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As is often the case throughout history, young people are often ready to engage with, and see value in, new ideas. Bringing events designed to create intrigue in blockchain, Cardano, as well as coding languages like plutus to colleges and universities in Cuenca/Asuncion is a great way to draw people in. Additionally, raising awareness about the utility of Cardano's design will inspire STEM students to become further engaged with the community itself, hopefully inspiring more future plutus pioneers as well as Cardano inspired community projects.

The program:

This project will mirror that of Nathan Samson's F5 project "Networking events" in Ethiopia, which met with success. Once a month an event will be hosted with an educational segment, then a keynote speaking segment, followed by networking with refreshments. (first year tickets to events will be free). These events will be designed to garner interest in Cardano, Blockchain tech, and what the future of a web3 financial world could mean for them and their country. These events would be held at partnered Universities so as to incite the interests of young, STEM students especially. We would also upload the keynote speaker's speech and education session to Youtube for public viewing. Potential Keynote speakers would: include government ministers, investors, tech startup founders, researchers, and blockchain developers.

Ultimately we would like to create a curriculum for self teaching. Crypto is a big topic with a lot to learn that cannot be covered in a night. By creating and offering a pathway to further involvement that can be traversed on the student's own time, we can encourage continued learning outside of the regularly scheduled events.

We will implement a seminar class at each university which will cover all of the basics of Crypto knowledge. [See curriculum below]. The course will offer one credit and will cost a small fee for entrance. (The entrance fee will be covered by our team for the first six months of project implementation). The fees from each student will be converted to ADA and staked throughout the duration of the course. As the course progresses students will be allowed to make project proposals for anything from plutus/haskell projects to educational projects to community implementation projects. As the seminar class concludes students will take a final quiz and be awarded governance tokens reflective of their scores. Then, using the governance tokens, the students will vote on which project proposals they think are best. The top proposal will be reviewed by a selected committee. Ultimately, the chosen proposal will receive funding in the form of dividends from the communal liquidity pool. Hereafter, each month the progress of student projects will be evaluated and if things are going well and further funding is required, it will be provided through the dividends of staked ADA from their original class pool. Ultimately, projects from different schools will be displayed and monitored on a single website for all to see (translation services will make projects viewable in both Spanish and Portuguese). There will be space for students who manage successful projects to be assisted in finding relevant internships.

The curriculum for learning will be designed by us and advised by Rutgers University professors in relevant fields. Then a coursera course will be created that is taught by a Spanish speaking professor. Once the seminar is ready for school implementation, we will go to the city of Cuenca and coordinate with two local universities.

Once the pilot program is successful in Cuenca, we will expand to other Universities in the area as well as extend the project to a network of 23 schools in Paraguay (Cordillera Region) with the assistance of the representative Board of Education. The success of the program in Cuenca will be promoted via connections in media (Newspaper/Radio) in Paraguay prior to our implementation of it in the region.

Curriculum:

Blockchain Technology and the implication of its integration into the financial world

Smart contracts

Proof of stake vs proof of work

Intro to haskell / plutus

Cardano's place in the crypto market

Specifics:

How my proposal impacts the challenge metrics:

Number of students present at organized events

Numbers of students enrolled in class

Number of student proposals presented

Youtube views of keynote speakers filmed at networking events

Amount of money in each liquidity pool (unique to each school/class)

Number of Universities onboarded

Social media engagement (in the form of posts/views/comments on sites like instagram, facebook, tiktok, twitter as well as discord group active member count)

How we address the challenge question:

By directly getting young STEM students from a variety of universities involved with learning about cardano/cryptocurrency as well as meeting crypto enthusiasts we start the chain reaction that leads to a better educated and more engaged LatAm.

Definition of success after 3, 6 and 12 months,

1-3 months:

Curriculum completed. Spanish speaking professor finishes recording lessons. Coursera seminar class completed.

3-6 months:

Planned out events with partnered Universities in Cuenca, Ecuador and Asuncion, Paraguay.

Seminar plans implemented in school curriculum. First students will be signed up for a seminar class that offers one credit.

6-12 months:

Course has been successfully implemented in each school's curriculum with alumni students. Student project proposals will have been reviewed and funded.

Defined the expected public launch date:

We will be on the ground in Ecuador as well as Paraguay hosting networking events in March. We will partner with two Universities in Cuenca. Thereafter we will continue to work on our course curriculum/lesson plans/videos and be ready to implement in June.

Who we are:

Nathan Samson: Catalyst Project F5 alumni, Entrepreneur, Marketing Professional.

Jose Velazquez: LatteSwap co-founder, Entrepreneur, STEM Graduate, Event Coordinator, Stem-Cell Researcher IBX, Senior Lab Technician IBX

Gavin Briggs-Perez: STEM Graduate, Project Manager OSI, Entrepreneur, Extraction scientist IBX.

Humberto Bacquerizo: (Advisor) MentorU CEO. Educational Specialist at New Jersey Medical School. Hispanic Commissioner of the City of Newark. Author: "Hispanic Star Rising Volume II"

How my proposal impacts the challenge metrics:

Number of students present at organized events

Numbers of students enrolled in class

Number of student proposals presented

Youtube views of keynote speakers filmed at networking events

Amount of money in each liquidity pool (unique to each school/class)

Number of Universities onboarded

Social media engagement (in the form of posts/views/comments on sites like instagram, facebook, tiktok, twitter as well as discord group active member count)

How we address the challenge question,

By directly getting young STEM students from a variety of universities involved with learning about cardano/cryptocurrency as well as meeting crypto enthusiasts we start the chain reaction that leads to a better educated and more engaged LATAM

Definition of success after 3, 6 and 12 months:

1-3 months:

Curriculum completed. Spanish speaking professor finishes recording lessons. Coursera seminar class completed.

3-6 months:

Planned out events with partnered Universities in Cuenca, Ecuador and Asuncion, Paraguay.

Seminar plans implemented in school curriculum. First students will be signed up for a seminar class that offers one credit.

6-12 months:

Course has been successfully implemented in each school's curriculum with alumni students. Student project proposals will have been reviewed and funded.

Broken down by my budget requirements:

Keynote speaker: $500

Venue Rent : $500

Catering : $100

Documentation & Videography: $100

Payment to Organizers: $100

Marketing : $500

Translation Services (portuguese) = $200

Over 12 Months: $24,000 per country (Paraguay/Cuenca)

Curriculum development/lesson planning/video recording with advisors/spanish speaking professors/Portuguese: $5,000

Total: $53,000

Defined the expected public launch date:

We will be on the ground in Ecuador/Paraguay hosting networking events as soon as one month after funding. We will partner with two Universities in Asuncion/Cuenca. Thereafter we will continue to work on our course curriculum/lesson plans/videos and be ready to implement in six months after funding.

Which of these definitions apply to you:

Entrepreneur, Marketing professional