On Tuesday, April 27, student entrepreneurs from Adelphi University competed for cash prizes in an annual Shark Tank–style Strategic Plan Competition, hosted by the University’s Robert B. Willumstad School of Business and the Innovation Center.
Zameena Jivraj
First Place
This year, Zameena Jivraj, a communication sciences and disorders major, took home the first-place prize of $5,000 for her business idea, Healthspace. Jivraj’s Healthspace is a direct care model, independent of health insurance, paired with an innovative digital platform. For $30 a month, members can access unlimited telehealth, digital meditation, and remote patient monitoring services enabling preventive and proactive care. Jivraj also received $1,000 for her elevator pitch of the business idea.
Second Place
Eric Meirs and Yuleidy Baez Espinal
Second place went to business management majors Eric Meirs and Yuleidy Baez Espinal for their sustainable vegan and vegetarian flex fast-food casual restaurant EcoDines. Meirs and Baez Espinal took home a $3,000 prize.
Third Place
Nadia Khan and Yuanmeng Wang
Third place, and the $2,000 prize, went to a pair of psychology majors, Yuanmeng Wang and Nadia Khan, for their tele-mental-health program A Light in the Alley. The program, which utilizes social media, allows participants to take courses in multiple therapeutic interventions as well as train individuals in basic crisis intervention skills and psychological first aid.
This year’s competition was held virtually via Zoom in front of a panel of judges made up of business professors and professionals:
- Shari Wallack ’84, president of Buy the Sea
- Chiwete John-Njokanma ’15, co-founder of FINT Technology Africa
- Andy Bailen ’78, managing director, 3Pe Consulting LLC
- Alan Cooper, PhD ’95, MBA ’03, associate dean of the Robert B. Willumstad School of Business
- Graziela Fusaro, director of Adelphi’s Innovation Center
Junior Ivana Pitino served as emcee for the event.
Special thanks to Kevin Mahony ’83, first vice president and financial adviser at UBS Financial Services, Inc., for his financial support for this competition.