
Taylor Student Showcase Features Budding Social Entrepreneurs
An intentional living community where homeless youth in New Orleans have a safe place to live, learn and work.
A community gardening project that aims to alleviate the mental health burden and malnutrition of shelter populations.
A smartphone photography program that offers New Orleans youth a safe space to articulate difficult emotions through creative self expression, thereby improving mental health, self esteem and healthy communication skills.
The ideas above are just three of fourteen unique social ventures pitched at the Taylor Student Showcase, a culminating night for students graduating from Taylor’s Changemaker Institute (CI) social venture accelerator. As part of the Showcase, Taylor also awarded $32,705 in funding to 35 Tulane undergraduate and graduate students via the Changemaker Catalyst Award (funding to engage in diverse experiential learning opportunities), The Alvarez Spark Innovation Award (funding to prototype or test innovative ideas), and the NewDay Challenge (seed funding to launch social ventures).
Live pitches from CI graduates (ranging from freshman to a PhD student) at the Showcase spanned fields of education reform, food justice, charitable efficacy, urban sustainability, healthcare, and cultural and creative exchange. Students shared their learning and growth throughout CI, a social venture accelerator that equips students with the entrepreneurial skills to hone their social venture ideas and develop a roadmap to transform their ideas into an ethical, sustainable, scalable solutions.
A unique accelerator program, CI focuses not only on launching successful ventures, but on equipping students with the tools to more deeply understand the challenges they are addressing and become more aware of local partners, champions, and allies tackling those same challenges, thereby developing community partnerships and building “intrapreneurial” capacity while honestly assessing if their venture is needed or wanted by the community, or already exists in another form. CI thereby measures it success not only in launching successful ventures, but also in the journey of learning, failing, iterating, and joining forces with other local change agents.
During the pitches, audience members were encouraged to provide feedback on stick notes that were later hung up large “Feedback Capture Grids” on the walls, one per venture, with four quadrants representing elements one liked or found notable, constructive criticism, questions, and ideas moving forward.
Tulane is honored as an Ashoka U “Changemaker Campus,” and as CI graduates completed their pitches and 35 students spanning multiple disciplines and schools received their awards, the full stage of student changemakers was a powerful reminder of how Tulane students’ collective energy, passion and drive is creating positive change on our campus and in our local and global community.
Click here to see more photos from the event.
2015/2016 Award Recipients
NewDay Challenge | Collin | McCadden | Seed funding for One Percent for NOLA, which leverages the charitable capacity of local businesses to empower local non profits |
Alvarez Spark Award | Anne | Freitas | Funding for a pilot project with Women with a Vision that will work with formerly incarcerated women on a reentry education clinic |
Alvarez Spark Award | Sydney | Gray | Incorporating SISE concepts & Mama Maji organization into Business TIDES courswork |
Alvarez Spark Award | Ethan | Levy | Funding to test the technological platform for FailUp, an online social network for students to collaborate and build entrepreneurial projects and startups. |
Alvarez Spark Award | Jessica | Liddell | Enhancing a Needle Exchange program in New Orleans through providing biohazard containers to super-users |
Alvarez Spark Award | Edward | Narea | Providing education and housing services to the homeless population through the public library system |
Alvarez Spark Award | Elisabeth | Perez | Seed funding for ReFOCUS, a 12 week curriculum for adolescents that teaches basic photography skills, and explores elements of self-expression and storytelling |
Alvarez Spark Award | Rebecca | Solomon | Funding to trademark Acrodemics, a program that brigs a movement-based enrichment program with personalized, smallgroup instruction to underserved New Orleans schools. |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Ruth | Aitken | Lend for America Summit, Local entrepreneurship trainings to support work with Fund17 |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Chloe | Arnow | Local entrepreneurship trainings to support work with Fund17 |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Lillian | Bacon | Funding to participate in Social Entrepreneurship Corps, an experiential internship program in social innovation and microconsignment |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Anna | Bauman | Attending Public Leadership Education Network Conference |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Braham | Berg | Attend AIAS Forum |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Sunshine | Best | Funding to attend an ethnobotany conference |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Anne | Bevis | Funding to attend a job fair for Venture for America, a two-year fellowship with a startup organization |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Claire | Brown | Funding to attend Lend for America Summit, a local entrepreneurship trainings to support work with Fund17 |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Grace | Cammack | Program Director Internship with Fund 17 |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Praveena | Fernes | Funding to support an internship with Rogosin Institute in NYC |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Juan Fernando | Gomez | Funding to attend Harvard Illuminate Conference |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Courtney | Hall | Attending Unite for Sight Global Health and Innovation Summit |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Anne | Heinrichs | Funding to attend StartingBloc, a 5-day institute on leadership in social innovation |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Hannah | Horowitz | Funding to attend Jin Shin Jyutsu Seminar |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Suzi | Kondic | Funding to attend SOCAP15 Conference |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Jourdan | Lee | Funding to attend St Martin service-learning program |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Katie | Lentz | Funding to attend a sport innovation conference in line with her SISE Minor culminating project |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Emma | Lisec | Funding to coordinate informational interviews with social innovation organizations in San Francisco |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Xiaoxiao | Ma | Funding to attend Harvard Illuminate Conference |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Agatha | Magierski | Funding to participate in an internship with Emzingo, a social innovation experiential learning program |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Heather | Milton | Funding to attend the Clinton Global Initiative University, a social innovation and sustainable development conference for students |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Miranda | Pollock | Funding to attend a conference on film production & analysis |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Sonia | Rao | Funding to attend a biotech industry conference |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Yair | Sarfaty | Funding to attend Harvard Illuminate Conference |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Zeynep | Sheikh | Local entrepreneurship trainings to support work with Fund17 |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Sonita | Singh | Funding to attend an information communication technology conference |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Rebecca | Solomon | Receiving certification training to teach child yoga |
Changemaker Catalyst Award | Nikki | Stoumen | Internship with Immigration and Refugee Services at Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans |