Accenture, a global management consulting and outsourcing company, recently announced the winners of its 2015 Innovation Challenge competition. The competition was made up of three rounds. Each round challenged students to collaborate and find plausible solutions to real-world problems. The winners apply their skills to existing nonprofits.
The heraldonline reported on the winners and described the competition, launched in 2012, as
an opportunity [for students] to develop solutions for challenges faced by nonprofit organizations. Selected students are paired with Accenture management consultants who work with the students on a pro-bono basis to implement ideas.
Now in its third year, the competition saw a major increase in interest, with over 1,200 applicants across fifteen universities applied. This may be because the program is at a point where it can show off results. Accenture’s 2014 Innovation Challenge partnered with Goodwill Industries International and Usher’s New Look Foundation. The project demonstrated that non-profits can benefit from taking on innovative thinkers still in school.
The winners of this year’s contest will divide into two teams, organized by degree level. Each team will work with a different organization.
Undergraduate students will work with Ashoka, a nonprofit that focuses on bringing together the resources needed to catalyze social change. The students will help this organization develop a model that will work best to fulfill the demands of Ashoka’s mission statement.
The graduate students will work with World Vision International in their goal to fight the root causes of worldwide poverty. The winning students already began developing an education model called Pillars of Clouds, which aims to bridge the learning gaps of impoverished children.
Accenture’s Innovation Challenge applicants demonstrated competency beyond the theoretical. The winners showed a capacity for creative thinking that lead to actively bettering our world.
