Ubiquity University Launches $25,000 Global Sustainability Challenge to Support Students in Solving United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
MILL VALLEY, Calif., Aug. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ubiquity University is launching the Ubiquity Global Sustainability Challenge to support its students' involvement in solving global problems, specifically around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
The Challenge is intended to encourage, educate and empower Ubiquity students to work together in teams and come up with innovative ways to achieve the UN SDGs. The student team that produces the best project will be awarded $25,000 (twenty-five thousand dollars).
Ubiquity University believes that academic institutions must be more than simply disseminators of knowledge. They must actively nurture social activism and address critical global needs. With this Challenge, Ubiquity invites students around the world to join its community and transform their personal passion into helping solve challenges critical to the human future.
Ubiquity CEO Jim Garrison observes that "Ubiquity is taking a stand that the global situation requires universities to direct student attention to solving global problems, at the center of which is runaway climate change. Ubiquity is supporting students by serving as an incubator, accelerator and investor through our Global Sustainable Challenge and $25,000 prize. We want to become a global hub for student innovation and social entrepreneurship."
The Ubiquity Global Sustainability Challenge is intended for very early-stage project ideas or business ventures. Student projects will be judged by an independent blue-ribbon panel that will include individuals who have expertise in the UN SDGs, social entrepreneurship and/or have related business expertise. Names of the individuals serving on the judging panel will be released at a future date.
The student team with the highest score as determined by our panel of judges in the Challenge will be given the Grand Award of $25,000 to bring their idea to life.
All participants will benefit from engaging with real-life challenges and stakeholders to generate ideas that will change the world. Participants will also have the opportunity to become a part of the Ubiquity Impact Community and collaborate with fellow students as they learn to identify pressing problems and formulate effective solutions.
All participants will also be able to register for a specially designed series of micro-courses to guide them through the Challenge. These optional micro-courses will cover key concepts in social entrepreneurship that will help students understand, define, ideate, prototype, test and iterate as they develop their ideas. Successful completion of the seven micro-course series will result in a Micro-Certificate in UN SDG Impact. Students also receive academic credit for any micro-courses we offer, and those credits can be applied toward their Certificate, BA and MA programs.
The first Challenge Award Recipients will be selected in July of 2019 and announced during an event held in conjunction with the UN General Assembly in September of 2019 in partnership with participating UN agencies and/or co-sponsoring partners from the NGO, corporate and multilateral institution communities.
Through the Challenge, Ubiquity seeks to become an epicenter of worldwide, creative change agents working together to solve global problems. It is Ubiquity's way of investing in the future — by investing in the creativity of our youth.
For more information on the Challenge, please click here.
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