Winning Team of UNLEASH Hacks 2023 - City in Nature

Two Year 5 Josephians – Jasmine Goh and Rais Aqila Tossin, both from ML511 are two passionate youths who were engaged in the UNLEASH Hacks 2023 - City in Nature, and proudly held their own among the older participants. UNLEASH is a global initiative that brings together young leaders, experts and entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Their mission is to empower (SDG) and unite passionate youth and engage cross-sector partners to generate and grow solutions to achieve the SDGs.

Jasmine (in black) and Rais (in red) presenting their pitch to the judges In their team of four, Jasmine and Rais identified the overwhelming usage of single-use plastic bottles in the hospitality industry in Singapore and came up with a bottle-for-rent scheme to address this problem. The program sponsor, University of Newcastle Australia, was very impressed with their work. They are offering them mentorship and the team will be awarded $1000 to further develop their ideas and see them come to fruition.

The organisers observed, “Despite being the youngest among this year's cohort whose average age is 25, Jasmine and Rais showed maturity in their thinking and work ethic. They also volunteered to be the presenters for their team at the final pitching session and were able to present their idea clearly and with conviction.”

SJI Principal Mr Justin Pierre opined, “We are indeed proud of our two students for coming up with innovative ideas and solutioning in the area of environmental sustainability.”

SJI awaits the day when the team’s vision will materialise and the bottle-for-rent scheme becomes commonplace in the hospitality industry.