Whether you’re an MBA student or not, Heller offers a variety of ways to engage with social entrepreneurship, including competitions, workshops, and classes that give every student the opportunity to pursue a social venture, develop a plan, and get feedback from professionals. We’re currently less than a week out from one of my favorite of these events: SparkTank!
Next week, Brandeis is hosting their annual SparkTank event, a competition where students, faculty, and staff compete for a share of $50,000 in funding to turn their innovative ideas into viable businesses. The SparkTank event is part of the Brandeis Innovation Spark program, which is an experiential education program of the Innovation Center at Brandeis University. The program provides students with the opportunity to learn through doing by offering seed funding, mentorship, and a collaborative community to turn their innovative ideas into viable businesses. The program seeks to inspire students to think creatively about solutions for real-world problems.
Last year, five Heller student teams entered the weekend-long competition, and all received prizes. The community-driven aquaculture venture Sowing Seas, led by Beck Hayes, MBA/MA SID’22 and Ariel Wexler, MBA/MA SID’22, took first prize, and plant-based sustainable meal vendor Farmer Foodie, led by Alison Elliott, MBA/MA SID’22, shared second prize. Heller teams frequently do well in this competition, including winning more than $22,000 in combined prize money in 2018 and taking four of the top spots in 2020.
Participating in Brandeis’ SparkTank event is just one of many ways you can get involved and turn your innovative ideas into viable businesses: students can also participate in The Heller Startup Challenge, an intensive, three-day social enterprise initiative, open to Heller students as well as undergraduates and alumni. Participants form or join teams around an idea to solve a pressing social issue, develop a business plan with the help of a mentor, learn from peers with different skill sets and pitch their plan at the end of the weekend– and there’s a $1,000 prize!
Heller students can also compete for the Hult Prize at Brandeis. The Hult Prize is a year-long international student competition to sustainably solve the world’s most pressing social challenges offers a $1 million prize—but first, students have to win at their local college competition. The Hult Prize at Brandeis is the culmination of a semester full of entrepreneurship, offering students a chance to pitch ideas refined through feedback at previous events.
Whether you’re an MBA student or not, Heller students have the opportunity to explore how entrepreneurship has become a driving force in the social enterprise sector. I’m so excited to hear how the competing Heller teams do this year!