Through experiential learning, mentorship, and the opportunity to pitch at the Tufts $100k New Ventures Competition, Friedman students are transforming classroom ideas into real-world ventures.
Where Passion Meets Purpose: Friedman Students Share Transformative Entrepreneurship Experiences
At the Friedman School, Students in the Nutrition & Entrepreneurship: Idea to Impact course are imagining real-world entrepreneurial solutions to public health and nutrition problems. Over the course of a semester, they launch them into action.
For recent MS/MPH graduate Camila Sánchez-González, this course was the proving ground for SHEFe: Stronger Mothers, Healthier Infants, Empowered Families — a not for profit social enterprise tackling iron deficiency through food and community-centered education.
“Through the use of data-driven food-based solutions and nutrition education campaigns,” She explains, “SHEFe aims to reduce maternal and infant mortality by making iron supplementation more effective, accessible, and affordable.”
Sánchez-González co-founded SHEFe with classmates Oluwatoyin Jejelowo and Anna Kate Shutack, students concentrating in Nutrition Interventions, Communication, and Behavior Change. Their multicultural team’s global perspective, with hometowns in Nigeria, Puerto Rico, and the United States, became a key strength during the course and competition.
"SHEFe started as a simple classroom idea, but the course gave me the structure and confidence to turn it into a real venture with tangible impact,” says Jejelowo. “When Jimmy [Edgerton, the course instructor] introduced the Tufts New Venture Competition, my team took it seriously.” Their idea turned into an $8,000 pilot—the funds from the competition paving the way for even more funding and support. “This all started with just an idea in class," Jejelowo emphasizes.
“We are building not only a product, but a pathway to health, equity, and dignity,” adds Shutack. “SHEFe’s mission is to ensure no mother is too weak to carry her child to term, and no child is born too small to survive.”
For Shutack, the course highlighted the power of collaboration and effective communication.
“Great ideas are born through collaborative brainstorming with like-minded, diverse thinkers. This course challenged me to communicate with smart brevity—and to sell not just our product, but our values and goals.”
In true Friedman School form, other student projects ranged to wildly different corners of nutrition innovation. allGrow, co-founded by Hannah Michelson, an MPH student at Tufts University School of Medicine, and Tufts classmate Galileo Defendi-Cho, is an investment platform designed to accelerate innovation in the cultivated meat industry through cross-sector collaboration and knowledge sharing.
“The greatest innovation comes through collaboration and feedback,” Michelson says. “We shared our ideas each week and received input from peers, guest lecturers, mentors, our instructor Jimmy, and our TA, Raghad.” She and Defendi-Cho took allGrow to the Tufts $100k New Ventures Competition. They ended up advancing to the semi-finals and finals, receiving valuable mentorship and visibility along the way.
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Learning, Building, Growing
The Nutrition & Entrepreneurship: Idea to Impact course dives deep into the essentials of startup thinking: From product-market fit to business models, marketing, and the social impact landscape, all while encouraging students to step into unfamiliar territory.
“It’s definitely a crash course, but one that’s incredibly fun and engaging,” says Sánchez-González.
Michelson, who hails from a psychology and public health background, found the intellectual challenge exhilarating.
“It’s the most engaging, hands-on experience I’ve had at Tufts. The intellectual challenge has opened my perspective to search for new professional avenues.”
Students also had the opportunity to learn from the real-world stories shared by visiting entrepreneurs and mentors, honest accounts of building, failing, pivoting, and succeeding.
“[The stories] were powerful reminders that everyone starts somewhere,” says Sánchez-González.
“Learning from my peers and colleagues about their own “why” behind their business has helped me learn to value the lived experiences that each person brings to conversations, ideas and connections with each other, inside and outside of the classroom,” says Michelson.
“Listening to other entrepreneurs share how they built, failed, and pivoted showed me that setbacks are part of the process. That gave me the push to take SHEFe seriously and keep moving it forward.”
For Shutack, inspiration came from her newly found connections:
“My cofounders Camila and Oluwatoyin are my biggest inspiration. Our multinational backgrounds allow us to draw from experiences in three different cultures.”
Versatile Skills for Every Career Path
Whether or not students walk in with a business idea, all four student participants say this course has something to offer for anyone interested in social change, innovation, or leadership.
"I believe the course equips students with both the tools and the mindset to move from an idea to action. For me, it turned SHEFe from a vision into a funded and growing project,” Jejelowo emphasizes.
“The opportunity for personal and intellectual growth is limitless,” adds Michelson. “You’ll discover your own voice.”
“Our world needs changemakers—humanitarians committed to equity—who are empowered through entrepreneurship,” Shutack reflects. “This course helps make that happen.”
“Whether you are ready to start your own business or simply curious about entrepreneurship, this course has something for everyone."
Support from Professor of the Practice, Jimmy Edgerton, and the teaching team was another standout for all students.
“Jimmy’s guidance at every stage pushed me to raise my standards. His mentorship turned challenges into opportunities and gave me the confidence to keep advancing SHEFe,” says Jejelowo.
“I would tell anyone interested in this course to keep an open mind and let your curiosity guide you to what you are passionate about,” adds Michelson.
From creating communications strategies to improve maternal health outcomes, to cutting-edge investment models for food system innovation, the Friedman School is cultivating a new generation of innovators—and Friedman students are demonstrating that the right educational environment can transform ambition into action.
