Social impact! Tec Guadalajara redesignated as Changemaker Campus

The Tec de Monterrey on Guadalajara has been redesignated for another 10 years as an Ashoka Changemaker Campus, with accreditation granted by the international organization Ashoka U (based in Washington, D.C.), focused on promoting social initiatives.

In 2011, Tec Guadalajara was the first university in Latin America to be designated an Ashoka Changemaker Campus for its commitment to training agents of change and for the impact of its social initiatives.

Now, in 2024, the campus has been redesignated for another 10 years (until 2034) after the review process and a visit by authorities from Ashoka Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean (MCC).

As part of the redesignation process, Ashoka MCC representatives visited the Guadalajara campus to analyze aspects such as:

• Initiatives or programs in the area of social innovation,
• Impact on the different areas of the campus and the opportunities generated by them,
• Staff and faculty members, events, and best practices with social and environmental impact, and
• Local and regional positioning in the areas mentioned above.

Claudia Félix, Vice President of the Tec’s Western Region, said that “since 2011, the Guadalajara campus has had the privilege and honor of adopting social entrepreneurship as part of its essence, detecting opportunities through innovation and leadership, and solving global problems, which consequently create social and economic value.”

Opportunities for innovation and leadership

Ulrick Noel, National Director of the Tec’s Eugenio Garza Lagüera Institute of Entrepreneurship (IEEGL), said that the redesignation granted by an external organization like Ashoka “confirms that the entrepreneurship activities and strategy inside and outside the classroom are focused on achieving a positive impact.”

He stated that “it comprises a certification for entrepreneurship activities since they not only have a positive social impact but also have a conscious one, which consists of multiple variables related to the benefit that we can generate as an institution.”

He added that “the concept of social entrepreneurship is evolving. Today, we bear in mind a model that not only provides access to vulnerable populations but also includes other audiences: conscious entrepreneurs (who consider sustainability, their employees’ wellbeing, customers, and an integral system that benefits the community).

Ulrick Noel said that although they had reflected on what has been built during the Ashoka MCC visit, he also stressed that the Tec has always led the way with a “vision to promote integral and conscious entrepreneurship.”

“For us, entrepreneurship is an important way to connect to the environment and achieve a long-term positive impact… We also learn from other changemaker campuses and their best practices such as calls for proposals and management models,” he said.

Becoming an agency of change

During the visit, Ashoka MCC representatives learned first-hand about learning experiences focused on spaces, activities, or projects that have been maintained or built since the Changemaker Campus designation to create community, culture, and social development.

Carolina Nieto, Director of Ashoka MCC, said that being a Changemaker Campus means relying on support to generate social innovation and become an agency of change.

“We’re permanently connecting people and projects to work together when the objectives of both are aligned... The best allies we have in Mexico are the three universities that are Changemaker Campuses,” she said.

Ulrick Noel said that the aim is therefore to involve all areas of the campus in the redesignation to broaden the themes of social innovation and turn the entire student community into an agency of change.

He also pointed out that Ashoka MCC’s visit had a strong collaborative significance. It included discussions with different areas about what it means to be a changemaker campus, learning the meaning and benefits of the redesignation, and detecting how each person can contribute through his or her role.

Noel said that actions already being carried out will be strengthened in this way, or they will gain more visibility within and outside their environment. This means expanding outreach to the entire campus by generating identification or a mindset that translates into becoming an agency of change.

Agents of change to create social value

Claudia Félix, Vice President of the Tec’s Western Region, said that the redesignation reiterates the commitment to “generate entrepreneurs who are aware of their role as agents of change with a vision to positively impact their environment.”

For Brenda Villegas, Children and Youth Coordinator at Ashoka MCC, “anyone can be an agent of change. Ashoka has almost 4,000 people from all over dedicated to helping solve social problems. It’s a matter of detecting “from our areas, wherever they are, what we’re doing to contribute to the greater good. That’s the key to becoming active as an agent of change.”

José Roberto Mejía, Coordinator of Territories and Ecosystem at Ashoka MCC, suggested “thinking of the agency of change as a bridge to build a crossing between different areas. When we have shared visions, this redesignation of the Tec allows us to cross areas as an agency of change and to identify how to become a part of the strategy.”

Claudia Félix added that the implemented projects “keep us going whatever the circumstances, which renews our alliance with Ashoka, reaffirming that we have everything we need to be a Changemaker Campus.”

“Maintaining an entrepreneurial, altruistic, and cooperative spirit helps us to focus on continuing to develop projects, programs, and challenges for innovation and social entrepreneurship,” she said.

“It allows us to have programs with impact. It’s the campus with the most penetration in conscious and social projects.” – Ulrick Noel.

Strengthening actions

“It has an impact on the Tec as a system. For the Tec, what happens on the Guadalajara campus serves as a laboratory and observatory for us to deploy to the rest of the campuses,” explained Ulrick Noel.

The redesignation “allows us to have programs with continuous impact. It’s the campus with the most penetration in conscious and social projects,” he said.

“The hallmark of its ventures is that they care about more than financial results. This allows us to access audiences in Guadalajara that we wouldn’t be able to reach if we weren’t a changemaker campus,” he concluded.

Some upcoming actions include consolidating the change team, a multidisciplinary approach from areas and schools that contribute to what is happening on campus, and publishing guidelines on how to achieve these ideas.

Some key aspects to achieving the redesignation:

• Changemaker Fest (a meet-up for entrepreneurs with a social focus), pre-incubation and incubation programs for social entrepreneurship.
• Strength of on-campus teams
• Initiatives beyond social entrepreneurship
• Cross-cutting projects in multiple areas and community work
• Establishment of the Sustainability and Climate Change Laboratory (LSCC), among others.

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