To what extent can one student make a positive impact on a community? How can we encourage Tulane students to transfer their public service into long-term projects to build a better planet?

According to Melanie Barlow, the founder and CEO of Sudz Soap…

These are the kinds of questions that are explored in the Changemaker Institute; a unique resource offering students the opportunity to launch their own ventures and make real change happen while they are still in school. This isn’t preparing kids for the real world, it is involving students in the real world; giving us the tools to start making a positive difference today. It’s refreshing to be among a cohort of talented young people invested in positive change through practical means.

I’m sure many of you have noticed the TBTs featuring CI alumni, the constant Facebook posts, and the flyers hanging around campus to promote the Changemaker Institute. Maybe, a few of you even checked out our info sessions! Well, the application deadline is ONE. WEEK. AWAY!

That’s right. You only have one week to apply for this opportunity to develop your social venture and to prepare a business plan for the NewDay Challenge! (Melanie won $5,000 funding to start Sudz Soap L3C). Want to know more about Sudz Soap? Here’s what Melanie has to say…

At Sudz, we sell all-natural bars of soap in the New Orleans area and use the proceeds to implement sanitation projects in areas of the world with high mortality rates due to preventable diseases. In the summer of 2013, we launched our sanitation programs in India, using the money we made by selling soap. Working with local non-profits, we launched three programs: a toilet rebuilding project at a Tibetan refugee monastery, a hygiene education program for children, and an exploratory project teaching tent community women how to make soap.

According to UNICEF figures, an estimated 638 million people in India defecate in the open and only 53% of the total population washes their hands with soap after defecation, causing high rates of preventable diseases. The Sudz business plan recognizes that we have neither the resources nor the expertise to operate these sanitation projects ourselves, so we work with established organizations in target countries to most effectively reach the target population. Sudz helps launch sanitation improvement programs with partner organizations and then entrusts further implementation to these partners, while continuing to fund the programs through U.S. soap sales. Though our operations are limited to a small number of people, our impact among the communities we work with is large. Currently in our third year of operation, the entire Sudz experience has been a whirlwind of learning, trying, reworking, and growing, and we are incredibly grateful to the Changemaker Institute for helping launch us on this rollercoaster of soap-making shenanigans.