Teenagers in Free Enterprise (TIFE), American University of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan)

The Teenagers in Free Enterprise (TIFE) project is the second-place winner of the 2022 MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship. The goal of the TIFE project is to create a platform for high-potential high school students and facilitate the development of entrepreneurial skills. TIFE strives to solve the problem of an unequal distribution of income and opportunities between different groups in society. More than half of Kyrgyzstan’s population is under the age of 25, and almost a third of the population is between the ages of 15 and 25. Young people in Kyrgyzstan live in an environment where poverty and unemployment are widespread. This has a negative impact on more than 40 percent of young people: economic opportunities are very limited, access to public services is insufficient, and corruption is rampant. This makes 31 percent of young people “fear the future or be unsure of the future.”

The TIFE program consists of two parts: Education and Competition. During the educational part of the program, teams of high school students participate in training sessions about business modeling, design-thinking, financial modeling, and also meet with the business owners. In the competition portion of the project, teams compete to win the TIFE annual competition where one of the most valuable prizes is a 35% discount on tuition fees at the American University of Central Asia in the total amount of $34,600 for 6 TIFE winners.

 

“We are deeply honored to receive the MacJannet Prize for Global Citizenship! Thank you for the opportunity to become a part of Talloires Networks projects and for recognizing the exceptional student community engagement activities within the American University of Central Asia initiative. This award brings a big contribution to the TIFE Accelerator and its development!” – TIFE Program Staff

Read more on the TIFE web page.