{"id":31513,"date":"2026-01-27T19:19:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T19:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=31513"},"modified":"2026-03-13T19:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:22:15","slug":"macgpt-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2026\/01\/macgpt-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"MacGPT 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MacGPT returned to campus on November 15 for Macalester\u2019s third annual public policy hackathon, bringing together students from across disciplines for a fast-paced, full-day challenge centered around public health policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in Kagin Ballroom, teams worked through a real policy prompt, developed a solution, and pitched their ideas to judges working in research and public policy. Mentorship played a major role throughout the event. Faculty stopped by teams\u2019 workspaces to help them refine their proposals and think through the policy impact of their ideas. Afterward, a dinner with alumni and Twin Cities professionals gave students a chance to talk about careers and hear about policy work beyond Macalester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The winning team was Shiz University, consisting of Sophia Segura \u201927 and Ad\u00e8le Ngobo Mbappe \u201929, with \u201cTreating Mercury Poisoning to Reduce Rural Health Disparities in Peru.\u201d Team #mlmwinzz, consisting of Edgar Orellana Reyes \u201926, Reilly Wood \u201927, and Brandon Souverain \u201927, took second place with \u201cReframing Medical Curriculums to Promote Maternal Health Equity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Food and snacks were available all day, keeping teams energized and making the long hours feel like a shared, community-driven effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Winner of the 2024 Ann Bolger Vision Award, MacGPT continues to evolve as an important opportunity for students interested in public policy and interdisciplinary problem-solving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether participants arrived with policy experience or simply a desire to make a difference, MacGPT offered a safe space to experiment, collaborate, and imagine solutions with real-world impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2026\/03\/20251115_MacGPT_-134-1536x864-1-1024x576.png\" alt=\"Panel of judges watches a presentation\" class=\"wp-image-31515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2026\/03\/20251115_MacGPT_-134-1536x864-1-1024x576.png 1024w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2026\/03\/20251115_MacGPT_-134-1536x864-1-300x169.png 300w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2026\/03\/20251115_MacGPT_-134-1536x864-1-768x432.png 768w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/653\/2026\/03\/20251115_MacGPT_-134-1536x864-1.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Winning team creates plan to treat mercury poisoning<\/p>","protected":false},"author":875,"featured_media":31517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-life","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_link_url":"","custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","article_type":[8],"post_thumbnail_style":"default","flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_downloads":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31519,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31513\/revisions\/31519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}