Promotion of Justice Challenge
Students telling the story of business doing good while competing for a chance to win prize money, built skills and experience for their resumes, and having fun!
In 2021, faculty member Jason D'Mello proposed that IBES to create a challenge that would bring students together during the COVID-19 campus shut-downto find stories of companies enaging in positive business practices that were doing good by address issues revolving around social inequality.
For the first round of the competition, teams of 3-4 students were challenged to discover a for-profit company using business as a way to do good. After reseaching and evaluating a business, the teams identified the business practices that had the greatest impact on social justice and equity in the community.
Teams then interviewed and profiled the company for the Promotion of Justice Challenge. Teams used the Appreciative Inquiry methodology to create a narrative about the social justice impact. Five teams were chosen to go onto the final round. The finalists developed that narrative into a short video to showcase the impact of the company's business practices and winners received over $5,000 in total prizes.
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Teams choose a company that has created a positive social justice impact through its business practices in one or more of the three following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) area:
SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
SDG 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
SDG 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
Winning teams
First Place - Food is Power: Eradicating Food Insecurity One Yard at a Time
$2,500 and appearance on LMU’s “I Hate Your Generation” Podcast
Second Place - Nutritional Facts Not Needed
$1,450
Third Place - Restoring Native Life into Hawaii through Music
$700
Fourth Place - Profit Through Principles
$550
SDG 10 & 11: Uprooting LA’s Food Deserts With Urban Microfarming and Local Economic Development
Steve Howell
CBA'22
Bio Steve Howell
Faith Nishimura
CBA'23
Bio Faith Nishimura
Ryan Walker
CBA'22
Bio Ryan Walker
Tyler Walker
CSE' 24
Bio Tyler Walker
SDG 10 & 11: Providing Equal Access to Safe and Healthy Food for People with Restrictions and Allergies
Jordyn Pritsker
SFTV'22
Bio Jordyn Pritsker
Saad Salman
SFTV & CSE '23
Bio Saad Salman
SDG 10 & 11: Strengthening and Preserving Native Hawaiian Culture and Sacred Lands Through the Sustainable Creation of Acoustic Instruments.
Sammi Su
CBA, BCLA, SFTV '22
Bio Sammi Su
Alicia Wensley
CBA'22
Bio Alicia Wensley
SDG 10 & 11
Jay Lee
CBA'23
Bio Jay Lee
Ethan Salmeron
CBA & BCLA'24
Bio Ethan Salmeron
Joshua Stumpe
CBA & BCLA'23
Bio Joshua Stumpe
Dr. Manju Ahuja
Professor of Computer Information Systems, University of Louisville
Megan Buchter
Fowler Center Director, Case Western Reserve University, AIM2Flourish
