Last month, the Fox School of Business hosted the culminating pitch competition for its first annual Ideas & Impact Challenge. Participants pitched innovative business ideas and competed for up to $2,500 in seed funding.

On Friday, Nov. 14, Temple University’s first annual Ideas & Impact Challenge culminated with a daylong pitch competition, networking sessions and a keynote speech by Jane Golden, founder and managing director of Philadelphia Mural Arts. 

Hosted by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute (IEI) at the Fox School of Business, the event combines two former IEI pitch competitions, the Innovative Idea Competition and the Changemaker Challenge. The Ideas & Impact Challenge tasks undergraduate students, graduate students and alumni from all of Temple’s schools and colleges to develop and pitch business ideas in one of two categories: innovative ideas and social impact.  

Grand prize winners from each track, selected by a panel of judges, receive up to $2,500 in seed funding to further pursue and develop their business idea. Audience members also chose a people’s choice winner in both categories, each awarded $500. 

“Our mission is to develop entrepreneurial thinkers and innovators. And those of you who are already entrepreneurial and innovative, we will help you leverage that into success,” said Alan Kerzner, managing director of IEI and an associate professor of management at Fox. “We have a major social entrepreneurship focus here, and given what’s going on in the outside world with funding, grants and government cutbacks, making progress against the social ills requires individuals who give a darn, and who are entrepreneurial thinkers.” 

Friday’s culminating pitch competition featured 16 finalists each given three minutes to present their ideas to a panel of judges. 

The morning session highlighted innovative ideas, which were designed primarily to generate revenue. Judges for this session included Thomas Edwards, associate professor of instruction in engineering management; Sidney Johnson, FOX ’15, founder and president of NumbersByDesign LLC; and Laurie Wu, associate professor from the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management. Participants then fielded questions from the judges. 

The grand prize winner in the innovative idea track went to Raphael Cohen-Shippee, Class of 2026, for Vozzy World, an educational online game and teaching tool that helps young students develop dialogue and cognitive skills.  

“Research shows that the strongest driver of cognitive growth is open-ended dialogue,” said Cohen-Shippee, a sociology major from the College of Liberal Arts. “Despite these findings, all major educational apps are not dialogic, not open-ended, and focus on content delivery, rather than developing cognitive skills. Vozzy World is going to fill that gap.” 

The people’s choice award winner in the innovative idea track went to Robert Emig, Class of 2026, who pitched ChillMate, a portable refrigerated garnish tray that keeps ingredients fresh, cold and clean all shift long. Emig, an entrepreneurship and innovation management major at Fox, developed ChillMate after working in bars and finding that restaurants lose 10–30% of fruit garnishes daily. 

The morning session was followed by lunch and Golden’s keynote speech. During the afternoon session, participants pitched social impact ideas, which tackle challenges like food insecurity and lack of access to healthcare for marginalized populations. 

Judges for the afternoon session included Janis Moore Campbell, senior director at the Center for Student Professional Development; Dustin Kidd, professor of sociology; and Sheetal Singh, investment director at Ben Franklin Technology Partners. 

The grand prize winner in the social impact track went to graduate student MaBinti Yillah, Class of 2027. Her business idea, Ziefah Health, is a cloud-based platform that connects 911 dispatchers with trauma-informed, culturally responsive clinical social workers to help with mental crises calls.  

Yillah, who is pursuing a master's in social work, began developing the idea after she had to call 911 in response to a mental episode her cousin was experiencing. 

“My cousin survived, fortunately, but most people don’t. In fact, 60% of all fatal police encounters involve people with mental illnesses,” Yillah said. “Mental health calls are treated like crimes. We react. We don’t heal. But imagine a world where 911 calls are treated with care, not handcuffs. That’s the world that Ziefah Health is building.” 

The people’s choice award in the social impact track went to alum Shannon Amspacher, FOX ’12, for Potluck, a meal sharing platform that matches busy parents and caregivers with people in their local communities to batch cook and swap meals. Amspacher began developing the idea after becoming a parent and struggling to find time to cook at home. 

“Days like this are the reason that I and the other professors here today do what we do,” Kerzner said. “We get so much joy from seeing you develop ideas, take initiative, be ambitious and take advantage of all the resources we have available.” 

Visit the Ideas & Impact Challenge webpage to learn more about eligibility guidelines, rules and updates for next year’s competition. The IEI will also host the 28th annual Be Your Own Boss Bowl in the spring semester. For more information, email iei@temple.edu.