Twenty-two students with entrepreneurial startups were awarded Human Spirit and Beck Fellowship summer stipend awards by Entrepreneurship at Cornell.

The Marla and Barry Beck Entrepreneurship Fellows and Human Spirit Entrepreneurship Fellows programs both provide students with summer funding up to $6,000, which can be used to support the startup by paying for compensation, prototypes, web development or other expenses.

“This summer funding helps young founders focus on their startups at pivotal points in their formation,” said Zach Shulman ’87 J.D. ’90, director of Entrepreneurship at Cornell,” instead of worrying about financially supporting themselves in an internship or other position.” 

Yann Hicke, a doctoral student in computer science, will work on MedSimAI, an AI-powered simulation environment that allows medical and mental health trainees to practice communication and clinical reasoning with virtual patients.

“My journey began five years ago with a fascination for AI-based learning tools that could spark deep engagement and genuine understanding,” Hicke said. “About a year and a half ago, I recognized the urgent need for innovation in medical, nursing and mental health education.”

Hicke said his experience as an actor allowed him to create realistic characters for the simulations.

“I’m excited about the potential to help address pressing workforce shortages in healthcare by improving how we train future practitioners,” he said. “AI-driven simulations make it possible to offer realistic, on-demand practice opportunities that help students build competence and confidence more efficiently—ultimately expanding access to quality care.”

The summer funding will allow him to create more diverse simulation cases and refine feedback systems to be more tailored to students’ needs. He will also continue to partner with institutions to learn how students engage with the platform.

Cynthia Mujyambere ’26, an information science major in the College of Arts & Sciences and the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, will use the funding to travel to Rwanda to demonstrate her digital platform, Corner, which is designed to improve communication between university students and professors in Rwanda.

“As an international student from Rwanda, tools like Canvas and Ed Discussion, along with open communication with professors, helped me thrive in a new academic system,” she said. “That experience made me ask: ‘What if students in Rwanda had access to similar resources?’ ”

If the platform is successful, she said, it could scale across East Africa, bringing more equity, support and opportunity to students across the region.

She also will begin to form a local team in the country. 

“Face-to-face engagement is crucial in Rwanda’s conservative academic culture, where trust and personal interaction are key to driving change,” she said.

Samhita Korukonda ’27, a human biology, health and society major in the College of Human Ecology, is working on a healthcare tech startup that connects individuals to healthcare options that match their financial and accessibility needs.

The company, CommuniCare, just closed its first funding round of $32,000, and has advisors at Weill Cornell Medicine and at Cornell.

Korukonda said she was inspired to work on the project after her work on Washington State’s Healthcare for Homeless Network. 

“After three years facilitating free clinics and workshops across Seattle, I saw firsthand how many low-income, uninsured individuals struggled with preventable conditions such as heart disease and lung disease due to a lack of awareness about available resources,” she said. “Witnessing their struggles and empathizing with their stories motivated me to utilize my technical background to create a solution that allowed low-income communities to better navigate and connect with the saturated healthcare landscape.”

The summer funding will allow the company to launch its app, expand its functionalities and conduct a beta-test with community partners.

Other student winners include:

For more information about the awards or application information, visit the Entrepreneurship at Cornell website.