This year was our second year hosting the innovative 5 Dollar Challenge as inspired by Tina Seelig's best-seller "What I wish I knew when I was 20".

This year, a record number of 15 teams signed up, and set out to make the most social and/or economic impact with just $5 and 2 hours.

The winning team, consisting of John Hui and Lishan Zhu, who used the $5 to fund raffle prize for their social media campaign earned a grand total of $2000 to aid in the fight against human trafficking, and.  1st runners up, the team consisting of Devin Jameson and Olivia Hamlin, presented a free quirky compliment and doodles project that ignited the creativity and warmth in people to shower compliments on others. 2nd runners up, the team consisting of Dora Heng and Dileen Ee worked on the Sunshine postcard project that allowed participants to pay goodness forward, multiplying the impact . These two teams did a remarkable job generating social impact on the Cornell campus, and brightening the days of many Cornelians.

The $5 Challenge is a good demonstration of the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation. Teams had to leverage the little resources they had, overcome challenges, identity latent opportunities, and challenge assumptions to be successful.

Cornell Microfinance Club would like to thank our supporters at Entrepreneurship@Cornell, Cornell Store, and our judges Prof Anke Wessels, Executive Director at the Center for Transformative Action, Jeremy Blum, Co-founder and managing director at Popshop, Shashank Samala , former Vice-President of Cornell Microfinance Club.