Member Article

Hult students closer to winning $1 million dollars

Top-tier schools go head-to-head in world’s largest student competition, competing for $1 million in start-up funding to solve President Clinton’s Early Childhood Challenge.

The Hult Prize Foundation recently announced that the Hult London team has advanced to the regional finals of the sixth annual Hult Prize.

The annual Hult Prize Challenge is the world’s largest student competition and start-up platform for social good. In partnership with President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative, the innovative crowdsourcing platform identifies and launches disruptive and catalytic social ventures that aim to solve the planet’s most pressing challenges. Student teams compete in five cities around the world for a chance to secure $1 million in start-up funding to launch a sustainable social venture.

This year’s challenge was selected and set by President Bill Clinton, who said:

“The Hult Prize is about more than the solution to the problem, it’s about how the world has to work in the 21st century.”

The Hult London team consists of: Nicholas Marshall (Masters in Finance Student, United Kingdom), Renee Vansevenant (also MFIN Canada), Pablo Lluch Castells (MFIN Spain), Linn E. Hjelseth (Master in International Business, Norway) and Alexandre Tricoire (MFIN, France).

The teams’ idea is Schools4Future - with more than 6,000 tons of plastic waste dumped in Indian cities every day and mostly burnt due to the lack of recycling possibilities and their approach, cash4trash, will enable families to collect plastic waste from the streets, and pay for their children’s education by depositing the waste, which they will recycle, process and sell.

Nicholas Marshall, Hult student (Chairman S4F) said:

“We are happy to have been qualified for the European Regional Finals of the Hult Prize. The last four months have been hard work with all our team and supporters and our Schools4Future aims to improve early childhood education”.

The 2015 Hult Prize will focus on building start-ups that provide sustainable, high quality early education solutions to ten million children under the age of six in urban slums and beyond by the year 2020.

Rebecca Churchill, Executive Director, Hult London postgraduate campus said:

“It is such a humbling part of my job to be part of the Hult Prize, and to have one of our teams go through to the next stage is fabulous! They have been working tirelessly and I wish them every luck in the next phase of the competition – a potentially life changing opportunity!”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Victoria Robinson .