SM Supermalls mounts Teenpreneur Challenge Expo

MANILA, Philippines - SM Supermalls recently hosted the annual Teenpreneur Challenge Expo on Oct. 12 to 13 at SM Megamall Event Center as part of their effort to support social entrepreneurship.

The Teenpreneur Challenge, spearheaded by the Entrepreneur School of Asia (ESA), is an annual 14-week competition wherein high school teams innovate livelihood products from underprivileged communities. This year’s beneficiaries were micro-businesses in Malabon, Boni and Caloocan.

Johanna Rupisan, of the SM Cares Program for Social Entrepreneurship, said that they support the program as these participants are among the most important drivers of development in the country. “(We want them) to keep the spirit of entrepreneurship burning and encourage their innovative spirits,” she shares.

Moving forward, the students want to use the entrepreneurial skills they’ve gained to assist their partner businesses in expanding. “What’s most important is that we learned how entrepreneurship works. We will definitely try our best to support our nanay after this,” says Alyssa Encarnacion from Miriam College, referring to their beneficiary from the micro-business assigned to them.

According to ESA Director of Academics Eduardo Silva, the competition, which is now in its seventh year, is directed towards helping uplift the lives of various underprivileged communities. “The culminating event is the expo here at SM Megamall, where we have held it for the last five years. And every year, with the help of our partners, it has been a big success. We’ve helped over 1400 students, over 100 communities, and we’ve raised few million of pesos in the process,” he says.

Three categories were awarded, focusing on the innovation, design and sales achieved by the students during the entirety of the competition. In the Best in Product Innovation category, Miriam College High School won first place for their tomato jam project, while St. Paul College Pasig (new global flavors of siomai) and Xavier School (pan de choco) ranked second and third, respectively. Meanwhile, Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila School won Best in Sales, followed by St. Paul College Pasig in second. Ateneo High School and Colegio San Agustin were tied at third. St. Paul College Pasig bagged the Best in Booth Display award, while Ateneo High School and Aquinas School bagged second and third, respectively.

Other schools that participated were Colegio Sto. Domingo, Falcon School, Infant Jesus Academy, La Salle College Antipolo, Makati Hope Christian School, Paref Northfield School and Tabernacle of Faith Christian School.

Aside from this project, SM Supermalls also aims to encourage social entrepreneurship within communities, where their malls are located. “Social entrepreneurship is one of the key programs of SM Cares. The Teenpreneur Challenge is one of our flagship projects and we intend to pursue this further with our other partnerships,” says Rupisan.

To know more about SM Cares and their various advocacy programs, visit and like SM CSR Program on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/OfficialSMCares.