The University of St. Thomas hosted the Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge Finals on June 12, awarding over $60,000 in seed funding to startups run by students.
The event is a joint venture between St. Thomas and the University of San Diego. This is the first time St. Thomas' Schulze School of Entrepreneurship hosted the finals.
"The Schulze School of Entrepreneurship and the Opus College of Business is honored to partner with the Center for Peace and Commerce at the University of San Diego, a strong ally in higher education social entrepreneurship programming," said Stefanie Lenway, the dean of St. Thomas' Opus Business College, in a statement.
Each startup in the competition had to address at least one of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which include things like ending hunger and social justice. Students from 15 countries and 28 universities competed.
The big winner of the day was Seedloans, a company from the University of Oxford that sends seeds to to female farmers in rural Uganda as a form of microloan. It won a $22,000 prize and was named the Changemaker Award winner
The runner up for the Changemaker Award was Big & Mini, a company from the University of Texas at Austin that connects younger people with older adults via videoconferencing. It won $10,000.
"The Fowler GSIC is for the trailblazers, the doers and the dreamers. Never has this mindset been more relevant than in these current times," said Laura Dunham, the associate dean of the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship, in a statement.
