Ishtiyaq Shajahan Shares His Vision For Food Equity in Boston
Sign up for notifications about the Enlight Fellowship Summer 2026! Ishtiyaq Shajahan (CAS’26), a political science major eager to make a difference in his community, spent his summer in the Enlight Fellowship through Innovate@BU, where he launched a new nonprofit and explored the systems behind community-driven change. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, with family roots […]
Zachary DaSilva-Grondin on Finding Community and Inspiration Within the Enlight Fellowship
Sign up for notifications about the Enlight Fellowship Summer 2026! Zachary DaSilva-Grondin (Sargent’28) began his summer feeling exhausted. Fresh off a medical brigade in Guatemala, he entered the Enlight Fellowship unsure of what to expect. But, by the end, the community he found reshaped his perspective on his role in tackling some of the […]
Working at the Intersection of Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Social Impact with Jetrin Orenberg
We’re thrilled to announce Jetrin Orenberg as a featured speaker at IDEA Con, the world’s largest cross-university student innovation conference, hosted by Innovate@BU on October 25! About Jetrin Jetrin is the founder of Comprehension Clicker, a passionate innovator, and a student at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he’s pursuing a double major in Electrical […]
Patricia Porekuu on Empowering Ghanaian Women with Financial Literacy
Sign up for notifications about the Enlight Fellowship Summer 2026! Patricia Porekuu is a seasoned development practitioner from Ghana with over 15 years of experience in HIV, TB, and malaria programs, and she has spent her career educating and supporting underserved communities across Sub-Saharan Africa. When she arrived at Boston University’s School of Public […]
Riya Sandler Starts Conversations About Cord Blood Donations with her Enlight Fellowship Venture
Sign up for notifications about the Enlight Fellowship Summer 2026! Riya Sandler (Sargent’27) spent her summer splitting her time between the labor and delivery floor of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the innovation lab at Innovate@BU. Through the Enlight Fellowship, she combined her clinical interests with her entrepreneurial drive to launch a new venture aimed […]
Daniel Wijaya (CAS’25) Bridges Tech Skills and Community Service in Enlight Fellowship Program
Daniel Wijaya (CAS’25) never expected a newsletter buried three swipes down in his email would reshape his approach to entrepreneurship. The computer science and economics double major with a business administration minor had exposure to entrepreneurship through his brother’s ventures, but uncertainty about the risks kept him on the sidelines. “Before the Enlight Fellowship program, […]
Changing the Environmental Narrative with BU Alum Ethan Brown and the Sweaty Penguin
When Ethan Brown (COM/CAS’21) first encountered the idea of climate change in middle school, he found himself paralyzed by the scale of the problem. “I found it really scary and really overwhelming to the point where I wasn’t even interested in it,” Ethan recalls. During his time at Boston University, he discovered something that would […]
New Venture Competition Awards $72,000 in Prizes to Boston University Entrepreneurs
From revolutionizing dental care and eliminating avoidable vision loss to providing innovative data solutions for businesses and high-protein vegan snacks, the winning ventures at Boston University’s annual New Venture Competition (NVC) showcased the incredible potential of BU’s entrepreneurial community. The competition, which has supported hundreds of student-led teams for more than 20 years, awarded a […]
Announcing the 2024 Enlight Fellows and Increased Funding
Now, more than ever, our world needs social impact-driven leaders across all disciplines to solve some of the world’s largest problems. We at Innovate@BU, with the generous support of the Enlight Foundation, are committed to empowering these future leaders and equipping them with the skills they need to make real change.
Meet the Semi-Finalists of the New Venture Competition
Get ready for an exciting showdown as 20 teams of BU students and recent alumni advance to the New Venture Competition semi-finals! Chosen from a pool of nearly 150 applications, they’re competing for $72,000 in prizes. Watch the awards ceremony at Innovator’s Night, our largest party of the year, on April 25 at 6:00pm! You’ll […]