Students of American University of Sharjah (AUS), in collaboration with the Student Leadership Program at the Office of Students, held the local round of the Hult Prize Competition on campus recently for the second year in a row.

Run in partnership with former US President Bill Clinton and the Clinton Global Initiative, the Hult Prize identifies and launches disruptive and catalytic social ventures that aim to solve the planet's most pressing challenges. Student teams competed around the world for a chance to secure US$ 1 million in startup funding to launch a sustainable social venture.

The winning team will compete at one of the five Hult Prize regional finals events around the world, bypassing the general application which annually receives over 20,000 applicants from more than 350 colleges and universities in over 150 countries taking place on March 3 and 4, 2017 in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai. Following the regional finals, one winning team from each host city will attend a summer business accelerator, where participants will receive mentorship, advisory and strategic planning as they create prototypes and set-up to launch their new social business. A final round of competition will take place in September, where one team will be selected as the winner and will be awarded the US$ 1 million seed capital by former President Bill Clinton.

A total of 15 AUS student teams competed to tackle the topic entitled "Reawakening human potential: can we build sustainable, scalable, social enterprises that restore the rights and dignity of 10 million refugees by 2020?" Each team had a total of five minutes to do a presentation, followed by a discussion between the judges and the student teams. The Hult Prize competition is run entirely by student directors on each participating campus. It encourages students to play a vital role in resolving the world's toughest challenges, starting in their own communities.

"It is an honor for us to organize the Hult Prize competition for a second year in row at AUS after securing its place among the top ten local round competitions over 100 other local rounds in different universities globally. We would like to thank all the judges who made the effort to come to the event and provided mentorship, recommendation and feedback to the participants. Many thanks also to our student leader, Ms. Merna Elmedany, Hult Prize Campus Director for her hard work, commitment and determination to make this event happen," said Dr. Moza Al Shehhi, Dean of Students.

The winners of the AUS competition were Alaa Kilani (Industrial Engineering), Aisha Al Suwaidi (Master of Business Administration), Youssef Ellawendy (Economics), and Sara Al Basha (Biology).