2025 Social Blueprint Challenge: Students Building a Better World
Since 2022, DartUP has hosted its annual Social Blueprint Challenge: a competition that guides students to develop a startup that makes the world a better place—from ideation all the way to pitching to investors. Originally created by DartUP founder Vico Lee, the competition empowers students to not only pursue an innovative idea, but also learn how to make it marketable and practical.
After a six-week workshop series, the winner of DartUP’s competition will advance to the Hult Prize Summits, run by Hult International Business School. There, they pitch their social entrepreneurship ideas alongside teams from around the world. The top-ranking teams at the summit competitions have the chance to advance to the Global Finals in September, where they compete for $1 million in funding to pursue their ventures.
2025’s Social Blueprint Challenge features a curriculum with esteemed speakers and enthusiastic participants. The sessions began on January 13th with The History, Definition, and Fundamentals of Social Entrepreneurship, led by Kwame Ansah, the program manager for social entrepreneurship at Dartmouth’s Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship. Following sessions featured lessons on human-centered design, financial modeling, and developing pitch presentations. Speakers include Belinda Chiu, founder of Hummingbird research coaching consulting LLC, and Manu Tesone, tech startup CEO and founder of VC firm Penguin LLC.
This year’s participants bring diverse ideas to the table. Olivia, a ‘28, is working on tackling the accessibility of legal aid using AI-powered legal assistance. “It's making sure that less privileged and educated people have access to legal aid,” Olivia explained, describing her motivation. “There’s a lot of social stigma regarding lawyers and legal fights, and it can be quite complicated and very expensive. Not everyone can afford to go through that route, so I just want to make legal aid more accessible.”
Pitta ’28 joined the challenge driven by her passion for social entrepreneurship. “I’ve always been interested in creating something—but more importantly, creating a solution that is meaningful and has a real-world impact,” she shared. Her team is currently refining their concept, attending brainstorming sessions as they develop their idea.
Vani ’28, a prospective Computer Science major, is working with her team to develop Lectura, an educational reading app for children. “Lectura means ‘reading’ in Spanish, and we’re designing an app that fosters literacy development in young learners,” she explained.
The program has received positive feedback from participants. “We've only had two sessions so far, but both were very educating, very motivating,” according to Olivia. “I definitely am looking forward to learning the technical skills that come with entrepreneurship, like how to build a pitch deck and how to manage your finances.” Vani echoed this, adding, “I think the session where they introduced us to Figma as a prototyping tool was very helpful.” She also emphasized the importance of hands-on mentorship and that having technical guidance would be beneficial as her team refines their idea.
2025’s Social Blueprint Challenge judges include Dartmouth’s Kwame Ansah, and Ira Jackson, co-founder of The Civic Action Project and former director of the Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University. The competition will take place on February 22nd from 12-6pm, and the top three winners will be announced the same day.