Each year, the Fox School of Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute (IEI) hosts The Changemaker Challenge. Students from all 17 Temple University schools and colleges are encouraged to enter the competition with an idea for a product that will bring social change to a field of their interest.  

Former advertising student Sophie Whitney, KLN ’23, entered the sixth annual competition this year with her product, Mermead, a mildly sweet, natural and environmentally friendly beverage that Whitney intends to market to young women like her that haven’t found the drink for them.  

Whitney had yet to find an alcoholic beverage that she really liked the taste of until one Thanksgiving when her parents brought home a bottle of mead. The sweet taste of the honey-based drink immediately drew her in, but she was dismayed to find out that mead was not widely sold at liquor stores. If it was available, Whitney found it lacking in flavor and decided that if she wanted it done right, she had to do it herself and make her own. 

In the fall of 2022, Whitney began researching the alcohol industry, as well as the various materials and equipment that would be needed to brew her own mead. To make the drink more environmentally friendly, she researched beekeeping and honey-sourcing to find the best way to obtain the key ingredient in her product.  

Whitney met with Director of Accelerator Programs Greg Fegley and Blackstone Launchpad Program Director Julie Stapleton Carroll to discuss her product. Both Fegley and Stapleton Carroll helped Whitney talk through her idea and encouraged her to explore her options when it came to brewing and marketing her product.  

“[I] was really impressed with the content and the way she had thought out how she would do things,” Stapleton Carroll said. Though you don’t typically think of an alcoholic beverage as having the ability to have any social impact, she noted that Whitney made it clear that Mermead would be sourced sustainably and has future plans for eco-friendly packaging, as well.  

That fall, Whitney entered the IEI’s Innovative Idea Competition and Blackstone Launchpad’s Ideas Competition. Though she didn’t get in, the application process prepared her and her product for the Changemaker Challenge in March 2023.  

Fegley noted that Whitney “killed it” at the competition. In addition to not associating alcohol with sustainability, you do not often see a young woman wanting to create her own beverage. Whitney proved herself in both areas and was recognized by the judges and audience for her passion and thoughtfulness.  

“I know she has worked hard making that transition from idea to a viable business,” Fegley said. “She’s incredibly talented and I think she’s going to do a great job with it.”  

Though she was nervous about her presentation, Whitney treated it like a show and brought so much energy to her pitch. “An important part of pitching is being entertaining,” she said. 

Still on a high from the Changemaker Challenge, Whitney rounded out her school year and time at Temple by applying to one more competition, the Be Your Own Boss Bowl, in which she took third place.  

Whitney recently started as an associate copywriter at Digitas Health and hopes to pursue Mermead on the side, but would love it if it could be her full-time gig one day. For now, she just finished making her first gallon, and we look forward to seeing it on the shelves in the future!