‘EduIndia’ Wins Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Challenge, Helps Private School Students with Tuition

4/17/2017 - Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management April 7 announced that EduIndia was named the winner of the 2017 Kellogg-Morgan Stanley Sustainable Investing Challenge.

EduIndia, comprised of students from Northwestern’s management school — Indian American Ashwin Halgeri, Chris Shaw and Erica Hoeveler — was among 10 finalists chosen from 196 students at 37 schools in 29 countries competing in the challenge at Morgan Stanley’s New York offices April 7.

EduIndia’s idea focuses on creating a private growth debt fund fostering education access and retention in India, according to a joint statement by Morgan Stanley and the Kellogg School of Management. This private debt fund will help low-fee private schools retain students struggling to pay tuition.

“One of the first things we want to do is donate money to the schools who helped us with this," said Halgeri, who with the other two students, spent the past four months working on their proposal.

“Millennials are taking notice and action on how to address our social and environmental issues through financial vehicles and are a key growth driver for sustainable investing,” Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing Chief Executive Audrey Choi said in a statement. “The students in this year’s challenge are leading the way for the next generation to creatively combine their passion for social change with the goal of achieving competitive financial returns.”

The annual challenge was founded by the Northwestern management school in 2011. It is a global competition that creates an opportunity to inspire future leaders to innovate conventional financing vehicles – or devise new ones – in ways that could address environmental, social and governance problems, the statement said.

“We are proud to host this challenge in which students can apply their financial acumen and creativity to craft strategies that drive both market returns and social impact,” Megan Kashner, professor at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and director of Social Impact, said in a statement. “The Sustainable Investing Challenge forges the path for tomorrow’s business leaders and innovators.”