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Article by Naomi Hampton, intern with the U.S. Department of State, currently studying History and Politics of the Americas at University College London.
[Mexico, November 2022] When talking about her business Negro Neón, which means “Black Neon” in English, Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) #ExchangeAlumni María Rojas said,“I think this chose me rather than I chose it!”
When she was studying abroad in Germany, while working towards her degree in industrial design, Rojas noticed a difference between how those working in waste management were treated in Europe compared to in her home country of Mexico.
She says she was surprised by the respect the public had for those who collected trash and recyclable materials. She was also shocked to see the general population recycle their own waste products at supermarkets and at home.
“They had these machines in supermarkets where you could exchange plastic bottles for money or store credit,” Rojas said. “The job of recycling collectors is dignified unlike in my country where they are looked [down upon].”
After she returned to Mexico, Rojas felt inspired to do something to upcycle the plastic waste she saw at home. She discovered Precious Plastic, an online recycling and conservation community that encouraged her to go into the recycled jewelry making business.
Negro Neón now operates as both an online and retail business, with her products in boutiques and stores throughout the country. Rojas collects recyclable plastics from 3D printing runoffs and her local community which she sorts, melts down, and reforms into gorgeous earrings, rings and other pieces.
Though she primarily runs the business alone, Rojas often gets help crafting from single mothers, students, and other women in her community who want a bit of extra cash during busy seasons.
“I think having them sand down the products for one or two hours a day is an easy and flexible job for them which can be done while attending online classes or watching Netflix, so very convenient.”
A 2020 participant in the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), a U.S. Department of State initiative to empower women worldwide, Rojas is thankful for the skills she gained. As part of AWE, she completed the DreamBuilder online training, developed by Arizona State’s Thunderbird School of Global Management, and learned how to fine-tune her business plan.
Rojas said she had previously enrolled herself in several entrepreneurial programs, but AWE was the only one tailor-made for the needs of women specifically. She said being a woman entrepreneur presents its own set of challenges, and AWE is able to confront and address them in a constructive way.
“[AWE] was very different because it focused more on women and the different challenges we would face compared to men,” Rojas explained.
Rojas went on to win the AWE pitch competition with a prize of $2,500, allowing her to open a workshop and studio showfront for in-person clientele. For her, the most important takeaway from the program was the connections to other women in business – both around the world and right next door. Laughing, she explained she even found her accountant there.
“I think the greatest part was connecting with these women entrepreneurs that have kinds of businesses completely different from mine!”
Since then, Rojas has been pushing her business forward. She hopes to invest in a machine to create her upcycled products with the same quality but at a faster rate, and is looking to expand her client base both in Mexico and in their neighbor next door – the United States.
Rojas recently participated in a six-week internship with a U.S. business as part of the prestigious Young Leaders of America Initiative (YLAI) Fellowship, a U.S. State Department exchange program that supports entrepreneurship and economic empowerment in the Americas.
Every year, the YLAI Fellowship brings nearly 300 business and social entrepreneurs from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada to the United States for a fellowship that includes entrepreneurial leadership training, a four-week professional placement, and closing forum. As a 2022 YLAI fellow, Rojas collaborated with Atacama Biomaterials, a robotics startup that develops renewable materials in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
For now, the 26-year-old entrepreneur is very excited by how far she has come in such a short time. Rojas plans to leverage her AWE and YLAI alumni experience by giving back the knowledge she gained to other women interested in starting a business, and running workshops for other young entrepreneurs like her.
The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs, a program of the U.S. Department of State, gives women like Rojas the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch and scale successful businesses. Since 2019, AWE has used the DreamBuilder learning platform to empower more than 25,000 women entrepreneurs to follow their dream of owning a business in nearly 100 countries, and has operated in Mexico since 2019.
The Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI) Fellowship Program empowers emerging entrepreneurs from the Western Hemisphere to enable the full economic potential of the region’s citizens. YLAI promotes U.S. business models, increases trade, encourages job creation, and builds lasting and sustainable networks of young entrepreneurs and business and social leaders across Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States.
For more information about AWE, visit: https://eca.state.gov/awe
For more information about YLAI, visit: https://ylai.state.gov/
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