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Cohnect

Cohnect is designed like a dating app, but for people to connect with like-minded individuals for the use of travel and connection, with the goal of promoting language learning and cross-cultural understanding.
April 5×5 Night on the Road at SURGE in Holland!
Voting Closes:

April 21, 2025 11:59 pm

About this idea
The Problem: Only 20% of US citizens can converse in another language (U.S. Census Bureau) compared to an estimated 56% of the world population speaking at least one other language. The U.S. educational system doesn’t emphasize foreign language/cultural understanding and funding decreases to most public schools disproportionately impacts those in the public school system and from lower-income homes, where foreign language and culture education is cut or not prioritized. Cohnect is the solution to bridge that gap and provide a space accessible to anyone with a phone. The core design focuses on a natural progression of building relationships through common interest and a filtered and stepped progress in communication allowing both parties to agree to move forward, with the goal being; creating strong, real connections, based on proven methods of cognitive and behavioral science. The underlying connection for engaging users is to be a space where they can source first-hand travel and insights for any travel use and save that information in a centralized space that also allows them to branch out and connect with those that may have the first-hand knowledge they need.
Impact
I am a life-long language learner and come from a population where access to wider worldviews and richer cultural experiences and language immersion was not prioritized. The way I see it, there is nothing out there that fits the need to genuinely connect with others for the goal of language learning, cultural understanding, with a filter to connect those with like-minded interests. The app seeks to solve this problem by providing a safe space to connect with like-minded individuals from across the world and guides matches into ideally connecting outside of the app through the use of slight gamification. Creating a space that would encourage understanding and relationship building with others and envisioned to help guide a generation of United States citizens with a wider worldview and more empathic understanding of others.
What I'll do with $5,000
With $5,000 I can get more broad user testing accomplished and the majority will be used for development.
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