Seven UNC students with ideas to change the world are in the running to receive a $50,000 check.
Entrants submitted project concepts to the Dell Social Innovation Competition with hopes of winning the money to further their respective ideas.
College students from all across the world enter the competition online, submitting a short description of their ideas for innovation on the Web site.
Anyone can visit the site and vote for individual projects. The 10 projects that receive the most votes will automatically advance to the next round.
Then, a committee of judges will invite a small group of semifinalists to further expand their ideas into detailed venture plans. Each semifinalist produces a three-minute video pitch of his or her plan.
Three finalists are selected and invited to travel to Austin, Texas, to present their plans to a committee of leaders from nonprofits, businesses and government sectors.
The final day to enter a project is March 1. Students can vote on the projects at dellsocialinnovationcompetition.com.
The UNC project ideas that have been submitted so far are:
Promoting Women’s Rights in Rural Uganda
The project Promoting Women’s Rights in Rural Uganda aims to give each young woman in rural Uganda a pig that she can raise and breed.
Then, through a partnership with a local microfinance institution, the women will be educated on ways to save and manage their finances in ways that enable them to gain independence and responsibility.
Education Breaking Down Mountains
Education Breaking Down Mountains strives to promote access to English education in the mountainous Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan, a country in central Asia.
The project would work to establish a mobile library to improve English comprehension, writing and speaking skills. The project’s mission is to provide support for students in this region by helping them take advantage of global opportunities in which English fluency is necessary.
The Uwezo Project
The Uwezo Project seeks to reverse trends of excluding children with mental and physical disabilities in Tanzanian and East African societies.
Project plans include building inclusionary education centers where children with and without disabilities can learn together in an integrative environment, doing away with the cultural stereotypes of children with disabilities.
Token Energy
Token Energy is an organization dedicated to helping improve universities’ green image, educating university students on how to use less energy and saving university money spent on electricity.
The program would create software to display a building’s water and energy usage to encourage people to conserve.
BuildUP
The project idea BuildUP is a collaboration of students and young professionals skilled in various areas of housing revitalization, committed to restoring vacant buildings in metropolitan areas.
The group works to transform run-down buildings into affordable, accessible and environmentally sustainable apartment-style communities.
Humanity Publishing
Humanity Publishing plans to create a publishing company designed to produce affordable books in developing countries. The organization will work to publish local authors and storytellers in order to promote literacy and empower people to share their stories.
Eliminating Homelessness While Saving the Earth
Eliminating Homelessness While Saving the Earth plans to build homeless shelters close to landfills and dumps to allow homeless people at the shelters to sort through the landfills and dumps to collect recyclables for money.
Workers will be responsible for working in teams, thus learning important social skills that will be valuable to them once they have collected enough money from recycling to re-enter society.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
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Friday, May 3, 2024
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