The ANTrepreneur Center at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) has announced a special three-part event titled the Hacking Student Success: Mental Health Innovation Challenge. Centered on the theme of supporting student success in addressing mental health challenges, the event will invite UCI students to team up, develop original business ideas, and compete for funding to bring their ideas to life. The event will take place over three days during Mental Health Awareness Month (May 11, 18 and 25), during which students will receive seed funding and support from the ANTrepreneur Center to refine their ideas. The Hacking Student Success The series of events will culminate in a pitching competition where prizes of $2,500 will be awarded from three judges, as well as five winning teams receiving additional funding of $5,000 and receiving entry to a summer program to further develop their ideas. The five winning teams will pitch their ideas to the UCI student body for a chance to win over $20,000 in funding to create a product that will then be released campus-wide for testing and user feedback.
Students participating in this event will have the opportunity to hear from industry professionals and other interesting speakers, including Metta World Peace, NBA Champion, Founder of Sportsand Chief Impact Officer of OOTify. World Peace will deliver its keynote address on the UCI campus during the event on May 25. He will also share how becoming an entrepreneur helped him overcome mental health struggles in a series of special videos to be shown at the events on May 11 and 18.
The ANTrepreneur Center recently announced that Hacking Student Success will also be associated with Amazon Web Services (AWS) through Digital Innovation to Cloud Innovation Center for Health Equity (CIC) from the University of California at Davis. Dedicated to fostering innovation to address healthcare’s biggest challenges, CIC will help student teams develop their business ideas and facilitate solution prototyping.
Ryan Foland, interim director of the ANTrepreneur Center, explains:
“This event stands out because it offers all UCI students the opportunity to explore the process and possibilities of entrepreneurship. But Hacking Student Success it’s as much about having serious conversations about mental health as it is about entrepreneurship. At the end of the day, we want to show students that they have the ability to use their innovative thinking and unique strengths to make a positive impact in the lives of others.”
Hacking Student Success made possible through sponsorship from the UCI Office of Data and Information Technology, UCI Health, Wellness and Counseling Services, UCI Graduate Division, UCI Undergraduate Education Division, Blackstone LaunchaPad, Susan Samueli Institute for Integrative Health , UCI Beall Applied Innovation, Sigma Computing, OOTify, XvsX Sports, UC Davis + AWS Cloud Innovation Center, AWS and SmartWell.
Hacking Student Success will start on Wednesday, May 11, 2022 at the ANTrepreneur Center. Visit the ANTrepreneur Center website for more information.
