emlyon rewards students’ engagement
Each year, emlyon business school highlights and celebrates its students’ commitment through the implementation of projects with strong social and environmental impact, as part of the Student Engagement Award.
An award highlighting student initiatives in the service of the common good
Led by emlyon business school, the Student Engagement Award (SEA) recognizes each year student-led initiatives committed to building a fairer, more sustainable and more inclusive society. Renamed this year to reflect the expansion of its scope beyond social entrepreneurship alone, the award fully aligns with the School’s strategic plan by promoting project leaders whose social and/or environmental initiatives are in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SEA has become a key event celebrating engaged initiatives carried out by the student community throughout the academic year, notably through educational projects such as the Responsible Commitment Program (PER), the Makers’ Project, and the Student Societal Project (PES). The 2026 edition brought together 13 projects presented by more than 60 students.
2026 award winners:
SDG 3 award – “Good Health and Well-being”
La Cuisine Rose, led by Julia Boursin, Eloïse Faure and Salomé Chambon, in partnership with Les Petites Cantines, Jeune & Rose and Espoir Cancer: a supportive and interactive event that breaks the traditional codes of breast cancer prevention and screening among young people.Social engagement award
Project with the EHPAD “Les Girondines”, led by Alice Denoyelle and Carla-Marie Olivier, alongside Sirius the dog: improving residents’ well-being through animal-assisted therapy sessions.Impact on student life award
“The Voice of Activists: A Weapon of Change or a Cry into the Void?”, led by Justine Dutheillet de Lamothe, Solène Dufez and Camille Leveque, in partnership with the International League Against Racism and Antisemitism (LICRA) and the student association Forum emlyon: a podcast exploring the impact of activist speech in the digital age and raising awareness of the fight against discrimination.People’s choice award
Candeur Ukraine, led by Marius Even: the creation of an association dedicated to producing an immersive documentary filmed in Ukraine, focusing on children from displaced families in an occupied and bombed country.Jury’s special prize
MAAIDA, led by Khady Elli Cisse: an association fighting poverty through outreach work, distributions and solidarity-based actions that address material needs while rebuilding social connections.
A diverse jury made up of representatives from academia, the non-profit and business sectors, the alumni network and the emlyon community awarded five prizes across a range of themes.
Members of the jury:
- Christine DI DOMENICO, Student Engagement Award 2026’s President of the jury
- Bénédicte BOST, Director of Social and Environmental Engagement
- Elsa DA COSTA, CEO of Ashoka France and PGE alumna (1999)
- Armand ROSENBERG, CEO and President of the management board of the AJD Maurice Gounon Foundation, MBA alumni
- Thierry PALANDRI, President of Horizon Groupe
- Lionel FAVROT, Editor-in-chief, Mag2Lyon
- Antoine PAYOT, Senior project manager at Goodwill-management, co-director of the film Les Pieds sur Terre, winner of the 2023 Social Entrepreneurship Award, PGE alumni
- Matthieu Nicolas OOGUR, Treasurer advisor, GBBA Student Corporation Council
- Marie DUMOULIN, President of the PGE Student Corporation Council
Impact-driven engagement now runs through all of our degree programs: from the Responsible Engagement Program in the Master in Management -Grande École Program to the Societal Project in the GBBA, as well as MakeSense challenges and the vitality of our student associations. These initiatives enable our students to build a continuous link between reflection and action.
While previous editions were limited to the Grande École Program, the competition is now open to all emlyon programs — Bachelors, Masters and MSc. The 2026 SEA was also marked by keynote speeches from jury members and impact entrepreneurs, including Elsa Da Costa and Antoine Payot, who shared their personal journeys and long-standing commitment, from their student years at emlyon through their professional careers.
A unique educational initiative placing engagement at the heart of the student experience
The Student Engagement Award is part of emlyon’s experiential learning ecosystem, which reflects the School’s distinctive educational model focused on initiative-taking. With social and environmental responsibility at the core of students’ academic pathways, emlyon’s approach seeks to connect reflection with action through both theoretical learning and meaningful, hands-on experiences.
Like the SEA, the Responsible Commitment Program (PER), the Student Societal Project (PES) and student associations dedicated to the public interest are among the initiatives developed by the School to address this challenge. emlyon thus enables students to build pathways with a strong social and environmental entrepreneurial dimension, fostering maker profiles through their capacity to experiment, co-create and develop impact-driven projects.
Watch the interview with Elsa Da Costa (PGE ’99), CEO of Ashoka France:
