High School International Business Immersion

Since 2010, Chocolate University has immersed students in entrepreneurship, craft chocolate and cacao agronomy. Every other year, we accept applications from local high school students to engage in this unique opportunity. Travelers engage in the cultivation of direct trade relationships firsthand as they inspect cocoa beans and watch trade in its most transparent form, as financial statements and profit sharing reports are translated to the farmers in their own language.

These short-term trips do more than inform local students about chocolate. They expose students to possibilities and opportunities for change within themselves, their own community and the greater world. CU helps bring the world to local students, who in turn, bring inspiration and possibilities to the world.

“Throughout the week, our students will work alongside our farmer partners, spending time in their homes, helping to harvest cacao and getting to know their families,” Shawn Askinosie said in a news release. “This is a business trip. But it’s also about strengthening relationships and building community, together. The most important Swahili word we teach the students is ‘kujengana’ which means ‘to build each other up.”