Students from JA Ecuador Win 2026 De La Vega Global Entrepreneurship Award

BOSTON, March 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Founded in 2021 by tech-legend Ralph de la Vega, former President and CEO of AT&T Mobile and Business Solutions, the De La Vega Global Entrepreneurship Award is the highest global award for the JA Company Program. The winning JA Company of the Year student teams from JA's six regions—JA Africa, JA Americas, JA Asia Pacific, JA Europe, INJAZ Al-Arab/JA MENA, and Junior Achievement USA—automatically become finalists.The JA Company Program is JA's flagship youth-entrepreneurship experience, helping students develop real companies that create products or services to meet a specific need; build, market, and deliver products; and earn real profits. Student companies compete at the local level, and some move on to national and regional competitions. Until this award was established, the highest prize that a JA student company could earn was the coveted first place at one of JA's six regional competitions.The 2026 De La Vega Global Entrepreneurship Award competition included SmartGenix, representing Africa from JA Nigeria; Sacky JA, representing the Americas from JA Ecuador; Zester, representing JA Asia Pacific from JA Hong Kong SAR—China; VerifyID, representing Europe from Fonden for Entreprenøskab (JA Denmark); EcoRock, representing the Middle East and North Africa ...Full story available on Benzinga.com