Imagine if you had only three weeks to gather a team of students to figure out how you could solve one of the world’s most pressing problems — and if you did, you’d have a chance to be awarded $1 million dollars for your initiative.
That was the situation facing third-year Business and Psychology student Alisha Karmali this fall when she heard about the 2015 Hult Prize Challenge, not long after she moved into St. Paul’s GreenHouse. Alisha had long been concerned about human trafficking and microfinance and had developed a strong passion for making a difference in the world, particularly after a visit to Kenya in December 2013.
Exactly how she might pull these interests and concerns together was unclear until she heard about the UWaterloo competition for a Hult Prize team — only three weeks before the local competition. The prize, which is awarded annually through the Clinton Initiative, is focused in 2015 on solving early childhood education in urban slums by 2020.
Quickly, Alisha made the effort to pull together a team of five different Waterloo students. They met every day for long hours in the GreenHouse room and around campus, and relied on significant help from GreenHouse mentors as they quickly refined their plan, came up with a name, revenue model, and logo.
Their startup, which is called Babysteps Academy, involves a three-level training model. Undergraduate students in developed countries will spend four months receiving early childhood education (ECE) training before traveling to developing countries, where they will in turn train private high school students. The high school students will, in turn, teach early childhood education to women in the slums, who will then become ECE workers in factory day cares or full-time caregivers for young children.
Revenue for this program will come from the high school students, many of whom have little access to extracurricular opportunities that will help them be accepted into foreign universities and who eagerly embrace this type of role. The team also plans to work with multinational retailers who work in developing nations.
Alisha’s team is diverse, committed, and well-positioned to respond to the challenge. Three of the five team members grew up in developing countries, including one from Bangladesh, where the pilot project for this initiative will take place. Another team member has an ECE background.
The project name — Babysteps — reflects the process Alisha and her team have followed. They are grateful for the helping hand of mentors who spent time with them, helping them refine their model, and take their own fledgling steps.
- by Susan Fish