University of Virginia students are presenting projects to help underdeveloped countries improve their economies.
Student teams in professor Julia Devlin's classes detailed their research in the UVA Global Development Market Hub under the rotunda dome room. This is a competition for the best global development project proposal prepared by economics students.
Judges included a former United States ambassador to Kuwait and a policymaker from the World Bank.
UVA second-year student Mayank Bhatia said, "It gives you a real deep dive into what kind of aspects to consider and look at, and also what kind of theories are out there and projects that have been done."
"You learn so much but then you also forget about this aspect of doing," said UVA fourth-year student Jillian Dankel. "And, this kind of melds the two worlds together, and it's a great way to see that what you're learning really can have an impact. "
The focus countries of this competition were China, Brazil, India, South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia,
Jordan and Bahrain The winning projects involved helping Tunisia overcome water shortages to grow its agriculture and creating jobs for women in Egypt.
