Northern Arizona University’s Yuma campus hosts an opportunity for students to market their business ideas.

Think “Shark Tank” in the Borderlands.

The Border Entrepreneurial Challenge begins today and Friday with online presentations from undergraduate and graduate students. On Saturdays and Sundays, you’ll see presentations in person from students as well as alumni, entrepreneurs, local residents and active business owners.

Monica Acosta Alvarado, Clinical Assistant Professor of Business at NAU Yuma, said participants will make business proposals and pitch them to a final jury of potential investors and local business leaders.

“Our culture is very focused on entrepreneurship,” Acosta Alvarado told KAWC, referring to people who do business in the Yuma County/San Luis Rio Colorado/Mexicali/Imperial Valley region in English and Spanish. He added that it would be an opportunity for “We need to give our community more tools, more opportunities, and more funding.”

NAU Yuma is a host institution along with Baja California Autonomous University, CETYS University and San Diego State University.

For more information, visit nau.edu/yuma/bec.