“The International Rescue Committee’s New Roots Program”: 2014 Finding Big Ideas Winning Essay
The first New Roots program started in 2009 at the San Diego office of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) when a group of Somali Bantu refugees were resettled in a nearby suburb.
“Rendering the Private Public”: 2014 Finding Big Ideas Winning Essay
I had so mentally prepared myself to come away jaded, to witness the messy side of development work, that when the big idea I encountered this summer hit me, it felt like a revelation.
Past Winners Take Their Ideas to the Next Level!
On Thursday, November 13 Big Ideas winners launched the first-ever partnerships with the world’s most established crowdfunding platform: Indiegogo.
A Contest to Catalyze Literacy Via Mobiles Worldwide
A 2013/2014 UNESCO report found that 250 million children across the globe are not learning basic literacy and numeracy skills. Of these, 57 million children—a disproportionate number of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds, live in conflict-afflicted countries, or are disabled or simply girls—aren’t enrolled in school at all.
Big Ideas@Berkeley Adds Global Food Systems Category
UC Students to Develop Solutions to Global Food Challenges
Inspired by the depth and breadth of activity across the University of California to address challenges in the global food system, Big Ideas@Berkeley, the flagship student innovation contest, has launched a new contest category: Food System Innovations.
A Ugandan Health App Created By and For Ugandans
A year or so into his studies at Makerere, he decided to figure out a way to use ICT, specifically mobile phones, to diagnose and prevent trachoma, which 8 million (nearly one fifth of) Ugandans are at risk of contracting.
Big Ideas Turns Nine
Nine years later, the yearlong student innovation contest has become a model for on-campus collaboration and action—and has expanded to 16 universities around the country and world, including the entire University of California system and the USAID Higher Education Solutions Network.
USAID and Big Ideas@Berkeley Launch Essay Competition on Blind Spots in International Development
The U.S. Agency for International Development’s Global Development Lab (the Lab) and UC Berkeley are teaming up to launch an essay contest as a part of the Big Ideas@Berkeley annual contest.
