Start here. Register for the Challenge and share information about yourself or your team. We’ll help guide you to the Innovation Pathway that best fits your interests and ideas.
Get Started
Culture Is Currency invites students at Hispanic-Serving Institutions to draw upon their lived experiences, values, and communities to explore how culture, creativity, and community assets create social and economic value—redefining wealth beyond traditional metrics to include the invisible strengths of creativity, care, language, land, and legacy.
Deadline: Date | Challenge Status: Closed
Challenge Overview
Follow the Culture Is Currency challenge journey from your registration through your final showcase.
Review the challenge brief, timeline, and learning resources. Learn more about workshops and sessions to help you design your Challenge submission.
Explore and choose your Innovation Pathway. Then build your idea, project, story, prototype, or other submission using the Challenge Playbook. Come back again if you want to submit to another Innovation Pathway.
Upload your final materials, Challenge Reflection, and required supporting materials before the deadline.
Reviewers evaluate submissions based on the criteria outlined for each Innovation Pathway. Look for the “What to Submit” section to review the four elements every submission should include.
Selected projects and participants are recognized through the Culture Is Currency showcase and shared on the Virtual Innovation Platform.
Resources Library
Medium length section heading goes here
Toolkits, workbooks, and guides to help instructors and students prepare a Culture Is Currency submission.
Instructors
- Instructor
- Toolkit
- Other
National STEAM Innovation Challenge
Side Hustle Bootcamp
Culture Is Currency redefines wealth by helping HSI students recognize the value of their culture, creativity, and community assets.
Download- Students
- Workbooks
- Other
Student Toolkits
Culture Is Currency redefines wealth by helping HSI students recognize the value of their culture, creativity, and community assets.
Learn more- Students
- Courses
- Other
Instructor Toolkit
Culture Is Currency redefines wealth by helping HSI students recognize the value of their culture, creativity, and community assets.
DownloadStudents
- Instructor
- Toolkit
- Other
Culture is Currency
Get Started
Culture Is Currency redefines wealth by helping HSI students recognize the value of their culture, creativity, and community assets.
Learn more- Students
- Workbooks
- Other
Student Workbooks
Culture Is Currency redefines wealth by helping HSI students recognize the value of their culture, creativity, and community assets.
Download- Students
- Courses
- Other
Challenge Based Learning
Culture Is Currency redefines wealth by helping HSI students recognize the value of their culture, creativity, and community assets.
Learn more- Students
- Courses
- Other
Innovation Playbook
Culture Is Currency redefines wealth by helping HSI students recognize the value of their culture, creativity, and community assets.
DownloadSide Hustle Bootcamp
Have an idea, talent, skill, or story you want to turn into something real? Side Hustle Bootcamp helps you explore micro-preneurship through culture, creativity, and community. Use the Challenge resources to shape your idea, identify who it serves, and build a side hustle concept that creates value for yourself and others.
Learn MoreIn Partnership with:
Culture is Currency's 5 Innovation Pathways
Innovation Pathways
Create:Your Side Hustle
Challenge: Create a side hustle that adds value. Design a side hustle that transforms your culture, creativity, talents, or lived experiences into something that creates value for others.
Design a side hustle that responds to a real opportunity or need, strengthens your community, and demonstrates how innovation can create economic, cultural, or social impact. The strongest ideas transform culture, creativity, talents, and lived experiences into meaningful value for others.
Your greatest side hustle idea may already exist within your creativity, your lived experiences, or your culture. Innovation happens when we recognize the value we already possess and transform it into opportunities that strengthen ourselves and our communities.
A National Challenge
Culture is Currency
Your Currency is Culture
Your experiences, traditions, language, creativity, and community knowledge all hold value. This challenge asks you to start with what you know and explore how those strengths can inspire new ideas.
Challenge-Based Learning
Start with a question that matters to you. Investigate it through research, conversations, and exploration. Then use what you learn to create and share an idea, story, or solution.
Free & Online
Explore challenge resources and learning materials online. Choose a pathway that fits your interests and use the tools available to move your idea from exploration to creation.