The Bishop’s School’s fifth annual Social Innovation Competition asked students to come up with ways to solve societal problems. And they responded with ideas ranging from helping teenagers in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community seek mental health services to manufacturing lightweight solar-powered backpacks and developing touch-free dispensers for sunscreen.
The event, held April 11 on the La Jolla campus, challenged students to develop innovative solutions and, in some cases, start a business to carry them forward.
During the “Shark Tank”-style competition, students pitched their ideas to a of judges, showed videos they produced and answered questions. The judges — consisting of professionals in fields including investments, environmental planning, Bishop’s faculty, nonprofit program management and business start-up assistance — offered suggestions about partnerships, funding or ways to scale up the projects.
The team of Ryan O’Donovan, Grayson Blatt, Charlie Fredberg and Isaac Hoang walked away with the top prize of $2,500 to advance their idea, Mission Recall.
The project is a digital platform intended to provide a place for people with dementia and other memory ailments to record and store videos. Caregivers can play them so patients can experience daily moments of recognition, and families can access the videos to watch whenever they want.
“My grandfather was affected by dementia, so for me, this is really personal,” Charlie said. “It’s about connecting families with their loved ones [who have memory issues] and keeping those bonds alive. To see the judges appreciate that and see there is a real market for this makes me feel really good.”
He said he hopes the project will “promote communication between grandparents, or even parents and their children, so they can stay more connected longer-term and keep more conversations open.”
In second place with a $1,500 prize was Saving Skin, a project to develop and install touch-free sunscreen dispensers activated by hand motion. To demonstrate their idea, students Serena Abraham, Eseosa Bello, Kate Bennett, Emelyn Huynh and Jasmine Ren offered the judges a prototype of the dispenser and encouraged them to try it. The students said the dispensers could be purchased for schools across San Diego.
Some judges asked about sunscreen’s potential impact on the ocean environment, costs associated with refilling the dispensers, how to provide the dispensers to schools and more.
The team argued that the Saving Skin dispensers, similar to hand sanitizer stations, would make sunscreen application easy and convenient.
Judge Michael Balog, an investment manager, told all seven teams that “you did a really spectacular job, and it shows how much work went into it. You are going to be better for this.” ♦
