Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Business & Economy
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Business & Economy

Applications Open for LaunchPad 2020 Impact Prize

Wednesday, October 28, 2020, By Cristina Hatem
Share
Blackstone LaunchPadSyracuse University Libraries

Blackstone LaunchPad and Techstars at Syracuse University Libraries (LaunchPad) is accepting online applications now through Nov. 1 for the Impact Prize, a competition for social entrepreneurship.  The Impact Prize is open to Syracuse University and State University of New York Environmental Science and Forestry students taking entrepreneurship classes at the University and working on ventures that create a social impact. The virtual competition, to be held on Nov. 13, will feature $15,000 in prizes thanks to generous donations from Libraries’ donors Carl and Marcy Armani, in honor of Dr. Gay Culverhouse, and Dr. Gisela von Dran.

Impact Prize applications can be products, services, or technologies that are practical, innovative, and sustainable solutions to societal problems anywhere around the globe.  Examples of ventures may include solutions that address energy, environment, employment, education and training, health and mental health, community and social networks, social inclusion, poverty and literacy, youth empowerment, food, sustainability, access, and important public policy goals. This year, COVID-19 response ideas are also encouraged. The Impact Prize is a gateway to the iPrize competition and other global competitions, such as the Hult Prize.

Gay Culverhouse headshot

Dr. Gay Culverhouse

This year’s competition includes a $10,000 Dr. Gay Culverhouse Impact Award prize package through a gift from SU Libraries Advisory Board Member Carl Armani and his wife Marcy, made in honor of Dr. Gay Culverhouse.  “The Dr. Gay Culverhouse Impact Award will benefit students directly, and will be used to support student entrepreneurship, invention, and innovation,” said David Seaman, Dean of SU Libraries and University Librarian.  “We are very pleased to be able to honor and memorialize Dr. Culverhouse in this fashion and plan to use the Armani gift to support our annual Impact Prize, a competition for social entrepreneurship, which is very much in keeping with the work Dr. Culverhouse did with football players and brain injury.  She was clearly someone focused on creating meaningful social impact and change, just as our students are, and I’m sure her story will resonate with them.”

The Impact Prize is also funded through a $5,000 gift to SU Libraries from Dr. Gisela M. von Dran, director emerita of the School of Information Studies’ (iSchool) Master of Science in Library and Information Science program, who has a special interest in social entrepreneurship.  As a member of the iSchool faculty, she taught organization management courses at the graduate level. Before joining the iSchool, Dr. von Dran served as an assistant professor of management at the Whitman School of Management.  She is the wife of Raymond von Dran, former dean of the iSchool from 1995 until his death in 2007. Von Dran was a longtime academic entrepreneur who started many innovative programs in higher education and supported student innovation and entrepreneurship at Syracuse University. Shortly after his death in 2007, Gisela von Dran established the Raymond F. von Dran Fund.

Those interested can apply online or e-mail LaunchPad@syr.edu for more information.

About the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at Syracuse University Libraries

The Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at Syracuse University Libraries is the University’s innovation hub, connecting the entire campus resource-rich ecosystem with a global network that provides support for aspiring entrepreneurs, inventors, and creators. The program serves faculty, staff, students, and alumni across disciplines who are interested in innovation, invention, entrepreneurship, venture creation, careers, entrepreneurial skills, diversity, equity, inclusion, and taking ideas from concept to commercialization. The program supports a key pillar of Syracuse University’s Academic Strategic Plan to create an innovation ecosystem across the institution that prepares participants to be trailblazers in an entrepreneurial world.

  • Author

Cristina Hatem

  • Recent
  • Data Tool Expands Support of News Text Mining
    Wednesday, February 24, 2021, By Cristina Hatem
  • Boost Your Immune System With These Expert Tips (and Recipes!)
    Wednesday, February 24, 2021, By News Staff
  • March 1: Annual Disability Day of Mourning
    Wednesday, February 24, 2021, By Gabrielle Lake
  • What Faculty and Staff Can Discover at the Transformed Schine Student Center
    Wednesday, February 24, 2021, By Maria Damiano
  • Two Faculty Members Elected to the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Promotion and Tenure
    Tuesday, February 23, 2021, By News Staff

More In Business & Economy

Funding Available for Student Innovation Plans

Syracuse University Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars is accepting applications on a rolling basis from undergraduate and graduate students who need help moving an idea from concept to commercialization. Grants of up to $2,500 may be awarded to individual students…

New Paper Questions the Safety and Reward of Investing in Business Development Companies

A new paper by Syracuse University Professor Joseph Warburton offers compelling new evidence of the risk of business development companies (BDCs). Warburton, who holds dual appointments as professor of law in the College of Law and professor of finance in…

Female Sport Analytics Students Look to Transform Their Love of Math, Sports into STEM Careers

Syracuse University senior Bailie Brown will be the first female to earn a bachelor’s degree in sport analytics from the Falk College when she completes her coursework in May 2021. She is grateful for connections made with women in sports…

Amy McHale’s Investment Portfolio: Whitman Graduate Student Success

Amy McHale, assistant dean for master’s programs at the Whitman School of Management, calls herself a jack of all trades. Since 2008 she has held roles focused on the student experience and preparing graduates to enter the workforce with a…

Women in Leadership Initiative Announces Spring 2021 Programming

After kicking off in the fall of 2018, the Women in Leadership (WiL) initiative, created through the vision of Candace Campbell Jackson, senior vice president and chief of staff to Chancellor Kent Syverud, and a steering committee of women leaders,…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.