USD Social Innovation Challenge Partners with EvoNexus Incubator

The University of San Diego’s Center for Peace and Commerce (CPC) is pleased to announce a partnership with EvoNexus™ a business incubator of CommNexus™, for the 2013 Social Innovation Challenge (SIC).

The SIC promotes, guides and supports student-driven ideas to launch or to contribute to existing social enterprises by for-profit, hybrid and nonprofit organizations, locally and abroad. To date, the SIC has awarded $42,000 in cash prizes to students since its inception in 2010. Cash prizes for spring 2013 are expected to be $40,000. The SIC is open to all USD students at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Students had until March 1 to apply. Finalists will make presentations to judges on April 30, followed by the awards ceremony on May 3.

Under the partnership with EvoNexus, this year’s award winners will receive an additional benefit in addition to their financial awards. Students who have a winning business or hybrid venture idea will automatically be entered into the Tier 2 selection process at EvoNexus. These students will be scored by an EvoNexus committee alongside other San Diego businesses, will receive feedback for their ventures and will have the opportunity to be selected to join the EvoNexus Incubator.

If selected, these students will gain access to office spaces and resources for business development at EvoNexus Downtown. Award winners will also receive the opportunity to participate in a CommNexus NextStage scrub session where an entrepreneur presents their business pitch to a panel of selected experts to receive direct feedback.

The goal of this partnership is to provide support for students who wish to deepen their knowledge, expertise and start-up business skills in the area of social entrepreneurship.

EvoNexus™ is the business incubator of CommNexus and San Diego’s only community-supported, fully pro-bono technology incubator. EvoNexus provides full services – furnished office space, domain experts and mentors, and the opportunity to leverage the CommNexus wide network of business and VC contacts – to start-up companies striving to achieve sustainability.

For more information go to www.sandiego.edu/cpc or to www.commnexus.org/incubator.