SAN FRANCISCO—South Dakota sent four members of the women's track and field team to the Hult Prize Regional Summit in San Francisco this March. Sophomores Ashlynn Atwood and Amber Ellison teamed up with freshmen Brigit Blote and Katie Brust, dubbed themselves the Earthrunners and presented at the summit.
 
The regional summit provided the women with the opportunity to showcase their innovative ideas, learn from their peers and be inspired by a generation of young people who are committed to changing the world through business.
 
"This was a really neat opportunity for these young ladies," said Lucky Huber, South Dakota's director of track and field/cross country. "We want our student-athletes to be well-rounded and involved in other activities on campus. To provide them the chance to excel academically and have a unique experience across the country was a no-brainer.
 
"The University of South Dakota is devoted to giving its students an amazing college experience."
 
With Atwood, Blote and Ellison all hailing from South Dakota, the group created a business plan built on employing indigenous youth from the Pine Ridge Reservation.
 
"We are so grateful that USD provided us as student-athletes the opportunity to compete not only at a high level on the track, but also in academics at global competitions such as this one," said Blote.
 
The group detailed their San Franciscan experience with the following blog.
   
Friday, March 15, 2019
 
The Earthrunners team members started the morning early with Bluestone Lane coffee in downtown San Francisco before heading out for a breakfast picnic at the Golden Gate Bridge. After such sightseeing, we visited the Painted Ladies and reviewed our Hult information and itinerary at the park.
 
We returned to our hotel room and began getting ready for orientation. Once we arrived at the Hult International Business School, we checked our team in at the front desk and received lanyards with our names, as well as folders with more in-depth information.
 
 
There were over 60 teams from all over the world present to compete at San Francisco Regionals. A member from the 2015 winning team of the Hult Prize, the Hult International Business School Dean, and the San Francisco Hult Regional Director all congratulated us and spoke about their experiences regarding the competition, as well as explained what we should continue to expect.
 
Following orientation, we networked with other teams, including ones from Ohio, France, Canada, and New York. One of the volunteers we spoke to recognized our school and said he knew Ghofrane, who brought Hult Prize to the University of South Dakota in the first place!
 
We got back to the hotel around 9 p.m., and then we stayed up for a couple hours rehearsing our presentation, trying to balance our excitement and nerves before the big day!
 
Saturday, March 16, 2019

The USB containing our PowerPoint was due at 7:30 a.m. After turning it in and checking our team in, we had breakfast at the business school. The rest of the morning consisted of practicing our pitch in our assigned room until 11:36 a.m. when it was time to officially present!
 
We got in front of a panel of four judges and an audience of other teams to introduce our idea to create a profitable, meaningful, and global business dependent on the talents of indigenous youth.
 
The Hult Prize theme this year was based around employing 10,000 youths within the next 10 years using the million-dollar prize, while also accomplishing a positive purpose. We decided to tackle a problem very close to home, but that trends globally as well by creating opportunities for indigenous communities.
 
Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota is home to the poorest counties in the United States. The youth is especially impacted, as 42% of the population is under the age of 20, the teen suicide rate is 150% of the national average, the high school dropout rate is 70%, and the community faces a 90% unemployment rate. Within our initial research we also confirmed that many communities around the world also face similar issues due to histories of injustice.
 
Our business proposal had the goal to give these communities a platform to educate the consumer on their history, culture, and current societal issues. This was in the form of an initial online store in which they could sell items of cultural significance, which would help them to retain traditions that can also diminish, since communities sometimes feel pressure to conform in order to escape poverty.
 
After our pitch in its six-minute entirety, we received four minutes of questions from the judges. Their feedback was helpful, and we plan to use it to create an even more effective proposal for next year's competition. We had a lunch break and then our team got to join a peer panel and watch afternoon presentations. It was incredibly inspiring to learn about other ways teams approached lessening youth unemployment.
 

When the afternoon presentations concluded, we got to discuss the pitches with the judges and what we thought of the different ideas. We returned to the hotel to change for the evening presentations and awards. The final location was at the Commonwealth Club and we joined all the teams on the rooftop.
 
We returned to the building where the final six teams were announced, and they immediately had to present a second time in front of all the judges and competitors moments after being announced. These elite presentations were very impressive and so competitive that two winners were announced instead of the typical one! These winners will spend six weeks in London developing their business proposals.
 
Afterwards, we talked to all of the final six teams and Brigit spoke and traded contact information with a professor at Stanford's Medical School who happened to be born in Rapid City, her hometown!
 
To finish out the night, we walked around the city with an Australian team from the top six final teams and then went to Twin Peaks, the highest point in San Francisco, with the team from Ohio. It was one in the morning by the time we were back at the hotel, and we packed up and took a short nap before leaving for the airport at three in the morning. We said our goodbyes and all returned home.
 
It was an incredible trip seeing all of the youths working to create a better world, and we are definitely interested in competing again next year.