FIU Students Prepare for Hult Prize, World’s Largest Entrepreneurship Competition
Six teams share ideas, build strategies for “Getting the World Back to Work” after pandemic
Hult Prize participants listening to advice from their guest pitch coach, Alejandra Copeland
(MIAMI, FL – March 25, 2022) Considered the largest social entrepreneurship competition in the world, the Hult Prize helps young people evolve their thinking, visualize opportunities, and become leaders of impact as they work to create meaningful change in the world.
Offering the winning team $1 million to turn their concept into reality, the renowned Hult Prize provides impact-focused programs, events, and training to over a million students globally, creating a pathway for youth everywhere to take action and build a better society.
StartUP FIU, an initiative to foster entrepreneurship and innovation on campus, has proudly hosted the Hult Prize since 2016 and is happy to announce that its largest campus competition to date is back. This year’s theme – “Getting the World Back to Work” – challenged student entrepreneurs to create a business that makes a positive impact on the world while providing meaningful employment to at least 2,000 people by 2024.
This year’s Hult Prize at FIU OnCampus Competition is made up of student teams from a diverse range of disciplines, from business to engineering to computer science. The common goal that unites them is a passion for finding innovative and life-changing solutions to the many social problems currently plaguing the world.
“By gathering students from a variety of academic disciplines and backgrounds, we were able to develop some really creative ideas for businesses that would be both socially impactful and financially successful,” said Maria Angelica, a second-year Biology major and Campus Director for the Hult Prize at FIU 2021-2022. “In preparation for the Hult Prize Competition, we learned about and discussed the challenges faced by many post-pandemic businesses and were able to brainstorm some innovative solutions that we hope to implement.”
Throughout the Spring 2022 semester, the Hult Prize at FIU Organizing Committee held over seven hours of in-person workshops, as well as provided students with endless resources through a Google vault. Student competitors also enrolled in the Social Venture Studio, affiliated with StartUP FIU, which helped supplement their ideas for the competition. Although students had less time to prepare for the Hult Prize this year, they were determined to create a dynamic and socially impactful program.
In conjunction with the Hult Prize Meetups and Social Venture Studio, the FIU student teams utilized an online training boot camp where they could gain support and knowledge regarding how to create and pitch their ideas. A WhatsApp Group also allowed students to have 24/7 access to Maangelica Subido, the Hult Prize Campus Director, and the Organizing Committee members.
“It’s made me rethink how I thought about starting a business completely. As someone that wants to be an entrepreneur, I feel like this has really opened up my mind and made me have to push myself,” said Zyannah Greaux, Team Captain of Tropik, one of the competing student groups.
In just over a decade, the Hult Prize Foundation has deployed more than $65 million into the impact sector which it helped create. Operating on more than 2,000 college and university campuses in 121 countries with a global team of more than 30,000 staff, student volunteers, and social entrepreneurs, the Hult Prize continues to be a disruptive global leader in education, soft skills training, and entrepreneurial development for the 21st century.
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