Social Innovation Weekend 2025 takes on issue of loneliness and isolation
Students spend weekend seeking solutions to aspects of societal issue
Social Innovation Weekend 2025 takes on issue of loneliness and isolation
How can society tackle the public health issue of loneliness and isolation? At (SIW) 2025, it was by forming teams of ºÚÁÏÉçÇø ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs to spend the weekend putting together ideas that can address some aspect of the problem.
Now in its eighth year, SIW is a partnership with ºÚÁÏÉçÇø’s Global Health Studies and Social Work programs. The ºÚÁÏÉçÇø teams work together to create actionable solutions to real-world challenges through brainstorming, testing ideas, and pitching innovative concepts.
“It taught me a different way to think. I think I value having a lot of different perspectives, because we're coming from a group with a lot of health-focused people, so we had to think hard and get a lot of outside help, because we were kind of lacking a little diversity of perspective,” Biology/PreMed major Markella Gatanas said. “So I think I better understand the importance of that now.”
Gatanas’ team, The Bridge House (with Lilly Mayer, Jill Fedor, and Annie Runyerera), took first place with their idea for a place of transitional housing and support to fill the gap between the end of drug rehabilitation and the beginning of recovery housing for women.
“We were able to find a critical gap in a system that is already being worked on a lot, and I think being able to identify that and alleviate some of the social isolation that comes with it is super important,” Mayer said.
Second-place team Fresh Start (Klaus Hindanov, Ella Boate, Jacob Solomon, Joe Bisset, and Stefan Wenzke) envisioned a food truck-style vehicle to stage at prisons to help newly released inmates begin their reintegration into society, while Bond Box (Emily Davis, Treasure Lewis, Conner Bill, and Lihn Nguyen) won third place with a phone app designed to facilitate pen pal/support relationships with strangers.
“I think this kind of event is really important because it gets people from all different backgrounds across the university working together on one problem and figuring out those problem-solving skills on an issue that concerns so many people across the nation, across the globe,” Boate said. “The solutions that get implemented, if they can change one life, two lives, 20, it's worth it. All the work we did was worth it.”
“I saw a group of open-minded ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs take on one of the biggest problems confronting our young population. The mentors and faculty were spectacular in helping the ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs see that they can do something that they didn't think they could do, which is have impact,” Entrepreneurship lecturer David Eyman said. “After going through this type of event, they build confidence over time and the more often they do this, they build the confidence to be able to go out there and do something impactful.”
“It was really tough, but I think we really worked through it, and the mentors were a great help because we really had tunnel vision after working for that long, so having outside perspective really helped us with our solution,” Solomon said. “I'm really glad I did this.”
