Tulane students win MTV entrepreneurship contest

A team of Tulane students won a social entrepreneurship contest based on the new mtvU series “Movers and Changers.”

The WetTea project was selected from hundreds of entries from across the country as the winner. The team consisted of public health major Shea Kathryne Shelton and business majors Jay Zhao and Nic LaGatta.

The WetTea team and runner-up SafeSnip team recently traveled to New York City for the final judging of the competition. The judges included Snoop Dogg and other socially conscious business owners served. All finalists were given the opportunity to ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange and meet with successful industry leaders before presenting their projects.

“It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had,” SafeSnip team leader William Kethman said.

Each team received a large amount of seed money invest in the future real-world application of their projects because of their participation in the event. The runners-up will receive $5,000 in start-up money while the WetTea team will receive $25,000 and any contributions the teams may receive from personal benefactors. The teams said they look forward to using the money to expand their projects in the near future.

“The sheer amount of exposure that [all] of the projects received was astounding,” another SafeSnip team leader Stephanie Roberts said. “I really hope more Tulane students apply next year.”

The leaders of the SafeSnip project developed a product that allows for the sterile cutting of a child’s umbilical cord after birth. They said they hope it will one day be used throughout the world to save lives.

“7.5 million [infants die] every year, and 98 percent of those deaths occur in developing nations,” Roberts said, “This is a huge discrepancy between the developing and developed world, and many of these deaths are due to preventable causes.”

All finalists said they hope to achieve their goals soon.

“MTV has given us a great opportunity to get people’s attention,” Zhao said. “We want young people to know that you can have a business that does good and at the same time keeps your company profitable… I am excited because I know many people will see what we are doing, understand it, and it will inspire them to do the same thing.”

WetTea plans to buy fair-trade tea from China. For each bottle of tea sold in the United States, the company will plant a cypress tree along the Louisiana coastline to lessen the damage from future hurricanes.

The team said it is excited about the project’s potential.

“In New Orleans, a lot of people worry about the wetlands,” Zhao said. “If we can show we support the people that support us by buying our product, we can recognize real social impact as part of a business project.”

The team is looking for more members from the Tulane community who are interested in social entrepreneurship.

“The key requirement is that someone is passionate about social entrepreneurship and wants to change the world,” Zhao said.