Photo by Freed Photography
Via Maryland Today / By Emilie Miranda ’25
$40K Competition Celebrates Students Creating Social Impact on Global Challenges
A student-led initiative providing first aid and CPR education in Ghana and an organization working to ensure surplus food doesn’t go to waste took the $10,000 top prizes at the University of Maryland’s 13th annual Do Good Challenge on Tuesday.
Four other finalists took a share of another $20,000 in prize money awarded at the pitch competition, which drew more than 500 students, staff, faculty and community members to the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center to hear teams’ ideas about how to make the world a better place.
“Tonight is another opportunity to see how the Do Good Institute and our Do Good Campus have empowered students across every school and college to take bold action and drive real change for real people,” said UMD President Darryll J. Pines. “Just by making it to this stage tonight, these students have already made a big difference.”
Black Stars Wellness Initiative, which teaches first aid, CPR and AED (automated external defibrillator) skills across Ghana, won the $10,000 top prize in the Founders track, for competitors who are the original founders or creators of their organizations.
“This may not be your life, but this is the life of over 30 million Ghanaians,” said founder Ebenezer Mensah ’27, recalling his motivation to start the project after losing a childhood friend due to the lack of bystander CPR. The program has trained over 2,500 people and established four training centers since 2023. “At least nine lives are saved every six months, with over 47 lives saved since summer 2023.”
Second place in the Founders track went to Dare to Dream, which received $5,000. The organization started by Takiyah Imani Roberts ’25 empowers underserved youth through entrepreneurial education, mentorship and funding; it has involved more than 500 students in its free programs over the last two and a half years. Third place and $2,500 went to the Movement Street, through which founder Lyric Amodia MBA ’25 aims to redefine volunteerism through flexible in-person, virtual and passive service opportunities.
UMD’s chapter of the Food Recovery Network, represented by students Sophia Li ’26 and Kyle Zibell ’26, took the $10,000 first place in the Leaders track, for competitors in leadership or decision-making roles of existing organizations. Since 2018, the chapter—the first in the nation—has recovered more than 130,000 meals from on-campus dining halls and, in 2024 alone, collected more than 28,000 pounds of food, equivalent to 23,000 meals, with the help of more than 200 student volunteers. The chapter also partners with the Campus Pantry to support food-insecure students at UMD. “Every recovery we do not only feeds someone—it prevents perfectly good food from ending up in landfills,” she said.
Second place and $5,000 in the Leader’s track went to Terp Thon, a student-led organization raising funds for Children’s National Hospital through year-round fundraising and an annual dance marathon, raising more than $2.5 million since 2018.
Bitcamp, a student-run hackathon focused on inclusivity in tech, won third place and $2,500. Co-directors Anjali Samavedam and Sharvari Tirodkar emphasized the event’s mission to break down barriers to entry in technology.
The Founders track judges included Sagar Doshi '15, a strategy and operations manager of Deloitte Consulting and 2014 Do Good Challenge winner; Michelle Gilliard, principal consultant of Michelle Gilliard & Associates; and Cedric Nwafor ’18, CNML ’21, chief executive officer of Roots Africa and 2021 Do Good Challenge winner. Leaders track judges included Rosie Allen-Herring, president and chief executive officer of the United Way of the National Capital Area; Marci Hunn, senior program director of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation; and Kahlil Kettering MPM ’15, executive director of the Nature Conservancy Maryland/DC Chapter and 2014 Do Good Challenge finalist.
The evening also included Audience Choice text-to-vote awards. Audience members heard two Lightning Pitches from Hungry 4 Impact and Terrapin Think Tank, with the Terrapin Think Tank earning the $1,000 prize after co-director Ethan Adler shared the team's vision of driving civic engagement and policy change through student-led research. The $2,500 Audience Choice Award for Finalists went to Dare to Dream.
