Student Spotlight

SIPA’s Annual Global Policy Challenge: 2024 Winners

Posted Jun 06 2024
Team TANDA won the 2024 SIPA Global Policy Challenge
L–R: Franco Cristiani MPA ’24, Laura Cecilia Belk MPA-DP ’24, Sara Gomez Horta MPA ’25, Isela Gutierrez MPA ’24, and Felix Wang MIA ’25

 

The winners of SIPA’s Annual Global Policy Challenge were announced at Columbia Entrepreneurship’s campus-wide awards ceremony on April 16.   

The annual competition invites teams to come up with innovative ideas that leverage technology and data to tackle designated themes. Teams must include one SIPA student but may include students and alumni from other schools. Past competitors have pursued programs in computer science, engineering, business, and public health, to name a few.

challenge grant competition 2024 - team Legislative Llama
Team Legislative Llama

Contestants in this year’s competition were asked to focus their projects on one of several topics: geopolitical stability, democratic resilience, climate and sustainable development, and inclusive prosperity and macroeconomic stability.

The winning team was TANDA, comprising SIPA students Felix Wang MIA ’25, Franco Horacio Cristiani MPA ’24, Isela Gutierrez MPA ’24, Laura Cecilia Belk MPA ’24, and Sara Gomez Horta MPA ’25. Their venture aims to connect children of undocumented Americans to the appropriate financial institutions and investment vehicles to help mixed-status families save for elder immigrants’ retirement and plan for their financial future.

Two teams tied for second place.

challenge grant competition 2024 - team naila
Team Naila

The first, Legislative Llama, seeks to create a habit-building digital platform that leverages advances in AI and Large Language Models to activate Gen Z and younger Millennials in advocacy, civic engagement, and political participation. Current student Daniel Sheehan MPA ’24 joined Marielle Villar Martiney MPA ‘23 and Columbia alumni Kristen Tadrous (MS in sustainability management) and Stacey Eliuk (MA in political science). 

The second, Naila, is an online platform that aims to link young people across Saudi Arabia to local climate scientists, urban and rural planners, government officials in the energy sector, and rural farmers and indigenous communities. This team was made up of current student Lilian Nassif MPA-DP '25, alumna Ana Costa Cunha MPA ’23, Engineering undergraduates Abdullah Alshangiti and Jude Tareef Alaama and Engineering PhD candidate Daniela Bushiri.

Congratulations to this year’s winners!