Written by: Donnavila Marie P. Herbster

From student business booths to social media training for visually impaired entrepreneurs, UB used its schools, faculty and students in 2025 to help community members start businesses that pay their way and serve their communities.

A business that lasts needs more than a good product. Its owner has to know how to present it, where buyers can find it, and who can help when the business is ready to grow. Throughout 2025, the University of Baguio (UB), through its basic education unit, its college schools and its Research, Innovation, Extension and Community Outreach (RIECO) Office, provided these pieces of support to students, partner barangays and marginalized groups in Baguio City.

Starting early: entrepreneurship as a learning experience

UB’s support for new ventures begins in its own classrooms. In January 2025, the University of Baguio High School (UBHS) Entrepreneurship Day, which turned the school gymnasium into a marketplace under the theme “The Spark Within: Unleashing Your Entrepreneurial Spirit.” Grade 11 students from various strands presented products and services they had developed in their Entrepreneurship (CONENT1) subject, including hand-crafted jewelry, eco-friendly products, homemade snacks and tech gadgets, with booths such as Totally Jeanius and Charmify.

Students pitched to buyers, ran live demonstrations and faced a panel of UBHS alumni and faculty who judged them on creativity, market potential, presentation and overall execution, and who gave direct feedback. Winners received cash prizes and certificates. The event gives young people an early, low-risk experience of running a business, and UBHS plans to hold it every year.

At the college level, the School of Business Administration and Accountancy (SBAA) widened its resources for entrepreneurship education. On April 30, 2025, it signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Startupreneurship Book Publishing, based in Cagayan de Oro. The partnership was presented as part of SBAA’s effort to build the next generation of entrepreneurs and changemakers.

Getting found: helping VIPPD sell through social media

For many small producers, the hardest part is reaching buyers. On July 31, 2025, the SBAA and the School of Information Technology (SIT) ran “Click and Connect: Growing VIPPD Businesses Through Social Media” for the Visually Impaired Positive and Progressive Dreamers (VIPPD), a group whose members make handmade products. The outreach taught members how to use social media and other digital platforms to promote their goods, widen their market and increase their income.

The support continued after the training:

• A dedicated social media page was set up for VIPPD, and SBAA and SIT faculty, staff and students engaged with it to help it grow.
• The Junior Association for Marketing Executives (JAME) created and posted promotional materials for the group’s products.
• A plastic bottle donation drive (500 ml and 1 L bottles) was organized to supply raw materials for VIPPD’s products, so the enterprise can keep producing while reusing waste.

Among others, the project shows how business support can also advance inclusion: it helps persons with visual impairment earn from an enterprise of their own. The partners described the project as only the beginning and committed to continued support.

Building skills in an adopted community: Barangay Pinsao Proper

UB also brings income-generating skills to the barangays it has adopted. In October 2025, UB took part in the General Assembly of Barangay Pinsao Proper and reported on the activities its schools had carried out there. Among them were a welding training by the School of Engineering and Architecture, which gave community members technical skills to improve their livelihood opportunities, and baking sessions by the School of International Hospitality and Tourism Management for the barangay’s women’s group, which supported entrepreneurship and community bonding.

UB students have also looked for ways to give the barangay’s producers a place to sell. At Liwliwa Ya Sursuro (LYS) 2.0: Baguio Youth Innovation Challenge, organized by the Cordilleran Youth Center (CYC), an SBAA team of RC Mae Payumo, Antonette Laya Obligado, Rhodaliz Pacada and Kristine Moe Ganapin proposed a satellite market for Pinsao Proper during the final pitching on November 22, 2025, complete with a proposed site, infrastructure and budget. The proposal was not chosen as the winner, but juror Arch. Donna T. Tabangin offered to work with the team on developing the project. UB’s Memorandum of Agreement with CYC also covers mentoring and training for the challenge.

What makes these businesses sustainable

Taken together, UB’s 2025 initiatives address both sides of sustainability. On the financial side, they build skills that keep a small business viable: product development, pitching, digital marketing and production skills such as welding and baking. On the social side, they reach people who are often left out, including persons with visual impairment, residents and women of an adopted barangay, and young people still in school. Responsible production runs through the work as well, from eco-friendly student products to recycled bottles used as raw material by VIPPD.

The support is also ongoing rather than one-off. Training is followed by marketing help, partnerships with publishers and youth organizations widen the resources available, and the university’s long-term relationship with Pinsao Proper allows it to return, report back to residents and add help where it is needed.

Looking ahead

UBHS will continue its yearly Entrepreneurship Day, SBAA and SIT have committed to further support for VIPPD, and UB’s partnership with Pinsao Proper gives it room to deepen its livelihood and enterprise programs. In each case, the University of Baguio is applying what its schools teach to help Baguio residents start and run businesses that support their families and their communities.