{"384781":{"#nid":"384781","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Scheller College Hosts Semifinals of Global Social Venture Competition","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor the second consecutive year, Georgia Tech\u0027s Scheller College of Business served as host of the semifinal round (for the Eastern U.S. Region) of the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca title=\u0022Global Service Venture Competition\u0022 href=\u0022http:\/\/gsvc.org\/\u0022\u003EGlobal Social Venture Competition\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(GSVC).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe GSVC provides aspiring entrepreneurs with mentoring, exposure, and $50,000 in prizes to grow businesses that will make a positive real-world impact.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBeing one of GSVC\u0027s nine global partners \u2014 along with the London School of Business, the Indian School of Business, ESSEC Business School, and others \u2014 and the host of the U.S. Eastern Region Semifinals reflects Scheller College\u2019s increasing international prominence and Atlanta\u2019s growing status as the social innovation hub of the Southeast,\u201d says Dori Pap, assistant director of Tech\u2019s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca title=\u0022ILE\u0022 href=\u0022http:\/\/scheller.gatech.edu\/centers-initiatives\/ile\/index.html\u0022\u003EInstitute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(ILE), who serves as faculty advisor for GSVC .\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESecond-year MBA student Mark Ladisch, who along with first-year MBA Sarah Caulk co-organized the semifinal round on Feb. 27 at Scheller, notes that while most of the competing teams are for-profit organizations, they also address important social issues.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Being involved in the educational process that you can do both at the same time has been very rewarding,\u0022 he said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOf the 21 teams that made it to the semifinal round for the Eastern U.S. Region, four were from Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe two top teams, Drinkwell from Lehigh University and Toilets for People from Columbia University, will advance to the finals on April 10 at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley (which where the winners from nine global regions will compete).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDrinkwell aims to ease the global water crisis through its filtration technology and a franchise business model, while Toilets for People is designing, producing and selling affordable composting toilets for people living in flood-prone areas of the developing world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca title=\u0022Vayando\u0022 href=\u0022http:\/\/www.vayando.com\/\u0022\u003EVayando\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;team, which includes Georgia Tech MBA student Joshua Wine as chief financial officer, placed third. Vayando connects curious travelers with micro-entrepreneurs in emerging economies around the world \u2013 for example, coffee farmers in Costa Rica or basket weavers in Rwanda.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECompetitors in the semifinal round (Eastern Region), who were selected from dozens of submissions, included teams from a variety of leading schools, including Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Michigan. Worldwide, over 500 teams participated in the competition this year.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EILE\u2019s Dori Pap says that Tech\u2019s impressive showing in the semifinal round (four teams out of 21) reflects the effectiveness of local networking efforts as well as the strong entrepreneurial ecosystem at Georgia Tech where competitions such as\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca title=\u0022ideas to serve\u0022 href=\u0022http:\/\/scheller.gatech.edu\/centers-initiatives\/ile\/i2s\/index.html\u0022\u003EIdeas to Serve\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;and InVenture create a strong pipeline of student-led start-ups (potential candidates toward the GSVC).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJasmine Burton, who earned her BS in industrial design from Georgia Tech in December 2014, participated in GSVC as founder and president of Wish for WASH LLC, which won last year\u2019s InVenture competition for its toilet designs and educational efforts to meet sanitation needs in the developing world.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFor me the Global Social Venture Competition was a great opportunity,\u201d Burton says. \u201cAs a designer, you can think a lot about the product itself and not necessarily about other details. This competition has really helped give me a holistic view of how products are delivered, shipped, and distributed, and how you can use funding to optimize processes.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERon Alston, senior vice president of SunTrust, was one of 20 GSVC judges, who included leaders from the corporate, impact investment, and social enterprise communities. \u201cIt was really amazing to see the diversity of ideas and range of problems that teams were trying to solve and the innovative approaches they were taking,\u201d he says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe founding partners of GSVC\u2019s semifinal round included Scheller College\u2019s Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship, Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, and Gray Ghost Ventures. Sponsors included Mosley Ventures, Ronald Blue \u0026amp; Co., Full Circle Living, and Net Impact.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFor the second consecutive year, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business served as host of the semifinal round (for the Eastern U.S. Region) of the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca title=\u0022Global Service Venture Competition\u0022 href=\u0022http:\/\/gsvc.org\/\u0022\u003EGlobal Social Venture Competition\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"For the second consecutive year, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business served as host of the semifinal round (for the Eastern U.S. Region) of the Global Social Venture Competition."}],"uid":"27271","created_gmt":"2015-03-05 12:58:09","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:02:46","author":"Brad Dixon","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-03-05T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2015-03-05T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"384791":{"id":"384791","type":"image","title":"Mama Prince and Vayando","body":null,"created":"1449246262","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:24:22","changed":"1475894400","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:40:00","alt":"Mama Prince and Vayando","file":{"fid":"75379","name":"mamaprincevayando.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mamaprincevayando.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/mamaprincevayando.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":113179,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/mamaprincevayando.jpg?itok=7d_uY-4r"}},"284071":{"id":"284071","type":"image","title":"Global Social Venture Competition","body":null,"created":"1449244216","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:50:16","changed":"1475894978","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:49:38","alt":"Global Social Venture Competition","file":{"fid":"199000","name":"gsvc.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gsvc_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gsvc_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":5442,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/gsvc_0.jpg?itok=_tPUaTp8"}}},"media_ids":["384791","284071"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/gsvc.org\/","title":"Global Service Venture Competition"},{"url":"http:\/\/scheller.gatech.edu\/centers-initiatives\/ile\/index.html","title":"ILE Home"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"133","name":"Special Events and Guest Speakers"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"43101","name":"Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business"},{"id":"89861","name":"Global Social Venture Competition"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBrad Dixon\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:braddixon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003EGeorgia Tech Scheller College of Business\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-3943\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:braddixon@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebraddixon@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}