Two teams consisting of USP and NUS students – The Glass Half Full and iChange – clinched Top 5 in Crossing the Chasm Challenge 2016. More impressively, iChange won the grand prize of S$12,000 from Tanoto Foundation!

 

Here are the members of The Glass Half Full, who are mostly USP students:

Kenneth Ler (Economics and BIZ + USP, Class of 2017)

Poh Yu Ting (Sociology + USP, Class of 2017)

Edwin Luke Wee (BIZ + USP, Class of 2019)

Jasmine Tan

 

Here are the members of iChange, including one USP student:

Jared Ho Jin Hung (BIZ + USP, Class of 2017)

Vincent Ng

Terence Teo

Tan Yan Ni

 

Organised by NUS Asia Centre for Social Enterprises and Philanthropy (ACSEP), this inaugural Challenge pairs groups of students interested in community development with top ASEAN social enterprises. The top 5 groups presented their ideas to a panel of judges and a live audience at the finals held on 16 September 2016. The Challenge seeks to address the "pioneer-gap" issue, by facilitating the growth of social enterprises that are too small for accelerator grants or impact investors, yet too large for seed-funding. Groups had to work with the founders of social enterprises in conceptualising marketing solutions to the challenges they face.

 

The Glass Half Full was paired with Bayani Brew, a Filipino-based iced tea brand which seeks to grow the incomes of farmers and build a community of Filipinos who are passionate about supporting local products. In helping the social enterprise build brand awareness, the team designed a new product label for their iced tea and developed a viral Snapchat campaign. iChange was paired with SDI Academy, a Singapore-based educational-technology start-up providing personalised English communication and computer skills training to migrant workers. The team proposed strategic solutions to address the social enterprise’s outreach issues to empower migrant workers with communications skills.

 

We salute Kenneth, Yu Ting, Edwin, Jared and their teammates for their passion and enthusiasm in community development engagement!

 

Find out more at the Crossing the Chasm Challenge website.