Winners of LaunchPad's 2024 Ideas Fest
The Blackstone LaunchPad hosted its largest event on record since its inception in 2016. Ideas Fest, the annual LaunchPad student innovator competition, was held in Bird Library on September 13, 2024. More than 120 student teams registered for the first competition of the semester, with team winners from across campus. Student teams delivered a 90-second ‘elevator’ pitch on their entrepreneurial idea to a panel of judges, and winners received nearly $25,000 in cash and in-kind prizes. The competition is designed to put early-stage funding into founders’ hands to help offset startup expenses.
There were nearly 100 people registered to watch the competition, many of whom were attendees of Coming Back Together, the Black and Latine triennial alumni reunion on campus.
Student winners of 2024 Ideas Fest included:
- Olutosin (Tosin) Alabi G’25 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management)
- Nathan Thor Brekke ’26 (College of Engineering and Computer Science)
- Nicolas Philippe Courbage ’26 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management)
- Mario Antonio Escobar Jr. ’26 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management)
- Aphrodite Ruby Gioulekas ’25 (College of Visual and Performing Arts)
- Ania Kapllani ’25 (College of Visual and Performing Arts)
- Sandy Lin ’25 (College of Engineering and Computer Science)
- Omar Mohammed ’27 (College of Engineering and Computer Science)
- Clara Dorothy Gienapp Olson ’25 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications)
- Emeka Christopher Ossai G’25 (Martin J. Whitman School of Management)
- Elizabeth E Paulin ’24 (Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs)
- Briana Alexis Salas ’27 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications)
- Avery Byrd Shelley G’25 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications)
- Olivia Venezia Simons ’26 (S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and Martin J. Whitman School of Management)
Ideas Fest judges included subject matter experts, many of whom were SU alumni:
- Jacqueline P. Grant ’84, Founder & CEO of The Management Academy, LLC and TrainTheTrades, LLC. Jacqueline generously donated five marketing packages to winning student teams from The Management Academy and TrainTheTrades companies.
- Shade Akande, Founder and CEO at OneX League.
- Joe Brooks ’87, retired senior banking executive with over 25 years of experience leading sales and service teams at JP Morgan Chase Bank.
- Gina N. Brown ’89, co-founder of myBKlife, a successful "hip" streetwear and lifestyle clothing brand.
- Simone Brown, CBT guest and registered nurse.
- Tyrin Fernandes ’20, food entrepreneur.
- Cristina Hatem ’92, Director of Strategic Planning, Marketing and Communications at Syracuse University Libraries.
- Natalie Hewitt ’84, an independent human resources consultant.
- Kyra A. James ’07, professional food educator, certified cheese professional, and former Syracuse Track & Field Captain and Student Athlete President.
- Erika L. Morant ’07, Washington, D.C. area-based project management professional.
- Cydavia Patterson, specializing in cultural competency, content creation, and community curation.
- Shamieka Preston ’97, Lead Business Execution Consultant and Vice President at Wells Fargo.
- Monica Randolph, Senior Director of Merchandising for Barnes & Noble.
- Danielle Shavonne Reed ’98, bilingual event planner, entrepreneur and publicist.
- Kate Washington ’75, Managing Partner of Enterprise Solutions International (ESI), a consulting firm that focuses on small and mid-cap business growth.
About Syracuse University Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad
The Blackstone LaunchPad is Syracuse University’s innovation hub, connecting the campus resource-rich ecosystem with a global network that provides support for aspiring entrepreneurs, inventors and creators. The program serves faculty, staff, students and recent alumni across all disciplines who are interested in entrepreneurship, venture creation and innovation careers. The program supports a key pillar of Syracuse University’s academic strategic plan to give students experiential opportunities that help prepare them to be trailblazers in an entrepreneurial world.