Finalists Announced for $20,000 NewDay Social Venture Challenge

After two rounds of judging, three teams of Tulane University students have progressed to the final stage of the 2010 NewDay Challenge, a competition in which Tulane students present their social entrepreneurial ventures to a panel of judges for a chance to win $20,000 in seed money. The event will take place Friday, April 16 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. in Goldring- Woldenberg II at the A.B. Freeman School of Business.

The NewDay Challenge proposals must describe financially sustainable business models that have a primary goal of effecting positive social change in New Orleans. The finalists for the 2010 award are:

• Evacuteer.org (Louise Murphy, Robert Fogerty and Guillermo Olivos), a non-profit organization that recruits, trains and manages evacuation volunteers who will assist with New Orleans" public evacuation option called the City Assisted Evacuation Plan (CAEP). The CAEP activates when a mandatory evacuation is called in the city of New Orleans and has the ability to move 25,000-30,000 New Orleanians without transportation.

• Drop The Chalk (Jonathan Rovick, Stephen Corburn, Kurt Gerwitz and Jen Schnidman), a student achievement database that guides in analyzing and acting upon student data, such as grades, attendance and behavioral patterns.

• Nanofex (Justin Levy, Xavier Cabo, Julio Moscoso and Ashton Prat), a for-profit venture that provides an affordable, effective method for remediating Tri-Chloro Ethylene and other chlorinated volatile organic compounds, which are common, but extremely dangerous waste products.

Judges for the NewDay Challenge are Flozell Daniels of the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation; D"Juan Hernandez of the Sun Energy Group; Nadiyah Morris Coleman, manager of the Louisiana Office of Social Entrepreneurship; Andrea Chen of the Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans; and Tim Williamson of the Idea Village.

The 2010 NewDay Social Venture Challenge is being held in conjunction with the Tulane Business Plan Competition, which is in its tenth year. For more information, or to RSVP attendance at the presentations and judging on April 16, visit http://riptide.me/CG