London College of Fashion student Kristi Kuiken recently won Samsung's Student LifeStart Challenge entitled “How Could Virtual Reality Make a Positive Difference to University Life?”,
Kirsti's idea was an app called Podium, which creates a virtual reality 'safe space' in which the user can practise presenting.
Kristi won a Samsung VR headset plus mentoring from Virgin, and in March 2018 she won second prize in the LCF Student Enterprise Team (SET) Challenge.
In March 2018 Kristi was awarded LCF's SET Challenge 2nd Prize for her presentation of Podium. SET supports London College of Fashion students and graduates who have an enterprising and entrepreneurial mind-set and who wish to become self-employed whist studying at or after graduating.
SET has helped over 500 students since it started in 2017 with one-to-ones, skills builds, mentorship and networking events. It plays a leading role in supporting LCF’s position as a ‘Small Business Charter’ award winner.
The SET challenge is an annual event where students are invited to create or showcase an innovative idea, product or service that can make a real difference to a community or to a consumer of their choice. Winning teams receive cash investments and access to mentors.
Kristi said, "I decided to enter Podium into the SET challenge and was selected as a finalist to pitch. I was super excited to have won 2nd place and our Head of College Frances Corner very graciously gave me an extra £1,000 for a prize fund total of £3,000. We got to meet with some great advisors in residence and the whole preparation experience really helped me shaped my business plan as there were tonness of knowledgeable people putting forward questions I hadn’t thought about yet and challenging my business which was great.
I also found out that I won a graduate visa from the university to continue developing Podium in the U.K. after graduation which is awesome!"
The above image shows Kristi (far right) receiving her second prize at the SET Challenge. From left to right: judges Adam Mansell, CEO and Company Secretary of UKFT, Judith Rosser-Davies, Head of Government Relations and Education at the British Fashion Council and Professor Frances Corner OBE, Head of London College of Fashion and Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of the Arts London. Next to Frances are Faith Leeves and Cynthia Liberman from Lara Intimates, the sustainable lingerie brand who won the inagurual SET Challenge in 2017. Photograph by Josh de Souza Crook.
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