For the past 6 weeks, eight teams of Fellows have been working hard to raise money for their projects and ideas for the chance to get access to the $20,000 VFA Innovation Fund. This week at our Fellow Training Camp in Providence, RI, the Class of 2012 joined us for a reflection on year one and the announcement of our Innovation Fund Winners.
We’re incredibly proud of our Fellows and can’t wait to see what they come up with next. Thank you to our friends at American Express OPEN Forum and RocketHub for making it possible!
First, we’d like to congratulate our first place winner, Startup Effect, on raising over $15,000 and taking home $10,000 from the Innovation Fund. Startup Effect was founded during the inaugural Fellow Training Camp in 2012, when four VFA Fellows saw a need for entrepreneurship education to begin even before college.
For the past year, Brentt Baltimore, Brian Bosche, Mike Mayer, and Billy Schrero have gone into schools in Detroit and New Orleans to help students gain confidence and skills through action-oriented, entrepreneurial activities and challenges. Thanks to the Innovation Fund, they now have $25,000 to expand programming in their cities, and potentially expand to new ones with the help of the Class of 2013.
If you’d like to support Startup Effect and the work they are doing, visit their website startupeffect.org to learn more today!
Runners-up:
Second Place: Rebirth Realty
Rebirth Realty received $6,000, in addition to the $10,000 they raised, to purchase and renovate a house in Detroit for future VFA Fellows.
Third Place: Jinbu
Jinbu received $4,000 for a total of over $14,000 to put toward developing their service that helps Chinese students and job-seekers develop and polish their English application materials.
Jinbu Overview from Jinbu on Vimeo.