Applications now open for the 2022 Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award program

head shot of a young man in the snow

Applications are being accepted now through March 15 for the Hunter Brooks Watson Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award. The competition runs concurrently with the RvD iPrize and uses the same common app. The events will be held Friday afternoon, March 25.  Apply here and be entered for both the Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award (with a $10,000 prize package) and the iPrize (with a $40,000 prize package). The competitions are open to all full and part-time undergraduate and graduate students at Syracuse University.

Students can pitch their ideas for products, services, technologies, or creative ventures as either for-profit or non-profit impact enterprises. Teams must upload a one-page executive summary and answer a brief questionnaire which will help indicate which category they will be grouped with.

After completing the application campus teams will receive important updates and information, invitations to pitch practice workshops and other tools to help prepare for the competition. A pitch workshop on March 4 at 4 p.m. in the LaunchPad, led by Jack Ramza ’22 G’23, this year’s Hunter Brooks Watson Scholar. 

Both competitions are coordinated by the Blackstone LaunchPad at SU Libraries for the Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool).

The annual $10,000 award competition celebrates the life and spirit of Hunter Brooks Watson. It is made possible through the generosity of the Hunter Brooks Watson Memorial Fund. Hunter Brooks Watson was a Syracuse University student who died at age 20 due to injuries suffered in an automobile accident.  Hunter was a passenger in one of the two vehicles involved and, although wearing his seatbelt, died at the scene. He was an entrepreneur and a creative, with passionate interests in music, technology, data analytics and much more.

The Hunter Brooks Watson Fund also manages a separate grant program.  Hunter’s Fund offers individual grants, up to $5,000, to help support young people who have interests in areas like Hunter’s, but who may not have the financial means to follow their passions.