MiddChallenge, a competition for Middlebury students to receive funding to support anything from an art project to a business model just announced the winners of the 2015 competition. The competition is divided into four categories: Business; Social Entrepreneurship; Arts and Education; and Outreach and Policy.
A committee, headed by students Kate Robinson ’16 and Olivia Tabah ’15, selected the top proposals from each category to advance to a final round of judging. On April 4, in ten-minute presentations qualifiers pitched their ideas before a panel of judges composed of Middlebury alumni, faculty and community members. Generally, two proposals from each of the four categories are chosen to receive a grant of $3,000, mentorship and, if needed, a space on the College’s campus to employ their ideas; however, this year there were exceptions in the Business and Social Entrepreneurship categories, which each accepted three winners.
One of the two grants in the Business category was divided between Flippant, led by Logan Miller ’15 and Michael Peters ’15 and an iOS app presented by Maddison Brusman ’18.5. Flippant, a company that “takes a less but more serious approach to business” and the creator of the upside-down pocket T-shirts sported by many on campus, will be relocating to Detroit this summer thanks to MiddChallenge.
Brusman is developing an app, she explained as “YikYak meets Slack that allows users to create and subscribe to hyper-local communal interest feeds.” She will use the money for an office space in SoMa, San Francisco.
JoyRyde, directed by Terry Goguen ’16 and AnnaClare Smith ’16 received the second grant in the Business category. Smith and Goguen plan to use the grant to develop the software for JoyRyde, “A mobile app that uses a reward-based system to prevent people from using their mobile phones while driving,” they wrote in an email.
“It keeps track of how far one has traveled with their phone locked. Once unlocked, the miles are saved in a bank, and the user is then rewarded their respective miles. Each mile can be used to buy coupons and deals for a variety of things, ranging from food, to music, to gas, and even charitable donations,” they said.
In the Social Entrepreneurship category, Lena Jacobs ’17.5 won for Dream Bus, a renovated school bus that will be converted into a mobile classroom. Over the summer the bus will be driven across the country stopping at high schools to conduct innovative sessions that will teach students how create a project of their interest.
Alexa Beyer ’15.5 is creating a YouTube series called the Heartland Project that is designed to share environmental stories in a creative way. Beyer explained that impetus behind her project was the need for compelling stories to motivate Americans to respond to today’s environmental problems.
The third winner in this category, Farid Noori ’18, won for Aghazgar, a two-week long camp for college students in Afghanistan. The program aims to create a culture of youth entrepreneurship. Noori wrote in an email:
“Aghazgar in Persian means someone who starts a new beginning and inspires others to follow. I see a strong connection between the success of this camp, and the wider contribution it can make in the Afghan society.”
In the Arts category, winners included Iron Eyes Cody, a band composed of Evan Allis ’15.5, Patrick Freeman ’15.5, Joe Leavenworth-Bakali ’15.5, Mark Balderston ’15.5 and Katherine Mulloy ’15.5. Sally Caruso ’15.5 won for her stop motion animation film about the perception of the female body by.
Iron Eyes Cody began performing in 2013 and will use the grant to offset the costs of recording their first album this summer.
“The album is the crucial next step to our evolution as a group, and we’re hoping it opens many more doors to come. Everything’s falling into place with this album, and we couldn’t be more excited for what the summer has in store,” Allis wrote in an email.
Finally, the idea to create an online interactive map of the Middlebury campus tour for prospective students, headed by Scott Gilman ’15 and Catherine Hays ’15 won in the Education, Outreach and Policy category.
Charlotte Massey ’18.5 received the other grant for Articulate, “a program that uses visual art as a tool for social change, empowering people to discover and speak out about the causes they care about.” Massey plans to use the money to run a weeklong program over the summer for middle-school students that she said, “Focuses on teaching new art skills and promoting awareness about local and world events in order to help them discover potential passions.”
Covering a wide array of interests and projects, the nine winners are all excited by the opportunity to employ their ideas thanks to MiddChallenge.
