At the Change Engine competition, H2oLoo (pronounced ‘Waterloo’) for better access to water in residence buildings, and Clear the Haze for better substance abuse management, were the winners of the night.

The Change Engine competition, held by WUSA, is meant to give students a space to pitch ideas that improve and spark change participants feel necessary on campus. On Nov. 14, six groups of UW students competed to try and win the $5000 grant to help make these ideas a reality.

Participants prepared a short slideshow presentation explaining the importance of their ideas in front of a panel of judges and students who came to support. The $5000 grant went out to two different groups: H2oLoo by Giordana Staudohar and Isabelle Lee, and Clear the Haze founded by Aritha Bala.

H2oLoo is an initiative that aims to make filtered water more accessible to students living in residence buildings. This includes adding water fountains, as Staudohar and Lee noticed a lack of access to water other than the bathroom sinks. They are planning on conducting more research on how to make this action applied on the buildings through installing water fountains. After winning, Staudohar said, “We are so grateful for [WUSA’s] support and can’t wait to put our plans into action.”

Bala’s advocacy campaign focuses on implementing realistic strategies for students facing substance abuse difficulties. She is doing this by recruiting professionals in numerous health fields, creating awareness and facilitating education through campaigns, peer-led circles of support, connecting students with other resources, and ensuring an overall understanding that although quitting is not linear, her program aims to help students quit and feel better supported. She aims to reduce the taboo and stigma around substance abuse and work on giving students support to reduce the reliance on substances.

Bala created this project due to experiences both lived and observed, stating, “The most emotional part of this journey has been realizing that so many of us silently share the same concerns, experiences, and questions.”

Both groups will now work to make this plan more concrete and have concrete evidence of its applications in the community by the end of summer 2026. This evidence can be displayed in different forms depending on the program for H2oLoo the end goal is to implement the concrete water fountains that would be a solid indicator of the work done. Clear the Haze has expressed that although the term “quitting” is a broad term they hope to wrap up with a survey that would let students express the journey and help they received through Bala’s campaign.