CAU Student Wins Blackstone Launchpad Ideas Competition

The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development (CIED) at Clark Atlanta University is excited to announce that for two consecutive years, our student teams have won the national round of the Blackstone Launchpad Ideas Competition with a grand prize of $10,000!

The competition has four categories in which students from all disciplines across campus were invited to compete: Social & Climate Impact, Health & Life Sciences, Consumer Products & Services, and General. Clark Atlanta University had 57 submissions, — a record number of submissions for schools with fewer than 10,000 students.

CAU Blackstone Launchpad Teams

Four teams represented CAU at the national Blackstone Launchpad Ideas Competition, vying against 50-plus member universities, including Cornell University, University of Texas at Austin, Southern California University, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Syracuse in the Blackstone Launchpad network.

Bianca Colon-Perez, a Business Administration Major with a concentration in management and founder of Nutriflash, placed first in the Health & Life Sciences category. Nutriflash is a mobile application that assists people with meal tracking depending on dietary needs.

Users can customize the app based on their dietary needs and take pictures of restaurant menus. Bianca will receive a $10,000 prize added to the $1,000 she received during the CAU Blackstone Launchpad Ideas Competition campus round.

“We’re so proud of the creativity and hard work demonstrated by Bianca and all of our student innovators at CAU…This is one of the reasons this center exists. We help students with ideation and encourage them to bring it to life.”

Dr. Bruce Berger, Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development

Blackstone LaunchPad for College Students

The Blackstone Launchpad Ideas Competition is a virtual business plan competition powered by our partner, StartupTree, and was designed for students with no prior entrepreneurship experience. The competition was created so that any student, no matter their major or career plans, could practice the essential skills of distilling and presenting a latent idea. All undergraduate and graduate students with an idea or a prototype were invited to apply.

“We were so impressed by the breadth and depth of ideas generated by students across the LaunchPad network…It’s exciting to see so many students think creatively and present succinctly. The Ideas Competition was designed for all students as a value add to any of their careers, regardless of their goals for the future.”

Amy Stursberg, Executive Director of the Blackstone Launchpad Charitable Foundation

The CIED extends a special thank you to the Blackstone Launchpad Charitable Foundation, a key supporter of the CAU Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development.

For more information about student opportunities with CIED or Blackstone LaunchPad, please e-mail Associate Director Dr. Ronald Cetoute at rcetoute@cau.edu.

About Clark Atlanta University

Clark Atlanta University was formed with the consolidation of Atlanta University and Clark College, both of which hold unique places in the annals of African American history. Atlanta University, established in 1865 by the American Missionary Association, was the nation’s first institution to award graduate degrees to African Americans. Clark College, established four years later in 1869, was the nation’s first four-year liberal arts college to serve a primarily African American student population.

Today, with nearly 4,000 students, CAU is the largest of the four institutions (CAU, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Morehouse School of Medicine) that comprise the Atlanta University Center Consortium. It is also the largest of the 37-member UNCF institutions. Notable alumni include: James Weldon Johnson; American civil rights activist, poet, and songwriter (Lift Every Voice and Sing “The Black National Anthem”; Ralph David Abernathy Sr., American civil rights activist; Congressman Hank

Johnson, Georgia District 4; Kenya Barris, American award-winning television and movie producer; Kenny Leon, Tony Award-winning Broadway Director; Jacque Reid, Emmy Award-winning Television Personality and Journalist; Brandon Thompson, Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion for NASCAR; Valeisha Butterfield Jones, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the Recording Academy. To learn more about Clark Atlanta University, visit www.cau.edu.

Source: Clark Atlanta University News Desk