ASU Prep Academy students win $4K for obesity solution


A group of six high school freshmen from ASU Preparatory Academy at the Phoenix campus won $4,000 for their solution to combat obesity.

The team, called the Newtrition Group, took part in ASU’s Obesity Solutions Funding Challenge – a monthlong competition inviting the ASU community to present their ideas on how to fight the obesity epidemic with the chance to win up to $10,000 in seed funding for their venture.

Newtrition Group was the youngest team to participate in the challenge. The students on the team included Maria Guevara, Steven Mercado, Jenesis Maldonado, Rebekah Santa Cruz, Cheyenne Tasher and Pedro Duenas.

Using education as a tool to assist families in understanding how to prepare nutritional meals at reasonable costs and helping K-12 children make healthier food decisions are at the center of the group’s work.

The students plan to launch a snack bar with healthy options at their campus and also offer healthy cooking classes as part of their venture project. Taking a grassroots approach, the team aims to tackle obesity by working with their school and neighborhood leaders in offering nutritional snacks and healthy food lunch options.

Just one aspect of ASU’s commitment to health, the Obesity Solutions Funding Challenge is part of the Obesity Solutions program at the university – bringing together world-renowned doctors from the Mayo Clinic, distinguished scientists at ASU, and members of the community and government in order to identify, test and share innovative ways of addressing obesity.

The goal of the program is to gather together people from many diverse backgrounds in order to develop simple solutions that work for real people in the real world.

Contact:
Diana Bejarano, diana.bejarano@asu.edu
Educational Outreach and Student Services