GlobalShala announces the winners of “Superhero U” an innovative social entrepreneurship competition for young students
GlobalShala, an EdTech venture that offers affordable experiential learning opportunities worldwide, has announced the winners of its multinational “Superhero U” competition, design in partnership with Northeastern University, USA, to inspire student’s inventiveness and intensify their imagination to envision how to make the world a better place.
Pre-college and college students were asked to invent a “superhero” capable of tackling one of the global social challenges outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 Link: https://sdgs.un.org/. Individuals and groups employed descriptions, drawings, illustrations, animations, and multimedia presentations to bring their creations to life. Five key SDG themes emerged: peace, prosperity, people, planet, and partnerships. The superheroes were designed to cultivate a force of forward-thinking and social entrepreneurship.
More than 1,400 entries were submitted by students from 88 regions and countries, including India, the United States, Nigeria, Iran, and Africa, among others. Candidates received one-on-one mentorship and support to guide them through any odds or challenges from the industry experts, special guest advisors, and judges on-board during the evaluation process.
The winners of the contest were selected from 87 finalists and announced in a global webinar.
The winners of the Superhero U contest were Carolina Carvalho from Brazil under the College Category (Superhero Name – Concienza Women) and Joey Sparks & Team from US under the High School Category (Superhero Name – Earthanater). The winners received a full paid trip to New York with a potential visit to the UN Headquarters and, to add to the excitement, they were awarded $10,000 worth of scholarships and the opportunity to bring their Superhero to life, along with custom-made Superhero U merchandise, badges, virtual internship, and $200 gift cards.
Additional prizes were awarded in the special mention and high commendation categories. Winners in the special mention category were guaranteed scholarships worth up to $2,500 along with Superhero U merchandise and badges, along with guaranteed virtual internship opportunities. High commendation category winners were awarded a scholarship worth $5,000, merchandise, badges, a virtual internship, and $100 gift cards.
Anushika Jain, Founder & CEO, GlobalShala said “Both the winners thought behind the building of their respective Superhero evolved around abuse from the power to the powerless. The deep philosophy and thought, enlighten us on how our youth envision themselves working towards a greater cause in their way of life forward and meet the unmet needs, and bridge the social need gap. The larger mission behind the Superhero U contest was to create an experiential education system that empowers the youth and the educators to build their dream with the help of lifelong learning. With the power of express, explore, experience, and engage, GlobalShala steps towards creating a sustainable global learning ecosystem with the mission to support the future change-makers.”
The judges of this competition extended gratitude to all the participants for having the awareness and the empathy to recognize the larger problem that our society is living in and envisioning a futuristic yet realistic and enforceable approach to work on resolving the larger social issue. According to them, the work presented shows the willingness to inspire the youth, and the current generation can be a strong motivation for the participants to continue thinking inspirationally and out of the box. For a better world, it’s important for young students to continue staying focused to address the problem of sustainability and to gain valuable experience and life skills.
The competition has been a 9-month, experiential learning journey for all the stakeholders involved in making this “Superhero U” contest a huge success. This allowed all the participants to bring out their social entrepreneurship from within and catalyse their creative thinking and innovation to design and look at the world from the eyes of the vulnerable to solve a global problem with their superhero.
GlobalShala hopes to continue aspiring the youth across the world to create their Superhero and aim towards transforming these creative ideas into action plans for global development and inspire change in the way we view the problems around us.