Announcing the 2026 New Venture Awards Finalists
The Patricelli Center New Venture Awards (NVAs), formerly known as the Seed Grants,aim to recognize and support impactful student projects, organizations, and companies across sectors and communities.
This year, for the first time, we introduced separate nonprofit and for-profit tracks, reflecting the Center's evolution into a robust ecosystem for entrepreneurship of all kinds. We received 37 applications — the most in the award's history — with ventures working across 12 countries and 5 continents. There are six finalists spread across the two tracks, with grand prize winners receiving $8,000, and remaining finalists receiving $5,000.
On April 17th, 2026, six Wesleyan student finalists will pitch their projects for a chance to win $36,000+ in grants. Join us this Friday at Memorial Chapel from 11:30-1:15 to hear the pitches!
The 2026 finalists of the Patricelli Center New Venture Awards are:
Non-Profit Track
Naomi Ivie '27 — Sabi
Sabi is a free AI tutor that teaches Nigeria's 41 million out-of-school children to read and do math through 5-minute daily phone calls on any mobile device, no internet required. At $5 per student, it is 10–100x cheaper than current alternatives, and nearly doubles participants' lifetime income.
Marc Esposito '26 — Silver
Silver is community infrastructure for crisis response — coordinating care with and for the people who need it through mutual aid networks and civic technology. The platform connects people, shares resources, and grows collective power.
Minji Woo '26 — Guardian
Guardian is mobile voice scam protection built around the targeted senior, not the scammer. When it detects manipulation during a call, it guides seniors with calm, scenario-specific prompts and alerts their family before an irreversible decision is made.
For-Profit Track
Wesley Tan '26 — WellPrepped Labs
WellPrepped Labs is an EdTech platform that gives every ambitious student access to expert mentor matching, curated opportunity discovery, and structured admissions learning in a single personalized plan — democratizing the college admissions support that has always existed, but has never been equally available.
Ugochukwu Osondu '26 — Rydar
Rydar is reimagining informal transportation in Africa by making it more visible, navigable, and dependable for everyday commuters. The platform provides real-time visibility into all available transport, recurring routes, and multi-leg trip guidance, turning a fragmented system into one riders can use with confidence at scale.
Aviva Schnitzer '28 & Malia Apor '28 — HerWay Recruiting
HerWay Recruiting is a college athletics recruiting service for female athletes, by female athletes, providing one-on-one mentorships and workshops that educate student-athletes and offer holistic support.
We are also proud to recognize five semi-finalists, each receiving a $1,500 grant in recognition of the strength of their applications:
Tamiraa Sanjaajav '27 — The Nomadvocate Project
The Nomadvocate Project is a civic writing and critical thinking program that connects students across all 21 provinces of Mongolia through hybrid workshops, mentorship, and a curriculum focused on political literacy and expression — bridging the deep educational gap between rural and urban communities and building a national network of young civic voices.
Milo Chamberlin '26 — M&V Dairy Farms
M&V Dairy Farms is a Holstein-Friesian dairy cooperative in Northern Tanzania that addresses the region's dairy productivity deficit by pairing high-yield dairy assets with a women's leadership training program — providing Maasai women with the technical skills, stable income, and ownership pathways to participate and profit from Tanzania's growing formal dairy economy.
Sam Pohlman '26 — Jam Scsh, Inc.
Jam Scsh is an artist-first music platform that combines live streaming, short-form content, and fan communities into a single experience where artists keep 100% of donations received — replicating the authenticity of live music and virtual busking in a digital space, and giving musicians a dedicated, human-first environment to share their creativity and connect with fans.
Graham Johnson '27 — Fuzz Media
Fuzz Media is a production company dedicated to uplifting young artists and overlooked stories through documentary and commercial work.
Macie Carlos '27 — Play It Forward
Play It Forward is a student-led program that redistributes gently used athletic shoes and apparel to expand equitable access to sport while reducing textile waste, connecting surplus athletic gear with community need in Middletown to foster sustainability, equity, and stronger university-community partnerships.
Special thanks to our wonderful judges this year:
Salina Abraham, Chief of Staff, Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry
Syed Ali '13, Senior Director of Strategy and Partnerships - Philanthropies, Trinity Church NYC
Garrett Blank '11, Partner at Tercera
April Joy Damian, Chief Scientific Officer and Director, Weitzman Institute
Hira Jafri BA'13 MA'14, Program Manager, Global Programs - The MacMillan Center, Yale University
David Kobrosky, Senior Product Manager - Applied AI, Bevy
Kristin Magendantz - Director, Office of Corporate, Foundation and Government Grants, Wesleyan University
Simran Nath, Founder & President, Simran Nath LLC
Deepak Ramola, Founder & CEO, Project FUEL
Shiv Soin, PCE Entrepreneur-In-Residence & Co-Founder, TREEage
Archie Wilson Jr. '18, Startup and VC Lawyer, Gunderson Dettmer