On Wednesday, November 12th, Holy Cross students gathered in Hogan for the 2025 Innovation Challenge, an annual event spotlighting student entrepreneurship and creative problem-solving. Hosted by the HC Launch Club with Andrew Trachimowicz ’27 as the emcee, this year’s challenge centered on WiseDine, a new meal plan generator that syncs students’ dietary needs directly with campus dining data to provide personalized recommendations. With WiseDine targeting a 2026 launch, the event provided students an opportunity to share their ideas surrounding Nico’s project.
Teams were challenged to address one of the three core areas: driving student engagement, monetization strategy, and marketing and expansion.
Judges looked for creativity, realistic solutions, and clear presentations as each team pitched with three minutes on the clock, followed by a two-minute Q&A. Thank you to this year’s judging panel, including WiseDine founder Nico Corporon ’26, a current senior at Holy Cross, along with Brendan Candon ’10, CEO of SidelineSwap whose company was featured in the last Innovation Challenge, and Nick Lazarro ’23, founder of Nick’s On-Site Detailing.
-
- First Place: $1,000 – Ella Grainger ’26, Maeley Nakamura ’26, Bridget Sachs ’27
- Second Place: $500 – Julian Beban ’26 and Ryan Donavan ’26
- Third Place: $250 – Gavin Kempskie ’27 and Bill Wang ’27
- Audience Favorite Award: $50 – Emile Keza ’29 and Lani Lopez ’29
We also congratulate all of the participants who shared their innovative solutions, including Ben Berger ’26, Billy Black ’26, Cayla Friedman ’26, TJ Haigh ’26, and Jack Murphy ’27. The event showed the strong creativity of Holy Cross students and gave WiseDine helpful ideas as it prepares for a wider launch. Thank you to everyone who made the evening possible and showed up to support WiseDine!
Written by Kevin Birenbaum ‘26 and Maeley Nakamura ‘26