the “Dilijan Community Center” NGO, Dilijan Community Center has been hosting the final round of the competition in Armenia for five years now. “Year by year, we try to expand our scope to include more high school students as we are very interested in transferring our entrepreneurial skills and knowledge to them. The students have come to compete today. However, it is more important to me that they learned and understood what the business idea is, and they were able to define a business idea, understood their customers and buyers, got budget, problem-solving, public speaking, and several other soft skills. This is the real victory for me.”
The small Business team representing Yerevan won the competition with their idea of edible flowers menu for a café receiving 250 $ from the Dilijan community Center and an invitation to participate in the final round of the competition at the University of Delaware in the USA.
The competition was created by Horn Enterprise, the cornerstone of business established at the University Delaware in the USA.
The purpose of the competition is to develop the entrepreneurial skills of high school students enabling them to start their businesses. “Even if we do not win, this will be a great experience, and what we couldn’t do now we will be able to use in our successful business plans,” says Ruslanna Dilbaryan, one of the competitors.
In previous years, the winning teams represented the cities of Dilijan, Yerevan, and Yeghegnadzor in the final. The “Papuk” team from Dilijan, which was recognized as the winner in 2021, represented the idea of recycling furniture within the framework of which soft furniture was made of used and unfit wheels. “Papuk” team has already sold its product, which can also be seen in Dilijan city park.
According to Varda Avetisyan, a member of the competition jury and the founder of “Kchuch” and “Tava” restaurants; such events are very important and inspiring for the youth, “I remember, when I was at this age, I had a business idea, but it was the 90s, and unfortunately, nothing was organized like this. I think that it is very important for the community to encourage young people to think constructively and organize big and small games in which they’ll participate and show their talent.”
