Social Economy Program Hosted the 2023 Ewha Social Economy Entrepreneurship Contest
- Date2023.12.20
- 5638
Eighteen teams of undergraduate and graduate students at Ewha Womans University developed solutions for various social issues, such as environment, education, youth, generational divide, and disabilities.
The Social Economy Program at the Graduate School (Director: Professor Yikweon Jang/Graduate Program Chair: Professor MinJung Kim) hosted the 2023 Ewha Social Economy Entrepreneurship Contest, which is eligible for undergraduate and graduate students at Ewha Womans University, on Thursday, December 7th. The recap event of the Social Economy Program was co-hosted by the Regional Collaboration Center, with the sponsorship of Shinhan Bank, Merry Year Foundation, MetLife Foundation, Sopoong Ventures, and SparkLabs and cooperation of the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency and the Center for Climate/Environment Change Prediction Research.
The winners were selected by the on-site vote, instagram vote, and evaluation by a jury of eight. The prize certificates given to the winners were signed by the President of Ewha Womans University, director of the Regional Collaboration Center, executive director of Merry Year Foundation, director of the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency, chairperson of MetLife Foundation, CEO of SparkLabs, and CEO of Sopoong Ventures.
The event began with the greetings of Director Yikweon Jang (Professor of the Social Economy Program and the EcoScience Department), followed by encouraging addresses of Director Sang Mi Cho (Korea Central Public Agency for Social Service), Professor SoHyun Lee (Professor of the Social Economy Program and the Special Education Department), Director Sang-Joon Kim (Regional Collaboration Center) who came as jurors and presenters. Professor MinJung Kim (Professor at the Social Economy Program) emceed the presentation session where the 54 students who completed the program presented their social startup ideas that had been developed for two months. Seven teams won the prizes after the presentation and Q&A sessions. The winners proposed solutions for various social issues, such as environment, education, youth, generational divide, and disabilities.
Photo taken at the 2023 Ewha Social Economy Entrepreneurship Contest
54 students who completed the 2023 Social Economy Program and others
The Grand Prize (Ewha Presidential Prize) went to Team Second Life (Jieun Kim in the Mathematics Department, Rin Namgung in the Korean Language Education Department, Seoyeon Ma in the Fashion Industry Department, and Nuri Hwang who studies business administration as a Scranton College student), which presented Dream, an app for Q&A that connects people in their twenties to thirties with those in their fifties and sixties so that young people can answer the questions from older people. Top Excellence Prize (Ewha University-Industry Collaboration Foundation Prize) went to Team Treberling (Minseo Kim in the Nutritional Science and Food Management Department, Ujeong Kim in the Economics Department, Jeonghyeon Bae and Jiwon Yang in the Business Administration Department, Chaewon Lee in the French Language & Literature Department), which presented an eco-friendly meal replacement shake made of brewer’s spent grains. The Special Prize from the Merry Year Foundation’s executive director went to Team Glide (Juyeon Bae in the Computer Science and Engineering Department), which presented a project to enhance campus accessibility for students with disabilities. The Special Prize from the director of the Korea Social Enterprise Promotion Agency went to Team Re-der (Siyeon Kim, Minyeong Park, Seohyeon Son, and Jiyeong Yu in the Social Studies Department), which presented an educational technology for a practical economy and finance education for teenagers. The Special Prize from the chairperson of the MetLife Korea Foundation went to Team One-oh-one (Ajeong Seong in the Computer Science and Engineering Department and Seyeon Hong in the Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Department), which presented an app for part-time workers. The Special Prize from the CEO of Sopoong Ventures went to Team Gr.own (Minji Kim, Seo Yun, Seonhui Jang, and Rinyi Jeong at the Business Administration Department and Suhyeon Seong at the Social Welfare Department), which presented a review and advertisement platform for promoting the growth of the indie publishing scene. The Special Prize from the CEO of SparkLabs went to Team Third-hand (Sujin Kim and Yerim Kim in the Business Administration Department, Jiwon Yeom in the French Language & Literature Department, and Subin Choi in the Consumer Studies Department), which presented a project for recycling used clothes into pet products. The event concluded with Director Jang’s motivational speech for the students who completed the program after the awarding ceremony.
The 5th Ewha Social Economy Program provided three sessions of general education, a hackathon, and three sessions for individual coaching for each team during the six weeks (October 26th, 2023 - December 7th, 2023) since October, and the entrepreneurship contest was the end of the program. The general education session consisted of Professor Minjung Kim’s lecture titled “Social Startup Entrepreneurship,” Underdog CEO Max Jo’s lecture on writing a business proposal, the Korea Social Investment Foundation’s CEO Jongik Lee’s lecture on impact business models and investment, and TBS news anchor Yeonju Jeong’s lecture on speech skills for a successful business proposal. The mentoring was provided by a group of experts working on the frontline of various industries. The group included Manager Yesol Kwak from the Happiness Foundation, Headquarter Manager Minseok Kim and Team Director Seonggeun Kim from Gyeonggi-Do Social Impact Creators, CSO Jeongho Park from MYSC, Team Director Suyeon Lee from the Merry Year Foundation, Chairperson Euiheon Lee from JUMP, Director Hyemi Lee from the Korea Social Investment Foundation, CEO Staff Yunseok Jang of Code States, Co-founder Yujin Jeong of Triple Light, and CEO Hongrae Jeong of Be Connected Lab.