“Break the Stigma of Xenophobia in the U.S.” was the title of the winning contribution of the Global Entrepreneurship Challenge 2010, organized by Studentcompetitions.com in connection to the Global Entrepreneurship Week, supported by the Kauffman Foundation.

The winning student, Rahul Barwani from UC Berkeley, USA, will travel to Sweden in spring 2011 and present his idea at the entrepreneurship conference Startup Day. 

Students from all over the world rose to the challenge posed by Thom Ruhe, Director of Entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation, in the first Global Entrepreneurship Challenge. More than 220 students from 45 different countries participate in the competition, including 9 countries in Africa, 10 countries in Asia and 16 countries in Europe. The public got to vote for the top ten contributions and then a jury consisting of senior representatives from the competition partners selected the winning contribution. 

Barwani won the short essay contest with his contribution “Break the Stigma of Xenophobia in the U.S.” in close competition with contributions from Indonesia and Turkey. In his essay, Rahul emphasize the importance of refining immigration laws to allow students to stay in the countries they pursue their education in after they have graduated, to promote diversity which is beneficial for the innovative climate. 

“In the past decades, it has become increasingly difficult to attain permanent resident status in the country and the inability to attain this status is driving away a variety of intelligent entrepreneurs," stated Barwani. "In addition, this policy goes against one of the defining principles of entrepreneurship - diversity.”

The purpose of the GEC was to identify great ideas from students in every corner of the world. The winning contribution frames the problem well and in his essay, Rahul underlines the importance of opening up to the world to increase the number and impact of young entrepreneurs.

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