2017-2018
Former First Step Grand Challenge competitors win big
Two former First Step Grand Challenge competitors are awarded first place, for their respective tracks, at the 2017 Hen Hatch entrepreneurship competition. Read more
FIrst Step Innovation Competition
Students from across the University of Delaware took part in First Step Grand Challenges, a yearlong innovation competition where undergraduates create novel solutions to societal and environmental challenges. Read more.
Vibrating Therapeutic Apparel receives startup
Former University of Delaware student and First Step Grand Challenge participant Amira Idris, founder of Vibrating Therapeutic Apparel, is one of 30 applicants to receive startup funding by NexFab. Read more.
Birth Certified Team
First Step Grand Challenges team takes on maternal, fetal mortality rates in Rwanda University of Delaware senior nursing major Kayla Saints is combating poor maternal and fetal mortality rates in Rwanda through an innovative project. Residents of the central African...
Rehab To Go Team
Over the past two years, University of Delaware senior Cory Cacciola studied prosthetics. He wanted to take what he learned in the classroom and help combat the issues of walking with a prosthetic. Read the article
Blue Hen Veterans receives national recognition
Blue Hen Veterans, a registered student organization formed in 2010 as an official chapter of the Student Veterans of America, has been recognized in SVA’s Chapter Voices as a source of inspiration to more than 1,400 SVA chapters in all 50 states and 6 countries. ...
More veterans on Delaware campuses
Blue Hen Veterans received the top prize in the 2016 edition of First Step Grand Challenges. Team member and Army veteran and Stephen McGuire was interviewed by Delaware Online for an article about veterans on Delaware campuses. Read the article.
Can this student-led startup solve homelessness?
Technical.ly profiled the UD students behind Lazarus Rising, which aims to secure meaningful employment for homeless people. The group won seed money at the 2016 First Step Grand Challenges, a University-wide innovation competition. Cofounders Matt Rojas and Matt...
Blue Hen Veterans help vets get started at UD
The first-ever University of Delaware Blue Hen Veterans-New Student Orientation meeting was held July 14 in the Trabant University Center. As part of the regular New Student Orientation program, the meeting introduced members of Blue Hen Veterans, who won the...
Just the First Step
After a year of brainstorming, roadblocks, ideation and breakthroughs, the 2016 edition of the University of Delaware’s First Step Grand Challenges has drawn to a close – well, sort of. After the yearlong competition ended with a final pitch competition earlier this...
Green Inclusion
First Step team removes barriers in community gardens for people with disabilities A little hill. A community garden at Lutheran Community Services in Northwest Wilmington is perched on a little hill. It’s not much of a hill when you stand in front of it, but for...
Fighting homelessness
Five University of Delaware students are on a mission. Nathan Hamilton of the College of Engineering and four colleagues from the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics – Eric Albers, James Celia, Matthew Rojas and Mathew Sobel – are fighting homelessness...
Undergrads tackle societal challenges in First Step Grand Challenges Program
Sustainable energy. Economic development. Health disparities. When facing the most important societal challenges of our time, youth can often envision innovative solutions that promise to change the world. That’s exactly who the First Step Grand Challenges Program...
Empowerment through feminine hygiene
Former University of Delaware student and First Step Grand Challenge participant Lindsay Yeager is in the semifinals for the United Nations’ Project Inspire. Her project focuses on quality of life of Tanzanian women through the use of entrepreneurship and design to...