August 2nd 2016

July 2016 Qualification Grant Finalists

NAJMTEK
Sophie Ennadi
website

Najmtek is currently working on an adaptive and innovative learning tool for dyslexic people, to help them learn, read, and work without having dyslexia in the way. The name of the device is called the Ubook, and it is an all-in-one multi-touch, multi-language fully customizable laptop with a dual screen keyboard. While the Ubook’s incredible features go far beyond this (the Ubook also provides applications with its dual screen component for almost any industry: medicine, education, business, architecture, etc.), Sophie’s personal experience having a daughter with dyslexia is what prompted her to pursue this project.

Girls at Work, Inc.
Elaine Hamel
website

Girls at Work is a not-for-profit that provides girls with a safe and supportive environment to step out of their comfort zones and to build with other girls. Not only do they discover how capable they are, they also discover how exciting it is to work as part of a team toward a common goal.

Native Wings of Health
Lila Boone
website

Lila lives in a rural, low income country town in North Eastern North Carolina. In that area, due to generational traditions, the families eat very unhealthy. (Enormous amount of Pork, Fried Foods, still cooking with Lard & really bad cooking practices). Both adults AND children have an Alarming high rate of Obesity, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, etc.

This is why Lila started the company, Native Wings of Health, to open doors and teach members of the community that healthier options are Affordable and delicious.

ABCD Capital LLC
Aarti Mehta
website

Uniflo was created by a first-time mom and physician, Aarti. She wanted to feed her child breast milk as it was important to her and her husband. Unfortunately, it was difficult to determine how much her baby would drink during each feeding. After each feeding there was significant unconsumed liquid remaining in the bottle. But because of the baby’s back wash reentering the bottle, they were concerned about reusing the liquid and had to discard the remaining milk.

It’s difficult for many moms to produce excessive quantities of breastmilk and using formula can be very expensive. So after searching for potential solutions Aarti decided to create a device on her own, (called Uniflo) that would prevent backwash from reentering the bottle and as a result keeping the remaining liquid unused. Allowing her to feel more comfortable reusing the liquid, and in the process, saving significant effort and money. At that point her Uniflo Technology was born!

Diaper Diva Designs
Laura Toto
website

Laura’s journey began when her third child turned one and discovered her new found ability to get naked on her own. She couldn’t have been less interested in potty training and it became quite a “game”. For two months her child thwarted her every effort to keep her clothed and diapered. Nap after nap, bedtime after bedtime, Laura would walk into her room to find her kids diaper in a corner, clothes in another, along with an indescribable mess to clean up. With Laura’s sanity wearing thin she searched online. She found a few suggestions but nothing worked.

After some time Laura got the idea to cut the feet off of old pajamas, put them on her backwards and voila! It worked like a charm. After some tweaking to the outfit the Naked No More onesie was born.

Explorer Chick Adventure Co
Nicki Bruckmann
website

Explorer Chick Adventure Co is a travel company exclusively for women founded by Nicki Bruckmann. Her travel company plans to take women on epic adventures, in incredible parts of the world so women can live new experiences and discover new strengths while surrounded by a community of equally adventurous women.

Congrats to our July Qualification Grant Finalists and as always, thank you for reading! Remember we award a grant every month – if interested, here’s the link to apply!

Stay tuned: We will be announcing the winner next week!