Helena Habdija has combined her decade of experience as an educator with her passion for entrepreneurship and has embraced a new challenge exploring the world of startups. She is fascinated by the speed of new ideas being generated and different growth phases of business. She is as passionate about youth development as she is about female entrepreneurship, and she strongly supports new ideas that have the potential to create change in society. 

IVLP Impact Award Project: Local Hero Challenge

Local Hero Challenge Bootcamp was a gamified process empowering young people ages 14-18 to become change agents, to implement their projects and to leverage their success stories to inspire, mobilize and support other young people in many diverse local contexts of Croatia.

Through workshops and one-to-one mentoring, participants identified issues that matter to them and developed ideas to solve those problems. With the help of mentors, they developed local partnerships to put their ideas into practice

"I learned to use a lot of new and practical tools to develop a business idea...we worked a lot, but it was worth it." - Project Participant

IVLP Exchange Experience

Helena participated in the IVLP Project Women and Entrepreneurship, organized by the U.S. Department of State and CRDF Global, in partnership with Global Ties Alabama, Global Ties Sacramento, Global Ties Akron, Cleveland Council on World Affairs and International House.

Helena's exchange experience led to the development of her IVLP Impact Award Project: "My online IVLP experience exceeded my expectations. The team and the participants were really approachable, knowledgeable and always ready to help. This experience empowered me to create new projects, cooperate with more people and contribute more to my local community."

U.S. Communities Visited Virtually 

Huntsville, AL; Sacramento, CA; Washington, DC: Charlotte, NC; Akron, OH; Cleveland, OH

Country: Croatia

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