14 September, 2015

MIDDLE EAST STUDENTS TO COMPETE FOR US$1M HULT PRIZE IN BID TO IMPROVE CHILD EDUCATION


A team from the region will be in New York this month to present their ideas to a panel of global influencers at the Grand Final of the Hult Prize 
Dubai, 10 September, 2015: This month will see a team from the Middle East vying for the prestigious US$1 million Hult Prize at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York.
Established in 2009 by former Hult student Ahmad Ashkar, the Hult Prize is the world’s largest student competition and aims to tackle grave social issues faced by billions of people. This year’s challenge is to provide sustainable education solutions to some of the world’s most disadvantaged communities and was set by President Bill Clinton last September.
Regional finals were held in March at Hult campuses in Dubai, Boston, London, San Francisco and Shanghai, as well as an online final, with the six winners from each region lining up in front of Bill Clinton and other distinguished judges at the Grand Final on 26 September.
The six finalist teams have recently completed an intensive ‘Hult Accelerator’ programme in the US, a six-week program of intensive entrepreneurial seminars hosted by Hult International Business School, in preparation for the event.
Representing the Middle East, ‘Team Attollo’ from University of Toronto won the Dubai regional finals with an idea based on closing the ‘Word Gap’. Its research found that underprivileged children are exposed to 30 million fewer words than privileged children by age 3. This ‘Word Gap’ limits childrens’ preparedness for primary school.
Their innovative idea, ‘Talking Stickers’, aims to mobilise millions of parents to help relieve this disadvantage.  Talking Stickers come with a QR code that links to an ‘Attollo Reader’ to capture the power of a parent or caregiver’s voice.
Talking Stickers can be customized to talk, sing, and read in any language to children without the need for internet or distracting screens. Since stickers can be placed on anything, Talking Stickers transform common household items into educational toys.
Speaking on the announcement of this year’s challenge, President Clinton said: “The Hult Prize is a wonderful example of the creative cooperation needed to build a world with shared opportunity, shared responsibility, and shared prosperity, and each year I look forward to seeing the many outstanding ideas the competition produces.”
The winners of the 2015 Hult Prize will win US$1 million in seed money to develop their idea and roll out their idea beyond the conceptual stage.
Previous Hult Prize winners have gone on to create the world's largest distributor of solar lights and India's fastest growing loyalty and rewards program targeted at the poor.
Ahmad Ashkar, CEO and Founder of the Hult Prize Foundation, said: “Solving our region’s toughest challenges is as simple as providing Arab youth with an opportunity and a platform to have impact. Our pioneering innovation engine sparks movements by connecting bold ideas created by our future leaders with existing private, public and government stakeholders who collectively are in a position to rewrite history. We couldn't be more pleased by the support we have received from Dubai and the UAE and look forward to the many outstanding ideas the Hult Prize Dubai will produce in the future.”
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