Tim Kelley, Chair of Entrepreneurship at Grand Canyon University’s Colangelo College of Business and chairman of the Canyon Angels investment group, recently extended his annual summer outreach to El Salvador. His efforts focus on teaching young mothers entrepreneurial skills as part of a program designed to help them build sustainable livelihoods.
“Whether it’s starting some business as simple as house cleaning, or making textiles, whatever the case might be,” Kelley said from Central Mexico during the final leg of his trip.
Kelley envisions Grand Canyon University (GCU) playing a broader role through its Global Outreach mission trips. These trips send students abroad to work in areas such as health care, social work, education, and agriculture.
“So many of our amazing students do missions where they want to be in places like El Salvador, with these populations that need inspiration,” said Kelley. He added that he is working closely with GCU Provost Dr. Randy Gibb on plans for students to potentially join the Develop Your Model of Entrepreneurship (DYME) program at an orphanage for young mothers as soon as this winter.
“And then this would just be the first step. There’s so many other expansion points across El Salvador, across the larger system, but that’s the work right now that we’re doing,” Kelley said.
For four consecutive summers, Kelley has been part of a team teaching DYME courses at sites including La Javeriana University in Colombia. After finishing those courses this year, he traveled to El Salvador.
The connection between Kelley’s family and El Salvador is longstanding. The Kelleys once hosted Maricela McDonnell as an exchange student; she later married Bob McDonnell, who started a business in Portland, Oregon. Their success allowed them to open Mi Casa International orphanage in El Salvador. The facility now includes three homes: one each for young women and men and a new home for pregnant mothers opened 18 months ago.
“It’s now 15 mothers, and of those who have already given birth, all of them have decided to keep their babies,” Kelley noted.
“We have the content. We have the people, and it’s just putting these things together to make the world a better place. That’s the idea.”
Kelley observed that countries like El Salvador and Argentina are less hindered by bureaucracy when it comes to starting businesses compared with others in South America.
Despite barriers elsewhere in the region, interest in entrepreneurship training remains high. According to Kelley, dozens traveled up to 12 hours from Venezuela for seminars held near Colombia’s border town Cucuta. More than 200 people attended there while over 100 joined classes in Bogota.
“It just keeps growing. It gets bigger and bigger each year,” he said.
