University Teams Leverage Technology to Help Nonprofit Organizations
Solve Challenges
NEW YORK -- (Business Wire)
Student teams from Cornell University and Georgetown University have
been named winners of the 2015 Accenture (NYSE:ACN) U.S. Innovation
Challenge. The annual competition, launched in 2012, gives students
an opportunity to develop solutions for challenges faced by nonprofit
organizations. The winning teams are then paired with Accenture
management consultants who work with the students on a pro-bono basis to
implement their ideas. This year, the program will help nonprofit
organizations Ashoka and
World
Vision International meet their growth and development goals.
“The teams have developed innovative, scalable and sustainable solutions
to support the good work of Ashoka and World Vision and help the
organizations expand their impact,” said Marty Rodgers, managing
director of Accenture’s nonprofit practice. “Working with students and
nonprofits is a critical part of Accenture’s ongoing efforts to change
the way the world works and lives.”
The 2015 Challenge had a record number of participants, with more than
1,200 undergraduate and advanced-degree university applicants and 595
students selected to compete. This year’s Challenge included 15
participating universities and four diversity organizations, with the
winners selected following three rounds of competition from the fall of
2014 to January 2015. The competition was divided into undergraduate and
graduate categories.
Undergraduate student teams were assigned the task of helping Ashoka
determine how to improve the skillsets of its U.S. workforce by creating
a talent development model to be delivered through industry partnerships
across multiple mediums. Ashoka focuses on bringing together people,
resources and ecosystems needed to spur social change. The organization
provides start-up financing, professional support services and
connections to a global network in order to engage entrepreneurial
talent to solve complex social problems. A team of undergraduate
students from Georgetown University created the winning solution,
“weLearn,” a training site that leverages massive open online courses,
business case studies and other existing materials.
“Partnering with key teams from Accenture, students and our social
entrepreneurs through the Innovation Challenge came at the perfect time
to showcase the power of working collaboratively to enable talent
development focused on addressing social sector challenges,” said Jason
Bernhardt-Lanier, Global Talent Lead, Ashoka.
Graduate students were challenged with developing a solution to support
World Vision’s mission of working with children, families and
communities worldwide to tackle the causes of poverty and injustice. As
a part of that mission, World Vision provides emergency assistance to
children and families in fragile contexts, or areas affected by natural
disasters and civil conflict. Specifically, the advanced-degree students
were asked to determine a way to provide primary education to children
in such situations. The winning team from Cornell University developed
“Pillars of Clouds,” a flexible education model focused on bridging
student learning gaps.
“I was most impressed by the quality of the thinking displayed in the
work of each team,” said Dave Young, chief operating officer, World
Vision International. “They didn’t concentrate just on a concept, but
also spent time understanding the challenges of implementation, which
added a sense of realism to the challenge.”
In Accenture’s 2014 Innovation
Challenge, teams of undergraduate students from the University of
Pennsylvania and advanced-degree students from the University of
Michigan were selected to work with Accenture to support the nonprofit
organizations Goodwill
Industries International and Usher’s
New Look Foundation.
Learn more about the Innovation
Challenge, Accenture’s human
service and nonprofit
work, and its global program, Delivering
Public Service for the Future.
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and
outsourcing company, with approximately 319,000 people serving clients
in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience,
comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions,
and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies,
Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance
businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of
US$30.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2014. Its home page
is www.accenture.com.
Contacts:
Accenture
Joe Dickie, + 512-694-6422
joseph.r.dickie@accenture.com
Source: Accenture
© 2024 Canjex Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.