GreenHouse Announces Winners of the Social Impact Fund for Spring 2021 Term

Wednesday, August 11, 2021
by Sami Iskandar
Social Impact Fund winners

At the end of this spring term, seven innovation teams pitched their latest ventures to a panel of judges for GreenHouse's 23rd Social Impact Showcase.

This termly event celebrates the amazing work that GreenHouse students have accomplished throughout their social innovation journeys. Six out of the seven student teams were awarded funding to support their ventures from the Social Impact Fund, established by St. Paul’s University College.

This term’s students focused their ventures on some of the most relevant health and sustainability issues impacting our daily lives.

And the winners are…

mentalED, awarded $5,000, is focused on creating comprehensive mental health education for Canadian youth and is led by Graeme Beaton, Faculty of Science.  View mentalED’s pitch here

DECOMP, awarded $5,000, a biotechnology startup providing a better solution for plastic waste pollution, pitched by team member, Isha Simon, an undergraduate student in the  Faculty of Science. View DECOMP’s pitch here

Bebaha Virtual Health Care, awarded $3,500, a virtual healthcare platform for women with the aim to help empower, educate and diagnose in a confidential, safe and reliable manner.  Bebaha is led by Rashi Jaising, who recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and is pursuing a Master of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology at the Conrad School of Entrepreneurship and Business this fall. Rashi  also won the People’s Choice Award, earning $1,000 for her venture. View Bebaha’s pitch here

KELPH, awarded $1,500, an inland kelp farming system that enables kelp farming all year round. KELPH is led by Caleb Seward, a Masters student in Chemical Engineering. View KELPH’s pitch here

BioCycle, awarded $1,500, is seeking to collect and biodegrade single-use menstrual products.  BioCycle is led by Krystal Yang, undergraduate student in the Faculty of Science. View BioCycle’s pitch here

Warrior Kidz, awarded $1,000, is partnering with myTurn and Waterloo Public Library for more intuitive database management and better community outreach for KidsAbility - an organization committed to providing rehabilitation services for differently abled children. Members of the Warrior Kidz team include: Sarankan Thiru, Solana Redway, Prachi Dhanky and Caitlin Li, four undergraduate students from the faculties of Engineering, Science, and Arts. View Warrior Kidz’s pitch here

Congratulations to all the students who participated in the Spring 2021 Social Impact Showcase and thank you to the community of over 450 members who took the time to vote for their favourite venture. Here’s to our students continued success moving forward!