Huston-Tillotson University Students Win $15,000 in First "Social Enterprise Pitch-Off"

The Level Up Services Team Create a Financial Literacy Program for Students on Campus and in the Community

News provided by

Legacy Collective

Sep 15, 2021, 08:33 ET

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Legacy Collective, a giving community dedicated to funding nonprofits addressing systemic issues with sustainable, innovative solutions, today announces that the Level Up Services team in the School of Business & Technology at Huston-Tillotson University won the Social Enterprise Pitch-Off, a contest where students were challenged to create a nonprofit solution to meet a need in the community.

Level Up Services received a $15,000 grant as their prize: $7,500 each from Legacy Collective and Thrivent. The program was sponsored by Legacy Collective, Thrivent and Notley.

The program included students in the School of Business and Technology's Biz Ready Program at Huston-Tillotson University, Austin's only Historical Black College and University (HBCU). For the Spring 2021 semester, students participated in the program led by Dr. Rohan Thompson, Dean of the School of Business and Technology. Students were divided into three teams, each creating a business plan for a nonprofit organization. Biz Ready is a new program offered within the School of Business to empower students to become business-savvy individuals of tomorrow. The program is designed to take high-performing students beyond the classroom and apply the knowledge obtained from their classes into real-life business environments.

At the end of the semester, the three teams presented their nonprofit solutions to a panel of judges from the Legacy Collective, Thrivent and Notley communities. The judges chose the Level Up Services team as the winner. The students on this team developed a financial literacy program to meet the needs of students on campus and in the community. The students have decided to use the funding to build out this program under the oversight of Huston-Tillotson to serve their community and generations of students to follow.

The students on the winning team were Zahria Touchstone, Saffana Velji, Dadwin Hernandez, and Amelia Abel. Read more about the program here.

"All three Huston-Tillotson student teams that participated were incredibly impressive – picking a winner was a tough decision for the judges panel," says Erin Arnheim, CEO of Legacy Collective. "The financial literacy program that Level Up Services created was innovative, strategic, and will improve the lives of so many for generations to come!"

About Legacy Collective
Legacy Collective works to engage systemic problems related to social issues by resourcing what we believe to be the most innovative efforts and funding the most critical projects. Follow Legacy Collective online:

Contact: Whitney Otstott, 512-699-7730, [email protected]

SOURCE Legacy Collective

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