Six student teams tackling problems ranging from growing sustainable crops in the Amazon to subsidizing music lessons in Ithaca were awarded $22,500 in this year’s Grand Challenges Impact Competition, April 17 in Warren Hall.

The 10-member student team that worked with Siendo Naturaleza, a Peruvian learning center dedicated to the restoration of the Amazon rainforest, won the top award of $10,000 at this year’s competition. While visiting the center during spring break, the students devised a strategy to help the organization regenerate the land and support local farmers: growing turmeric to produce herbal tea.

“We want to use turmeric as a vehicle to convey a message that it has really powerful and environmental and economic benefits,” said Grace Lin, a junior in the Dyson School and a member of the Siendo Naturaleza team. “Environmentally, it helps farmers improve their land and improve their crop yield, but also economically, there’s a market for it.”

Each team used their business and consulting skills to work with a project sponsor and make a meaningful impact on societal issues affecting communities locally, regionally, nationally and internationally as part of a capstone project in the Grand Challenges Program. The program involves a sequence of courses – each building a foundation for the next – at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management in the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

Team members launched the project while enrolled in Social Impact Consulting in the Amazon, a course taught by Trent Preszler, professor of practice in the Dyson School and director of the Dyson Leadership Program. The team plans to donate its prize money to Siendo Naturaleza to develop the turmeric tea and sell it in Peru.

The project stood out because of the students’ engagement with farmers and residents in Peru to test out different solutions for their agricultural challenges, the competition judges said. “I think we felt this is something that could make a difference,” said David Lennox, director of undergraduate studies at the Dyson School. “It could change the soil and it could change the employment, so it is about the impact.”

The awards are nearly triple the amount of prize money given out at last year’s event because of a new partnership with Impact Competition, a national foundation supporting collegiate case competitions that allow students to work with nonprofits to address pressing social issues.

Beyond the awards, the foundation is also funding three summer internships for Dyson School students to work at nonprofits that collaborated with a student team in the competition.

“Partnering with Impact Competition has allowed us to expand the impact of this event, both through the generous donations that allow nonprofits to engage in this work and the joint work that clarified that this event is focused on the impact of these projects,” said Sarah Wolfolds, assistant professor in the Dyson School and academic director of the Grand Challenges Program.

More than 90 students in 25 teams competed in the event, which was part of Better Business Week, a series of lectures and roundtables held each spring at the Dyson School.

A student team that worked with Opus Ithaca, a music school located in the basement of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Ithaca that enrolls about 500 students, won the competition’s second-place prize of $5,000. The students designed a multifaceted project that would help Opus raise money so that it could offer more scholarships for music lessons.

During team Opus Ithaca’s presentation, Georgia Bryant, a senior in the Dyson School, pointed out that students who take music lessons score an average of 54 points higher on the SAT and have 17% higher graduation rates from high school. Yet many students can’t afford the high cost of private music lessons.

“We are so grateful not only for the funds these students won for our school, but also for drawing attention to this need in the community,” said Andi Merill, the executive director and founder of Opus Ithaca, after the awards ceremony.

Two other finalists each won $2,500.

Team AstraZeneca won for a project addressing the lack of diversity among patients and physicians involved in clinical trials. The team will donate its award money to the Student National Medical Association, a student organization that supports current and future underrepresented medical students.

Team Whirlpool Feel Good Fridge won for a project that delivered more than 70 donated refrigerators to food banks, homeless shelters, schools and churches in the Central New York area. The team will donate its award to Anabel’s Grocery, a student-run nonprofit grocery store that offers affordable food on Cornell’s campus.

In addition to the four finalists, two teams received $1,250 each in the poster competition. Team Sakhimfundo Youth Program described a project in South Africa that provides afterschool support to students in the predominantly black township of Alexandra. Team Avocet Health Partners presented a nonprofit that works to improve the quality of medical facilities in the prison system. The prize money will be donated to a nonprofit aligned with its mission.

Funding from Impact Competition will enable the Dyson School to offer two Grand Challenges competitions each year, going forward. The foundation has committed to donating a total of $60,000 for the competitions each year over three years.

The four-year Grand Challenges program, a requirement for all Dyson School students, is an example of how students learn to “use their business skills to make the world a better place,” said Jinhua Zhao, the David J. Nolan Dean of the Dyson School. “They go into the real world, they become business leaders, and the seeds that we planted become trees and continue to grow.”

Sherrie Negrea is a freelance writer for the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.