MindSumo is on a mission to help college students develop highly sought after problem-solving, communications, and creative thinking skills. With the help of Fortune 500 companies, we have created a series of scholarships where students have an opportunity to develop these skills while working on business and engineering challenges that students will see when they start their professional careers. Since launching in 2013, MindSumo has awarded over $650,000 to students and our community has reached over 3,000 universities.
Employers constantly rank problem-solving and communication skills as the top attribute they look for in hiring recent college grads. Yet most companies feel that colleges don’t prepare students to develop these skills.
Better yet students get to work on really interesting challenges from companies that they respect. Past challenges have included working with Amazon Alexa to create a skill for college dorm rooms, helping Target come up with a wellness campaign for customers, and designing a space robot for the Houston Space Center.
Students will notice that MindSumo scholarships do not follow the traditional scholarship model. We don’t need long forms with information about your accomplishments or long scholarship essays about your goals. Better yet we reward 50% of all submissions so applicants actually have a chance to earn financial aid and don’t have to do deal with sweepstakes that feature impossible odds.
Each scholarship challenge offers students the chance to earn $50-$200 in financial aid. Many of these challenges can be completed in as little as 15 minutes and students can work on as many challenges as they like to multiply their financial aid rewards. MindSumo offers up to $20,000 worth of new scholarship funds each month and students are allowed to come work on new challenges at any time.
Deadlines for our scholarship challenges vary according to when they are posted. Each challenge has a 30 day window from its launch date. Having multiple opportunities across the school year gives students the freedom to work on scholarship challenges in their free time.
In terms of eligibility, anyone over the age of 18 is eligible including international students. We don’t believe in restricting access to student financial aid based on previous achievements, social status, school choice, or demographics. We have created a truly unique and fair platform where the only thing that matters is your solution.
Visit Minsumo Website. Then sign up for an account with just an email (so they can notify you if you win) and submit a solution or idea to any of the scholarship challenges that are active.