The Tibetan Innovation Challenge was founded after the Dalai Lama expressed concern over the number of young Tibetans who were forced to flee their homeland in search of jobs. Many Tibetan refugees face tremendous economic hardship, and the TIC aims to empower Tibetans to seize control of their economic futures with self-sustaining business ideas through a new intercollegiate social entrepreneurship business plan contest.

The Texas Tech team, along with teams from the University of Rochester, Syracuse University, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, the UCLA Anderson School of Management and the University of Maryland, presented their business plans to a panel of judges, which included Kaydor Aukatsang, the representative of the Dalai Lama to North America, Thubten Samdup, the former representative of the Dalai Lama to Northern Europe, and Lobsang Nyandak, the executive director of the Tibet Fund Trustee to the Dalai Lama Trust based in the U.S.

Students also had a chance to meet the Dalai Lama himself at the TIC, and Nafees hopes to meet His Holiness again when they travel to India at a later date.

"We are proud of our Texas Tech students for winning the Tibetan Innovation Challenge in New York," Texas Tech President M. Duane Nellis said. "Our students are working hard to reach out to others internationally through research, hard work and diligence. Congratulations to the Texas Tech team for winning such a prestigious competition."

Each team member had a specific role in the planning aspect for the challenge. Nafees, who also is a One Young World ambassador, helped mold the business plan with her entrepreneurship skills and international perspective. Jarvis, a Texas Tech graduate and entrepreneur with a master's degree in mass communications, and Fisher, an MBA student and external vice president of the Texas Tech Student Government Association, provided experience with media, marketing and business-thinking skills. DeLeon and Brown, both Texas Tech graduates with a bachelor's of science in biology, did in-depth research for the business plan as they undergraduate career consisted mainly of research.

"It's cool coming from the wild card perspective because we competed at such a prestigious level," Fisher said. "The students, faculty, staff and leadership here at Texas Tech represent something really unique and awesome, and ultimately it shows we really work hard for our achievements."