Currently, China’s social entrepreneurship landscape has great potential for growth:

• There are very few opportunities offered to young, ambitious social entrepreneurs.
• Of the few social entrepreneurship competitions that do exist in China, the prize money for the winning business proposal is far too small (20,000 RMB, or approximately 3,000 USD) to sustain any sort of meaningful grassroots business idea

HAUSCR’s ATVenture competition aims to provide emerging Chinese innovators with a unique opportunity to apply their entrepreneurial spirit to social causes. Our competition seeks to identify, cultivate, and support Chinese college students with the capacity to become tomorrow’s leading innovators. With the aim of further nurturing these students’ talents, HAUSCR will select and invite the students with the most promising business proposals to a five-day conference in China, where they will network with like-minded peers, grow under the mentorship of Harvard Business School and Kennedy School students, and learn from distinguished speakers in fields such as economics, social studies, and business. In coordinating this experience, HAUSCR hopes to cultivate the next generation of Chinese entrepreneurs committed to social causes.

Why ATVenture?

First of its kind
Harvard is the first college to specifically hold an entrepreneurship competition for Chinese college students. Therefore, ATVenture is a new and unique opportunity to compete in social entrepreneurship on an international level.

Strong Foundation and Exceptional Resources
ATVenture is an effort supported fully by strong networks of leaders across China and the US. Through the achievements of our parent organization HAUSCR and its programs, we already possess numerous HSYLC alumni and network connections within China, many of whom are attending the best schools both in China and abroad, including Harvard. Moreover, we are able to use our connection with Harvard Professors and Harvard Business School staff to involve them in the conference as mentors, speakers, and case workshop leaders, to provide a very MBA-styled training from the best business school in the world.

HAUSCR already possesses a distinguished board of advisors whose members including: Mr. William C. Kirby (Edith and Benjamin Geisinger Professor in the Department of History and Director, Fairbank Center for East Asian Research), Mr. William R. Fitzsimmons (Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, Harvard College), and Mr. Ziwang Xu, Managing Director of Goldman Sachs China.

In addition, through the past years of US Programs and HSYLC, HAUSCR has retained a very comprehensive and voluminous list of influential leaders in every field of academia and industry including:

• Li Kai-Fu, Founder president and Former CEO of Google China; CEO of Innovation Works
• Prof. David Ager, Harvard Professor
• Clay Chandler, Asia Editor for Fortune Magazine
• Lawrence Summers, Former President of Harvard University
• Nancy M. Barry, Founder and President of Enterprise Solutions to Poverty (ESP)
• Zhou Yunfan, One of Chinese’s 400 richest by Forbes; Chairman and CEO of Kongzhong Corporation
• Valeria Merino, Vice-Prisident of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public

Interactive Online Community
Upon being accepted into the competition, you will:

• Have access to interactive lessons on social entrepreneurship, taught or vetted by leaders in the social entrepreneurship field.
• Be able to join a forum where you can discuss ideas with other participants and recruit support amongst the community