Student Club Events

Stern Students Participate in Inaugural Social Impact Business Challenge

Over the spring semester, undergraduate students from across NYU teamed up to compete for up to $20,000 in Stern’s inaugural Social Impact Business Challenge. The competition, offered jointly by Stern's Office of Social Impact Programming and the Berkley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, tasked students with designing an ethics quiz that can be distributed through social networking platforms to promote the ongoing discussion of basic human values.

On April 29, the student finalists presented their business plans to a panel of renowned judges from the Acumen Fund, American Express, the Aspen Institute, Bridgespan Group, Saatchi & Saatchi and the United Nations. The winning team, which consisted of students from the Stern School of Business, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, proposed a plan for an interactive online application to generate discussion about issues in medical ethics.

"The students all did a great job responding to the challenge,” says Professor Matt Statler, Richman Family Director of Business Ethics and Social Impact Programming. “We were happy to have such a wonderful panel of judges."

In addition to receiving up to $20,000 in funding, the winning team will receive support from Stern's Office of Social Impact Programming and the Berkley Center to help further their business concept.

“My teammates all came from very different backgrounds and had interesting views,” says Stern junior Xiang Zhang, a member of the winning team. “When we won, it hit us that our project will become a reality.”