Please describe your proposed solution.

This project seeks to scout for entrepreneurs in selected tertiary schools in Ghana by organizing opportunity summits for potential student entrepreneurs to engage with industry experts and further groom the students to unlock the potentials in them. Most students have projects that can solve humanity problems but these projects are not being fulfilled because of funding and some also lack the knowledge on how to go about such ideas. Cardano provides a lot of opportunities to individuals with ideas through its catalyst funding and collaborative communities in the ecosystem. The project will educate students on the various opportunities in the Cardano ecosystem through summits organised in the selected tertiary schools.

Description of Solution:

1. Opportunity Summit: Summits will be organised in the tertiary schools to educate participants on the cardano blockchain. During the summit, experts in the Cardano ecosystem will be invited to educate the participants on what the Cardano ecosystem is about.
2. Breakout Session: There would be a breakout session during the summit where the participants will have one-on-one engagement with the resource persons to dive deeper into their field of interest in the ecosystem.
3. Onboarding of participants: Students would be on bearded onto the Cardano ecosystem after the breakout session where they can appreciate and explore the ecosystem.
4. Incubation program: Participants would be assigned to the various resource persons based on their interests to further groom them after the summit on a common platform.
5. Monthly online event: There would be a monthly online sessions where the various hubs will share their successes and insights after the main inperson summit.

How does your proposed solution address the challenge and what benefits will this bring to the Cardano ecosystem?

This project addresses the challenge by:

1. Increasing the number of student catalyst proposers: This project envisions that at least 20 participants of the summit that went through the incubation program will submit proposals in the next funding round to increase the number of student catalyst proposers.
2. Increasing the number of student blockchain engineers: Our project have taken into consideration student blockchain entrepreneurs for the incubation program after which they contribute to the ecosystem by building on the cardano blockchain.
3. Increase in the number of student proposal assessors: Our project will train students on how to participate in the community review stage for them to contribute to the community in the next funding round. We envision that at least 60 percent of the participants will participate in the assessment stage.

How do you intend to measure the success of your project?

The success of this project will be measured using the following:

1. Students Attendance: The number of students attending our summits will help us keep track of active participants and students preferences.
2. Number of student proposers: measure the number of student projects submitted in the next funding rounds .
3. Feedback from students: questionnaires would be issued to students after the summit and during the incubation phase to determine their satisfaction of the whole program.
4. Number of incubation hubs: the number of incubation hubs created will help the team measure the interest of students in various aspects of the cardano ecosystem.
5. Student funded projects: this will measure the number of student projects that got funded in project catalyst.

Please describe your plans to share the outputs and results of your project?

In order to share our outputs and results of our project, we will employ the following strategies:

1. Partner organization's website and social media channels: The website of our partner organization will serve as a repository for information, updates on project, success stories for all stakeholders. Also, we will use the following social media platforms; twitter, facebook, and LinkedIn to share updates and outcomes from our project.
2. Documentaries: We will leverage on using short videos in sharing the success stories of participants of our incubation program. This will highlight the impact of the project, achievements, and challenges encountered and will be made available on the project website and social media channels.
3. Town Hall Presentations: We will also leverage on the various Town Hall meetings to share the updates on our project to the catalyst community.
4. Project Progress Reports: Proper documentation of activities right from the onset of the project will be done to provide stakeholders with the project's progress and impact to demonstrate transparency and accountability.

What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability?

We have a vibrant team capable of delivering this project with high levels of trust, transparency and accountability with inferences from several factors such as:

1. Team Experience: The project team consist of experienced individuals with track record in blockchain technology, education, project management, and entrepreneurship to ensure that all aspects of the project is designed and implemented successfully.
2. Capacity and Accountability: The project team consist of members who have been active in catalyst since fund 7. The team have individuals who have been active as community advisors, voters, and two community funded and completed projects since fund 7. Our main aim is to make a positive impact to the catalyst space.

What are the main goals for the project and how will you validate if your approach is feasible?

GOALS:

1. Awareness creation: Majority of tertiary students haven't heard about cardano and project catalyst and, therefore, this project seeks to create the awareness among students
2. Increased adoption
3. Stronger campus hubs
4. Funding avenue for Students

VALIDATIONS:

Goal 1: Through our summits and follow up online events, students would be introduced to cardano and project catalyst and educate them on the various opportunities in the community.

Goal 2: students would be guided to create wallets and all incentives for participating in the summit and the incubation program would be paid through their wallets

Goal 3: We will establish cardano incubation hubs after our summits to further groom participants to fully understand the opportunities in the ecosystem in order to have stronger campus hubs

Goal 4: We envision that about 70 percent of our training program get to submit proposals in the catalyst funding rounds

Please provide a detailed breakdown of your project’s milestones and each of the main tasks or activities to reach the milestone plus the expected timeline for the delivery.

Milestone 1: Project Development, Planning and Setup

Tasks:

• Design project objectives and project scope (1 week)
• Formation of project team and roles allocation (1 week)
• Stakeholder consultations and identification of key seminar topics (1 week)
• Detailed project planning and resource allocations (1 week)

Milestone 2: Opportunity Summits

Tasks:

• Identify and invite industry experts, blockchain entrepreneurs and local cardano ambassadors as speakers and trainers (2 weeks)
• Booking of venue and coordination of necessary logistics for the summit (1 week)
• Advertisement/publicity to create awareness of the summit (1 week)
• Conduct of opportunity summit in selected tertiary schools (4 weeks)

Milestone 3: Incubation Program

Tasks:

• Assess students interest in the various fields (1 week)
• Recruit mentors with experience in the various industries (2 weeks)
• Creation of incubation hubs and assigning of students to mentors based on their selected interests (1 week)
• Facilitate regular student-mentor meetings with supportive materials needed (8 weeks)
• Organize online event to host all the incubation hubs to share feedbacks and impacts from their trainings (1 week)

Milestone 4: Project wrap-up and and closing reports

Tasks:

• Collect and analyze data on student satisfaction and project outcomes (2 weeks)
• Prepare comprehensive report covering the project impacts, challenges and success (2 weeks)
• Share the project report on the partner organization website, social media channels (1 Week)

Please describe the deliverables, outputs and intended outcomes of each milestone.

Milestone 1: Project Development, Planning and Setup

Deliverables:

• Design project objectives and project scope
• Formation of project team and roles allocation
• Stakeholder consultations and identification of key seminar topics
• Detailed project planning and resource allocations

Output: Detailed completed documented project plan to execute project

Outcome: Well defined roadmap for project among project team members with well laid down foundation for project implementation.

Milestone 2: Opportunity Summits

Deliverables:

• Identify and invite industry experts, blockchain entrepreneurs and local cardano ambassadors as speakers and trainers
• Booking of venue and coordination of necessary logistics for the summit
• Advertisement/publicity to create awareness of the summit
• Conduct of opportunity summit in selected tertiary schools

Output:

• Organized summits and workshops in selected tertiary schools
• Collection of students feedback data and attendee registration form

Outcome:

• Increased awareness of cardano and its project catalyst with the various avenues in the community among students
• Active participation of students in the event
• Positive feedback and evaluation from attendees

Milestone 3: Incubation Program

Deliverables:

• Assess students interest in the various fields
• Recruit mentors with experience in the various industries
• Creation of incubation hubs and assigning of students to mentors based on their selected interests
• Facilitate regular student-mentor meetings with supportive materials needed
• Organize online event to host all the incubation hubs to share feedbacks and impacts from their trainings

Outputs:

• Mentors selected based on field of expertise
• Hubs for the incubation program created
• Incubation materials created and finalized

Outcomes:

• Mentors with higher qualifications identified
• Mentors equipped with necessary materials needed for the incubation program

Milestone 4: Project wrap-up and and closing reports

Deliverables:

• Collect and analyze data on student satisfaction and project outcomes
• Prepare comprehensive report covering the project impacts, challenges and success
• Share the project report on the partner organization website, social media channels

Outputs:

• Conducted evaluation surveys and data gathering
• Analyzed and interpreted data
• Well completed project impact report

Outcomes:

• Clear understanding of the project's impact
• Insights and recommendations for future improvement
• Transparent documentation and reporting of project outcomes and achievements

Please provide a detailed budget breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Project Development, Planning and Setup:

• Stakeholder consultations - 400 ADA
• Project Plan Development - 1,000 ADA
• Administrative Expenses - 400 ADA

Total - 1,800 ADA

Opportunity Summit:

• Resource persons fees - 1,500 ADA
• Venue rental and logistics - 3,000 ADA
• Materials and resources - 1,500 ADA
• Advertisement/Publicity - 1,200 ADA
• Incentives for participation - 400 ADA

Total - 7,600 ADA

Incubation Program:

• Mentors recruitment and coordination - 2,480 ADA
• Hub creation and assigning of participants - 450 ADA
• Regular student-mentor meetings - 4,500 ADA
• Online event to host all incubation hubs - 2,000 ADA

Total - 9,430 ADA

Project wrap-up and reporting:

• Data collection and analysis - 1,800 ADA
• Compilation of comprehensive reports - 1,000 ADA

Total - 2,800 ADA

Project team fees - 1,200 ADA

GRAND TOTAL - 22,830 ADA

Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Joshua Larweh Tetteh - Project Manager

He has a BSc. (Hons) in Agriculture from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. He has more than three years of experience in volunteer management and non-profit management. He served as the President for the YAFO Campus Hive where he collaborated with his team to organize student events on campus. Joshua is currently the Programs Manager for YAFO Institute and he has successfully organized student events in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University of Cape Coast and Methodist University. As the Programs Manager, he also collaborated with the African Institute for DeFi and Blockchain (AIDBLOCK) to organize blockchain policy dialogues that promote free trade. He was part of the team at the Ashanti Regional Department of Agriculture which coordinated the activities of the Government of Ghana's Planting for Food and Jobs program in the region to ensure that there are checks and balances. He has been involved in catalyst since Fund 8 as a Community Reviewer and a co-proposer in fund 9.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-tetteh-a1b391192

Nathaniel Dwamena - Training and Logistics Manager

He has a B. A (Hons) in Geography and Rural Development and 2023 candidate for Bachelor of Law. He is a researcher and has more than seven years of experience in think tank development, non-profit management, and business development consulting. He was part of the team contracted by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ Ghana) to conduct a study on red tape for doing business in Ghana. He successfully completed think tank training in Nigeria and project management training in Kenya, which aided in his successful graduation from the Atlas Leadership Academy, Atlas Network (USA). He is a member of Wada and has been involved in Catalyst since Fund 7 as a proposal advisor and proponent who has successfully completed two projects.

LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathaniel-dwamena-02578a127/

Barbara Ofusu - Finance Controller

Barbara is a recent graduate of the university of Cape Coast and currently a campus Convener at YAFO institute, where she has been working for the past three years. During her time there, she has organized series of successful events at institutions such as the University of Cape Coast, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and Methodist university focusing on various topics including entrepreneurship and blockchain technology, among others. Through her work, she has established collaborations with many organizations and campus offices, which she plans to utilize to ensure the success of this program, Additionally, Barbara has served as a proposal assessor in Fund 9. She has a strong interest in working with student groups and firsthand experience connecting with students and maximizing opportunities for them.

Telegram: @Ophosu

LinkedIn: bit.ly/3qL4W1Q

Email: [email protected]

Atta Boamah Caleb - Students Coordinator

He is third year BSc. Agriculture student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He is a certified digital marketer (Google), graphic designer with 3 years of experience, and the President at YAFO Campus Hive - KNUST. As the President he has built strong network and collaborations with other student groups and colleges on campus. He has been active in catalyst since fund 8 as a community reviewer

Email:

[email protected]

[email protected]

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/atta-boamah-caleb-589330209

How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

By organizing Opportunity Summits in tertiary schools with the follow up Incubation Program will benefit the cardano ecosystem and project catalyst in the following ways;

1. Increased awareness and adoption: our summits is going to create awareness among students about cardano and the various avenues in the community that they can take advantage of in pursuing their entrepreneurship dreams. All incentives for participating in the summit will be paid through ADA wallets and therefore this will increase the adoption of ADA which will have positive impact in the ecosystem.
2. Increased collaboration in the ecosystem: Our incubation program is going to bring student developers to the ecosystem who will collaborate with other developers to build on the cardano blockchain to bring improvements into the ecosystem. The project will also bring individuals interested in governance to collaborate with already existing governance bodies in the ecosystem to increase governance improvements in catalyst.

Overall, the vision to expand the cardano ecosystem and its long-term viability among students can be aided by the successful completion of this project