Do Good Challenge Announces Accelerator and Ladies First Awardees

The Do Good Challenge is excited to announce the selection of the 2015-2016 Accelerator and Ladies First awardees. 

The Do Good Challenge Accelerator provides seed funding and mentorship to promising social entrepreneurs, organizations, philanthropic projects, and innovators to help them maximize their potential to "Do Good" and prepare for the 2016 Do Good Challenge. This year marked the launch of Ladies First, an initiative of the Do Good Challenge Accelerator, to inspire more female students to lead teams who will compete in the Challenge.

A total of 31 teams were awarded seed funding, with 18 Accelerator awardees and 14 Ladies First awardees. These undergraduate and graduate teams represent various colleges and schools from across campus.

Maria Ayoub, a sophomore kinesiology major in the School of Public Health, will launch Set Free, an initiative aimed at organizing dialogues where students can share their stories and discuss best practices for coping with stress and mental illness. The University of Maryland Black Engineers Society, with a number of students from the A. James Clark School of Engineering, will aid in the construction and design of an enclosure created to protect endangered animals by engaging minority youth in a hands-on STEM community project. Hannah Davis, a graduate student pursuing a master of public management, will be competing as The Village Youth & Family Center which has partnered with The Body Love Yoga Project to help girls develop a healthy sense of self and belonging. This winter they will launch an after-school program where young women will learn basic body awareness and relaxation techniques.

From mechanical engineering to theatre to international business and management, a variety of undergraduate and graduate student teams from across campus are already getting started on their Do Good Challenge efforts for 2016.

This year’s cohort of awardees includes a number of returning teams, such as Terps Against Hunger, a previous Do Good Challenge finalist, who received funding to organize a food-packaging competition between local Prince George’s County high schools. Founded by Jonathan Fix, a senior undergraduate student, the group is dedicated to raising awareness of hunger in the D.C. metro area and provides emergency food assistance to those in need. The group uses an efficient and low-cost process to package convenient, nutritious, and non-perishable meals and distribute them to local families experiencing hunger. In 2014, they packaged and delivered over 210,000 meals and were named the official UMD homecoming community service event for the foreseeable future.

Another previous Do Good Challenge semi-finalist team, No Taboo. Period, aims to promote awareness about the necessity of access to feminine hygiene products for women experiencing poverty or homelessness. This year, the team will host an on-campus collection drive, organize awareness events, and create a fundraising campaign in order to buy and donate feminine care products to local women’s organizations.

Many student teams are also new to the Do Good Challenge, including Ladies First awardee Brown Sugar Hair Care and Extensions,which uses hair care products as a platform to increase awareness of breast cancer prevention tactics. “We are using hair care as a platform for self-care, focusing specifically on African American women. We started this team because we realized that we share a passion for hair care and promoting breast cancer awareness. We want to combine our efforts to make an impact,” said student team members Nadia Laniyan and Alexis Carson. Furthermore, Jonathan Baldauf, freshman mechanical engineer, has started Save the Anacostia, whichhopes to reduce pollution in the Anacostia by constructing numerous rain gardens along the river.  

These teams are only a few of many that will compete in the 2016 Do Good Challenge this spring. The Do Good Challenge is founded by the School of Public Policy Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership and is run in partnership with the Robert H. Smith School of Business Center for Social Value Creation, and sponsored by Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management.

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