Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies

Epharmix, a health-care software startup created at Washington University in St. Louis, will receive $50,000 in equity-free funding as the 2016 winner of the Global Impact Award.

Washington University in St. Louis’ Institute for Public Health recently hosted a student Public Health Challenge, in partnership with the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship. During the event, teams of students developed social and entrepreneurial concepts designed to reduce gun violence in St. Louis.

The Skandalaris Center for Interdiscplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship is now accepting submissions for the Global Impact Award. The award supports university students, postdoctoral researchers and young alumni who seek to create entrepreneurial ventures with a global impact.

Emre Toker has been appointed managing director of the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Toker most recently served as entrepreneurship senior mentor-in-residence at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. The appointment is effective Aug. 15, according to H. Holden Thorp, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs.​

Rob Reich, PhD, associate professor of political science at Stanford University, has been named the 2013-14 Wells Fargo Advisors Visiting Professor in Entrepreneurship by the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. An expert on political theory, he will make four visits to WUSTL over the course of the 2013-14 academic year.

Winners of the eight annual YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competition (SEIC) and $164,000 in awards were announced April 10. Winning teams represented community and WUSTL social entrepreneurs. Their social venture ideas ranged widely, covering youth, teens, homeless and collaboration among all types of social enterprises.

Nine finalists were selected Jan. 26 to compete for more than $125,000 in grants in April at the 2011-12 YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competition (SEIC) at Washington University in St. Louis. The competition is a joint partnership between the YouthBridge Community Foundation and WUSTL’s Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

WUSTL will celebrate Campus Sustainability Week Monday, Oct. 17, through Saturday, Oct. 22, on the Danforth and Medical campuses. WUSTL’s Campus Sustainability Week — along with national Campus Sustainability Day, Thursday, Oct. 20 — is held to bring attention to the achievements and challenges for students, faculty and staff in working to instill sustainability principles in higher education institutions and their surrounding communities.

As part of its commitment to developing entrepreneurs, this summer the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies will host 25 undergraduate interns at local commercial and social startup ventures. The interns will host panel discussions from 2:30-4 p.m. each Friday during the summer.

Ken Harrington (second from right), managing director of the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, jokes with members of team Edele, which was awarded $10,000 from the center and the $5,000 student prize during the annual YouthBridge Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition April 14 in Simon Hall’s May Auditorium. Edele means “opportunity” in Amharic and is a social enterprise selling running apparel with the proceeds funding organizations addressing malnutrition in developing nations.