October 8, 2026 – The start of the fall season marked the completion of WPDI Mexico’s Social Entrepreneurship and Business course for 12 participants in San Cristóbal de las Casas. After six months of learning at the WPDI Learning Center, participants presented their business ideas, ranging from mini pizzas and flavored honey to crochet bags. Throughout the course, they built business models based on their skills, experience, and ideas, applying the tools they learned to their own plans.
The closing ceremony offered an opportunity to showcase the concrete results of their training. Participants presented business proposals that reflected the diversity of their creativity, as well as a shared ambition: to turn something they know and enjoy doing into a source of income.
For Olivia Carolina Vargas Macossay, a 51-year-old nutritionist, the course helped turn an idea she had struggled to move forward into a more concrete business project:
“I was born in San Cristóbal; I left to study elsewhere and returned to practice my profession as a nutritionist. My motivation for joining the workshop was to turn my ideas into a profitable business, as well as to learn the tools necessary to successfully carry out my entrepreneurial venture. I feel very satisfied and happy that I gave myself the opportunity to take this course, because I was able to define a concrete idea in a practical way with the help of the trainer and the classmates. I truly feel that it has helped me shape a project, since I tend to be scattered in my thoughts and have struggled to take action on previous occasions. This course provided practical and effective guidance for carrying out my project.”
Other participants joined the program with a business project already underway. For them, the training offered an opportunity to reconsider their approach, explore improvements, and strengthen the foundations of their ventures.
Adriana Ramírez Parcero, a 23-year-old student, joined with the goal of improving her startup:
“I’m from Tila, Chiapas, and I’m a student, which is why I live here in San Cristóbal de las Casas. I joined the course to understand how to run a business and, above all, learn how I could improve my startup. Now that I’ve completed the basic level, I feel very excited, especially because I’ve realized that I can incorporate innovations into my business. This course has had a positive impact, since I personally had no knowledge of the changes I could apply to my business, particularly in the social aspect and the SCAMPER method. Now I feel confident about continuing my business with the new proposals and ideas I’ve generated.”
Alongside practical business knowledge, participants described gaining confidence in their own decisions. Janeth Gómez García, 40, had been selling her crochet work for a year and a half before enrolling.
“I’m a mom and crochet entrepreneur; my business has been running for a year and a half, and I showcase my work at craft fairs. What I liked most about the workshop was our trainer’s patience, the topics covered, and her very clear explanations. Now I feel more confident in what I do, and I’ve started to lose my fear of taking risks. For me, this course marked the beginning of something very important in my business; it helped us lay the groundwork for building a stronger business.”
The proposals presented at the closing ceremony grew from skills and ambitions participants brought with them. Through the course, those ideas took a more concrete shape. For Olivia, that meant finding a practical way to begin; for Adriana and Janeth, it meant seeing new possibilities in businesses they had already started.
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