The University of San Diego will hold its eighth annual Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge Friday, allowing teams of students to compete for seed funding for their social enterprise projects.

The competition, named for USD Board Chair Ron Fowler and his wife Alexis, encourages students to use entrepreneurship to solve modern social, cultural and environmental issues. The student teams will then pitch their ideas to a panel of judges that will include executives from organizations like the San Diego Blood Bank, ManPower SD, Kitchens for Good and Mission Driven Finance.

In this year’s GSIC, 12 teams of USD students will compete for $10,000 in seed money and a chance to be one of two teams that will progress to the competition’s world finals, which will be held next month. The two finalists teams from USD will then compete in the finals against teams from 25 other universities in a dozen countries on six continents.

“The Fowler Global Social Innovation Challenge trains the next generation of world business leaders to make social and environmentally conscious decisions grounded on the principles of shaping a better world,” said Amitkumar Kakkad, director of USD’s Center for Peace and Commerce. “By participating in the year-long challenge, these students have access to a wealth of support, ideas and mentorship to develop sustainable solutions to the world’s most challenging problems.”

The Fowlers pledged $2.5 million to the University of San Diego last month to expand the competition, including to add as a partner the University of St Thomas in Minnesota. Teams that have participated in the competition since its inaugural iteration in 2011 have earned more than $377,000 in seed funding, according to USD.

The GSIC will be held at Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice on the USD campus. The competition is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m.

— City News Service

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