There’s no shortage of entrepreneurship in the North East – just take a look at the number of organizations under the Mosaic umbrella. But the university has recently been recognized for its new focus on social entrepreneurship.
In September, Northeastern placed second for Program of the Year in the Hult Prize Global Finals, a global social entrepreneurship pitch competition where students pitch startup ideas that meet one of the goals of sustainable development of the United Nations.
Izabella Pivo, a third-year business and communications student and Hult Prize campus director at Northeastern, traveled to Paris to represent the university at the ceremony.
“I think what Northeastern has is really unique,” she said. “Having this recognized globally has had an impact. The North East is a promising place for social entrepreneurship.
This is just the beginning of the school’s focus on social entrepreneurship, Pivo said. She and Rohan Surana, a third-year mathematics and business administration student majoring in finance, decided to run the Hult Prize competition in the North East this year after realizing the school had many organizations focus on entrepreneurship and sustainability separately, but none combines the two areas.
“There’s not a big social entrepreneurship scene, which is why we brought this to campus,” said Pivo, who also founded the student-run Sustainable Innovations Network to help entrepreneurs focused on sustainable development. “We saw there was a need and people wanted to do it. »
Northeastern hosted the Hult Prize campus qualifiers this year. Fifteen groups presented startups on the sustainable fashion theme of the Hult Prize. Students came up with ideas such as a website extension to help sustainable businesses build customer loyalty, creating reusable shoes for nurses to reduce waste, and making sustainable tampons with recycled cotton.
Five of them advanced to the Hult Prize semi-finals, Pivo said. From there, the Hult Prize also chose to highlight Northeastern as a notable program on campus, both regionally and globally.
“(The Hult Prize) really felt like it was an interesting initiative that we could develop,” Surana said. “This ensures that the Hult Prize and sustainable entrepreneurship initiatives will continue for years to come, even after we graduate. …It’s also a great opportunity for students to take the steps that can help them make (their ideas) a reality.”
Pivo said Northeastern plans to host the local Hult Prize qualifiers again in February. Groups of three to five students from Boston schools will team up to create a sustainability-focused startup in hopes of advancing it to the national competition. The theme of this year’s prize is “Unlimited” in honor of the 15th anniversary of the competition.
“The goal is to bridge the gap between interdisciplinary training,” Pivo said. “We appeal to College of Science majors rather than business or economics students because they are typical people. We’re really trying to attract those who maybe don’t think they can be an entrepreneur (and we help them) to see the bridge between social work and business to create something that is both profitable and impactful.
Erin Kayata is a reporter for Northeastern Global News. Send him an email to e.kayata@northeastern.edu. Follow her on X/Twitter @erin_kayata.
