The first venture we are welcoming is led by returning Founder Joi James (MBA ‘23). finding joi supports Black womxn in centering their well-being in their professional and academic success through access to physical and digital mental-health resources. Participants would have the opportunity to gain access to finding joi’s curated and targeted mental health curriculum and accompanying resources specifically for womxn across the African diaspora of all ages, sexual identities and abilities. Resources can include workshops tailored to wellness within specific professions, industries and identities hosted by emerging and legacy leaders. Learn more about Joi’s venure by visiting findmyjoi.com.

This venture is led by Rafee Mirza (BS ‘25), who believes that scientific literacy is a skill not taught to students from under-resourced and non-traditional backgrounds, but is vastly important to success in STEM careers and education. He’s working to develop technically feasible solutions via a web app that transforms the learning process of reading academic research and accommodates this demographic’s challenges by being simple, time-conscious, and gamified. His ultimate goal is to empower students to dismantle historical barriers in STEM and create a future where this skill is not a fear that holds them back but an asset that pushes them forward.

Climate Crowd, co-founded by Akhila Kosaraju (MDes ‘23), is a crowdsourcing open-innovation platform that enables founders working in the climate adaptation space with crowdfunding and connections for specific requirements in their early stages. To address the inefficiencies in connecting people who want to invest their time, money, and networks with founders who are trailblazing in climate innovation, this platform is designed to ease the access of connections for anyone wanting to transition to work in the climate impact space and take action.

Yasmin Abdulhadi (MBA ‘23), the founder of Grow Together, recognizes that most of the U.S. are living paycheck to paycheck, thus making it difficult for adults experiencing a major life-transition to weather challenging financial storms. These constraints, combined with unfortunate transitions such as divorce, life-threatening ailments, and infertility, create a chain reaction of obstacles when managing changing personal finances, which affects them daily. Yasmin’s goal is to create wealth-building opportunities for individuals using financial planning, learning modules, and a community forum that embeds story-telling & behavioral psychology tactics.

Christian Ilarraza Colon (MBA/MPP ’23) is developing an online marketplace called “La Onda,” which translates to “The Ripple” in Spanish, to challenge the stigma around mental health in Latinx communities and reduce barriers to accessing mental health care. With as many as 10 million+ in the Latinx community throughout the United States plagued by these challenges, La Onda would provide counseling to individuals in Spanish to address the language and cultural barriers their clients face and offer educational materials on mental health to destigmatize it.

Sasha Kolodkin (MBA/MSI ’24) is the founder of Affirmative., an online travel and care planning platform for US-based users seeking medical care requiring domestic or international travel. Building on the models developed by Qunomedical and others, Affirmative will combine automated and human-directed processes to coordinate care and travel for its users. Its initial focus will be abortion and gender-affirming care, with a later pivot to general medical tourism. Sasha’s ultimate goal is to establish a mission-driven medical tourism startup to facilitate more access to healthcare that is becoming or has been legislatively prohibited/put out of reach.

Pharmacy Initiative Leaders (PILs), Inc., co-founded by George Okpamen (MBA ‘23), is a nonprofit corporation that seeks to establish quality connections within the pharmacy profession and serve as a premier resource for the success of aspiring pharmacists. By developing a culture of passionate leaders dedicated to the progression of the field, the PILs organization endeavors to increase the awareness of pharmacy and assist in the professional development of aspiring pharmacists across the nation, particularly among under-represented communities and those who may be deprived of adequate resources.

Pop Up Docs, founded by Jarrad Henderson (Knight-Wallace Fellow ‘23), is a mobile documentary storytelling workshop and editing studio (on wheels) which provides skills-building workshops for filmmakers from traditionally underserved populations. This concept seeks to strengthen the visual journalism diversity pipeline by bringing resources to the front doors of creative but underserved populations. Focused primarily on production and post-production workflow, Jarrad will develop a new journalism business that serves as a hands-on, pop-up style mobile storytelling community. Participants will research, shoot and edit short films and connect to a network of aspirational storytellers eager to cultivate the next generation of visual talent.