Social Impact Fund rewards land mine removal, narratives, and dialogue

Friday, December 4, 2015
The three recipients of the Social Impact Fund

Above: Richard Yim, Rhea Daniels, and Trishala Pillai

Three initiatives by St. Paul's GreenHouse social innovators received Social Impact Fund grants yesterday at the December Social Impact Showcase. The Showcase highlights some of the projects current students are working on — and, new this term, special guest speaker and Ashoka Fellow Ilona Dougherty spoke about how youth are key drivers of innovation.

The first Social Impact Fund recipient, Richard Yim, showcased his business, The Landmine Boys, which is committed to making land mine neutralization safer and more efficient. He will be using the $2,500 grant to test the first prototype machine in Cambodia.

Trishala Pillai received $1,000 for The Dialogue Project, a "TEDx for engaged dialogue." She will organize and promote two campus-wide events that will start engaged conversations about important and topical issues. 

Finally,Rhea Daniels received $1,000 to capture first-person narratives of the alliances between settlers and Indigenous peoples in Canada through a project called Bridging Communities through Narratives. 

St. Paul's GreenHouse is a live-in social impact incubator that helps students find an idea for social good, develop it, and then launch it as a startup.