The Community Innovation Challenge is seeking innovative ideas that leverage Cisco’s portfolio of products and services to drive both positive impact and the bottom line. This challenge invites students to explore the power of possibility by leveraging Cisco's expertise in products and services to design a social impact program that addresses community needs and showcases how it can drive business outcomes for the company.

2025 Challenge Prompt:

Thinking about Cisco’s product and services expertise, design a social impact program that solves a community need (or needs) and demonstrate how these initiatives can drive business outcomes for the company.  

Everyone who downloads the challenge brief will be invited to participate in the program’s Launch Call featuring Cisco’s Social Impact, Inclusion and Community Enablement Team. Through this call, participants will learn more about Cisco’s community work, their motivations for running this challenge, and any questions about the program.

Up to five teams will be selected as finalists in the Community Innovation Challenge. Finalist teams will be paired with a subject matter expert mentor to refine and prepare their presentation ahead of the finals. Finalist teams will present their solution to a panel of expert judges at the virtual Final Showcase event. If geographically feasible, finalist teams will be invited to pitch their final presentation at a local corporate Cisco office. The first-place team will receive the $10,000 USD grand prize, with second and third-place teams taking home $5,000 USD and $2,500 USD, respectively.