International Studies alumna Blake Rupe creates new UI course on how startups can solve global issues

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Blake Rupe
Blake Rupe

University of Iowa alumna Blake Rupe has created a UI course, “Global Garbage: Health, Wealth, and Waste,” which examines how startups can solve global issues. The course will be offered in the Spring 2016 semester.

Rupe received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in International Studies from the UI. In 2014, she created a Re-APP, Inc. (dba Sift), a company that creates mobile apps to promote sustainability. After a positive response to the company’s first app, Re-APP, Rupe joined the Iowa Startup Accelerator and built a second product, Sift, which allows users to measure, catalog and track all sustainability actions.

The company recently received a $25,000 grant via the Proof of Commercial Relevance Fund, part of the Iowa Economic Development Authority. The funding will allow Rupe and her team to complete a corporate sustainability pilot program.

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.