Hannah Mercer| Summer 2025 |
This summer, I had the amazing opportunity to join ACU’s College of Business on a consulting trip in Costa Rica. For two weeks, my team and I immersed ourselves in a rich culture, learning about different lifestyles and gaining perspective on the obstacles a business owner must face when starting out. During this trip, we had the privilege to partner with CATIE University and Wearsos. These businesses worked with Southwest’s Repurpose with a Purpose program to upcycle retired leather into something beautiful and empower rural entrepreneurs along the way. Every 5 years, Southwest discards their old airline seats and sends the leather to places around the world to be upcycled. One of these places is a community in Costa called Mollejones.
At Mollejones, this leather is cut and processed before being sent to CATIE. There, the university trains students in the art of creating a business and teaches women how to make products such as handbags and backpacks out of leather. While visiting, we had the opportunity to interview the entrepreneurs, both in the program and those who completed it, and see how CATIE is making a massive difference in their lives. Some women were getting their first paycheck ever, which didn’t just go straight to their husbands or heads of the house, and CATIE was the lifeline that prevented some people from being forced out on the street.
An example from this program is Wearsos, one of the most successful businesses to arise out of CATIE. While many of the other entrepreneurs are still trying to find their way into the market, Wearsos has distinguished itself by operating its own store and coffee shop in the heart of Turrialba. During our visit, my team was able to tour the shop and provide consumer insights on things such as sale strategies, social media branding, and website design inspiration for the launch of their upcoming Buruka line to be showcased later this month.
Through this experience, we were able to understand the realities of starting a small business and gain a deeper insight into how operating a business looks outside of America. While the trip was mainly focused on consulting, we were still able to enjoy the tourism the city had to offer. At Mollejones, one of the workers gave us a bread-making tour, teaching us how to bake from scratch and describing the history of ingredients in Costa Rica. Later, we toured a cacao farm and experienced all the steps in how to turn a bean into actual chocolate. In the evening, we got to explore the city, trying new foods and seeing what the world has to offer. Additionally, we had the chance to go waterfall rappelling in the rain and zipline through the breathtaking mountains of Costa Rica. Overall, this trip was beautiful, and I’m so blessed to have received the privilege of experiencing it.
