WWR Staff
New York.
Wizzle, a content driven site to promote women in tech walked away with the the top prize at the 2015 Standard Chartered Women+Tech4NYC Idea Jam. The idea for Wizzle is anchored around the need to improve content delivery to better educate and encourage young women in middle school (where female participation rates in sciences/technology drop off) to participate in science and technology.
Under the guidance of The Design Gym, participants of Idea Jam 4NYC came up with solutions to help solve major civic issues. The Issues were curated from New York City public officials and range from alleviating the lack of affordable housing, creating new methods of civic engagement, enabling zero waste to using data and intelligence to improve connectivity in the city.
In addition to the $1000 top prize, Wizzle will now have the opportunity to “fast track” an application into the Zahn Innovation Center’s new Venture Competition. The top three teams overall will also have access to the Zahn Center’s facilities and resources including a state-of-the-art co-working space at City College, mentorship and exclusive access to Zahn Center events.
“We are excited to build on our successes with the Zahn Innovation Center and continue celebrating the talent that women in New York City have to offer in the technology sector,” said Julio Rojas, CEO, Standard Chartered Americas. “We are confident that this initiative will develop a larger talent pool that benefits businesses and New York City’s economy, and look forward to witnessing the many talented students of City College apply their innovation and energy to address some of the City’s most pressing issues.”
“There are many times when we don’t feel like we have a say in our city. Here at the Zahn Center, we believe everyone should feel empowered to create change. Idea Jam 4NYC offers students the opportunity to create change in their immediate community and see it carried out,” said Lindsay Siegel, Executive Director, Zahn Innovation Center.
Idea Jam 4NYC is part of various activities to promote entrepreneurship among women at The City College of New York.
In addition to a speaker series featuring successful women entrepreneurs, Standard Chartered and the Zahn Innovation Center recently launched an “Entrepreneurship: Women & Diversity” elective course led by Kim Wales, Founder of Wales Capital and CrowdBureau. The first year’s program culminated in the launch of Cubbies (a sustainable, bamboo cloth diaper company based in New York), and the development of two teams through an accelerator program.
