Our Fortaleza (Strength) Fund educational programming ended with a fabulous graduation on June 20th at the Innovation Center in Durango, CO! This program is tailored for rural Spanish speakers who have dreams of entrepreneurship. We proudly had nine Spanish speaking students that committed to a 12-week Spanish language, virtual education program to further their entrepreneurial dream by learning about small business operations.
At FSWCF, we celebrated each of their accomplishments by showcasing their business, allowing them the opportunity to speak and share information about their business during the ceremony. Additionally, each graduate received a $2,000 grant to use towards their business, $75 Visa gift card and FSWCF gifts.
We concluded our partnership with RMMFI with this graduation. RMMFI provided business education to our students, and graciously gave each student a symbolic bamboo plant and a Certificate of Completion.
Let’s talk about the graduation food! Both former and current Fortaleza students with food businesses, provided appetizers in an incredible showcase of Latin cuisine! Attendees enjoyed pupusas, empanadas, salsas, chips, sauces, flan, tres leches cake, café con leche, and agua fresca…absolutely delicioso!
We were delighted to have over 40 in person attendees, including community members, partners, students, and their families and 20 virtual attendees including partners, mentors, and community members. We are so fortunate to have the Innovation Center in the Durango community, their state of the art technology allowed us to host a hybrid (in-person and virtual) graduation for the first time!
Our Fortaleza graduation was held in Spanish with live-interpretation in English both in-person and virtually. It was a huge success and we were thrilled to bring more inclusivity and strengthen the diverse fabric of our communities through entrepreneurship by removing language barriers.
A huge thank you to our partners: Colorado Trust, Colorado Health Foundation, First Southwest Bank, RMMFI, Durango SBDC, The Innovation Center, and the other many partner and community organizations that support the work that we do! We could not do this without each of you!
We invite you all to learn more about us and share our programs within your rural networks. We will be starting our flagship Rural Women-Led Business Fund educational programming (virtual) the end of July, beginning with a required “Introduction to Technology” series (2-classes) leading into a “Startup Entrepreneurship” series (5-classes), then ending with a “Business Foundations/Leading Edge” series (10-classes) with grant funding upon completion up to $2,400. Please email: tanya.doose@fswcf.org