The Skandalaris Center partnered with the Endgame of Entrepreneurship Class to host an IdeaBounce® on Monday, December 6, 2021. Over 80 undergraduate and graduate students, WashU faculty, and St. Louis entrepreneurial community leaders were in attendance to listen to the Endgame class presentations and the Skandalaris Fellowship capstone projects.

A total of 12 Endgame student teams presented their business ideas that coincided with four of the United Nations sustainability goals: food security, climate, gender equality, and education. Each team was given two minutes to pitch their business ideas to an audience of judges and their peers. Four teams were declared the winners of this IdeaBounce®, winning prizes that include time with WashU leadership. “These students have been working exceedingly hard throughout the semester to collaborate and generate business ideas that they feel will have international impact,” said II Luscri, Managing Director of the Skandalaris Center and Assistant Vice Provost for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. “It was an outstanding semester, and I really enjoyed working with these bright students and supporting their entrepreneurial drive and creation of innovative ideas for greatest sustainable impact”, he said.

Four teams were declared the winners of this IdeaBounce®:

• Homework Hippos: Benjamin Eskenazi (LA ‘25), Roey Kafri (LA ‘25),
  Louis Liu (LA ‘25), Mary Psyhogeos (LA ‘25), Simon Traub-Epstein (Beyond Boundaries ‘25), and Jane Zhang (Beyond Boundaries ‘25).
• Beautify Gender: Will DeAndre (LA ‘25), Izzy Gorton (LA ‘25),
  Kamaria Gutter (LA ‘25), Abby Sode (Beyond Boundaries ‘25), Kidist Taye (LA ‘25), and Laura Vega (Beyond Boundaries ‘25).
• Forces of Nature: Matthew Bloom (LA ‘25), Vansh Chhibbar (BU ‘25),
  Mariah Jacobs (Beyond Boundaries ‘25), Kabir Malik (LA ‘25), Olivia Rui (LA ‘25), Alex Sidorsky (AR ‘25), and Jake Tindall (LA ‘25).
• Dinosaur Defenders: Maya Choi (LA ‘25), William Ketterer-Sykes (LA ‘25),
  Bryn Muller (LA ‘25), Grace St. Louis (BU ‘25), Griffin Walsh (LA ‘25), and
  Shawn Zhu (Beyond Boundaries ‘25).

The Endgame of Entrepreneurship-Leveraging Capitalism for Good class is taught by II Luscri and Joe Steensma, a professor with the Brown School at WashU, during the fall semesters, and is only available to incoming first-year students. Through the course of the semester, students have learned to turn profit motives into solutions for global problems, as well as developing and evolving business ideas and generating impactful business plans.

Three Skandalaris Fellows groups also presented their year-end capstone projects. These projects reflected their work with St. Louis startups and their research on the entrepreneurial and innovation needs of the St. Louis community. “Working with St. Louis startups have given these fellows first-hand experience in the St. Louis entrepreneurial community, as well as allowed them to identify key areas for improvement within the St. Louis community”, said Jessica Weldon, Assistant Director of Programs at the Skandalaris Center.

The Skandalaris Fellowship is a year-long program that includes an accredited course during the spring semester, a guaranteed internship with a St. Louis startup in the summer, and a group capstone project during the fall semester. To learn more about the St. Louis Entrepreneurial Fellowship, go to https://skandalaris.wustl.edu/sc-programs/fellowship/.