The Fuel Up! Innovation Challenge event builds upon GENYOUth’s AdVenture Capital model. AdVenture Capital is a social entrepreneurship program for students 13-17 that inspires, empowers and funds youth-led initiatives to drive new and innovative ways for improving the wellness environments in their schools.
High School students from 46 states were provided the unique opportunity to participate in the Fuel Up! Innovation Challenge, developing student-led, innovative ideas to address healthy eating challenges in their schools and communities. After working with mentors, participants pitched their solutions to a panel of elite judges in what has been described as a “mini-Shark Tank-style” competition. At stake for each student was the chance to walk away with a $1,000 grant to bring their big idea to life in their school.
After designing their projects, students pitched their idea to a panel of judges. The judges determined 40 total winners with a total of $40,000 granted at the end of the event to help support the winning ideas and project implementation in schools. Some of the winning projects included:
The Garden Box – Project that provides small garden boxes to students for planting vegetables that can be used in school meals and help students understand where their food comes from
Plastic reduction – Project to replace plasticware with reusable metal forks, spoons and rewashing bowls to cut down on waste at school
Little Milky Way – Project to update the school’s cooler equipment to store milk
“We are thrilled to award students $40,000 in grants, which help them realize the potential of their big ideas to affect change in schools and communities. GENYOUth and our partners make events like this possible and we deeply believe in the power of young people to lead and create healthy futures for themselves and everyone around them,” said Alexis Glick, CEO, GENYOUth.
AdVenture Capital is offered to students nationwide, including participants in GENYOUth’s flagship program, Fuel Up to Play 60, the leading in-school health and wellness program in the country, developed by the National Football League and National Dairy Council, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The Fuel Up! Innovation Challenge is one element of this year’s Fuel Up to Play 60 Student Ambassador Summit, which brought together more than 200 student leaders and 90 educators from the Fuel Up to Play 60 program to spend four days exchanging ideas, getting inspired, and receiving the ultimate leadership and communications training opportunities from subject matter experts and business leaders.
The Fuel Up! Innovation Challenge was made possible by the generous sponsorship from Land O’Lakes and Quaker. A total of 100 students participated in the competition and worked with adult mentors from sponsor companies and partners to design solutions to healthy eating challenges in schools.
The next Fuel Up! Innovation Challenge will be held in Chicago, IL on Sept 2018. Is a free event and you can sign up here.
For more information about GENYOUth, visit https://www.genyouthnow.org/.
Anllelic Lozada “Angie” is a proud P.A.N.K (professional aunt with no kids), a Personal Marketing Strategist in NYC and Los Tweens & Teens “Tia-in-Charge,” based in New York City. Anllelic wants you to best your best life so you can positively influence your tween and teen. Subscribe to her weekly e-newsletter in Spanish in marketingparatucarrera.com/Vendete, where she shares personal marketing strategies to help you “Comunicar lo genial que eres.”