Projects to address poverty and loneliness in the elderly and urban greening
Promoting young people's skills in social entrepreneurship: With this goal in mind, HNU participated as a project partner in a P-seminar at Maria Stern Gymnasium Augsburg. During the school year, the students developed three innovative start-up ideas for current challenges facing society: an initiative to reduce poverty in old age, a project to prevent loneliness in old age and a concept for an inclusive nursery to green urban spaces. They were coached by Carina-Volk-Schor, HNU's project manager, at a total of seven joint meetings. At the end of the project seminar, the group of students and their teacher visited HNU and were given an exclusive tour of the HNU Founders Space and Innovation Space. A special highlight of the final event was the pitch by Aurelia Vetter, scholarship holder of the Women EXIST program, who presented her business idea “Vepra”. Vepra is an initiative by Aurelia Vetter and co-founder Ksenia Prasko to break down barriers, use diversity as an opportunity and ensure business success through a diverse and inclusive working environment.
Getting to know creative methods in the innovation workshop and pitching the final ideas
As part of an innovation workshop that took place afterwards in the HNU Innovation Space, the students learned about creative methods such as design sprints and further developed their own ideas. They then pitched their final start-up concepts to a jury consisting of Prof. Dr. Thomas Bayer, Professor of International Management at HNU, Carina Volk-Schor and Aurelia Vetter. The workshop was organized by Prof. Dr. Antje Wild, Dr. Hanna Brehm and Carina Volk-Schor.
Prof. Dr. Thomas Bayer praised the students for their creative and well thought-out ideas: “It is impressive to see how much commitment and innovative strength the students have developed during the school year. The continuous support and coaching have helped to turn initial concepts into well-founded business ideas. These young people have shown that they are ready to actively shape the future.”
The high school teacher responsible for the project, Verena de Hesselle, also expressed her enthusiasm for the intensive support provided during the school year: “The collaboration with HNU was an inspiring experience for our students. They not only learned how to develop a business idea, but also acquired important social and entrepreneurial skills.”
The project was supported by other professors from HNU during the school year. Prof. Dr. Judith Mayer introduced the students to the topic of sustainability, while Prof. Dr. Julia Künkele and Carina Volk-Schor organized a two-day “start-up business game” at the end of April 2024, which trained the participants' understanding of business management.
