On November 14, 2024, our founder, Lance Breitstein, traveled to Ithaca, NY to attend the first-ever Impact Competition at Cornell University. At Cornell, the Impact Competition will be housed in the Dyson School of Business as a part of their Grand Challenges Program.
This new partnership will comprise two competitions each year, one per semester, and the competitions will be integrated as part of the curriculum for business students. This competition and celebration of student work is an integral part of AEM 4000, a senior capstone course in Dyson’s Grand Challenges Program. All Dyson students complete four courses aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals over four years. Each course involves direct experience with projects addressing societal issues that communities face locally, regionally, nationally, and abroad.
Although the Dyson School has hosted a pitch competition before, their partnership with the Impact Competition has shifted the programming in a few key ways: namely, by introducing meaningful prize money that will be distributed to the non-profit partners, and also by introducing an implementation element, where students will work with non-profit partners after competition day in order to not only bring winning ideas to life, but also gain valuable career experience.
Another unique element of our partnership with Cornell is that each student team is paired with a different community partner, most of which are non-profits. These organizations may be either local to the Ithaca area, or not, though all must be organizations that address societal issues facing their community.
During this first Impact Competition at Cornell, eighteen different project teams presented, some via poster presentations, and some with slide decks in front of a panel of judges.
The Impact Competition team was thrilled to hear from enthusiastic students after the event, and many spoke to the range of benefits the Impact Competition provided them, from learning the value of storytelling, to improving their professional communication and presentation abilities, to helping them understand more deeply an organization’s pain points as well as the needs of the community they serve.
As Lisa Gerber, manager of the Grand Challenges Program, and one of the Impact Competition’s on-campus collaborators, said, “Community-engaged projects enhance our understanding of global opportunities and challenges while showing students that their business skills can have a positive impact.”
“Business for a better world” is the Dyson motto, and by partnering with the Impact Competition, we are thrilled to help grow that better world alongside talented Cornell students.
