2019 Tiger Entrepreneur Award Winner: Natalie Tung '18

Thursday, Nov 14, 2019

by Wright Seneres

Natalie Tung ’18 Co-Founder and Executive Director, HomeWorks Trenton

Inspired after taking EGR 498(link is external), Special Topics in Social Entrepreneurship: Rethinking Social Profit Organizations as a sophomore, Natalie Tung ’18 started HomeWorks Trenton(link is external), a 501(c)(3) community-based, after-school boarding program that provides academic and social-emotional enrichment activities, dorm living, and nutritious meals to supplement public schools, empower women and build community leaders. While writing her thesis and walking-on to one of the top three squash teams(link is external) in the country, Natalie recruited a team and secured insurance, housing, staff, programming and scholars to start and grow HomeWorks Trenton. 

Natalie is a winner of the Art Lane ’34 Award(link is external) (given to honor selfless contribution to sport and society by a Princeton undergraduate athlete) and the A. James Fisher Jr. Memorial Award(link is external) (given to the Princeton senior who best exemplifies the qualities for which James Fisher Jr. ’36 is remembered: an entrepreneurial spirit, zest for life, love of people, and loyalty to Princeton through their work in the realm of civic engagement). She has also been a runner-up in the Princeton Social Impact Competition, won a ReachOut 58-81-06 Fellowship(link is external) and a McKinsey Undergraduate Impact Women’s Award, and was selected for Dr. Alaa Murabit’s first Omnis Emerging Women Leadership Lab(link is external) at the United Nations and as a TRESemmé & Vital Voices Leadership Incubator Inaugural Fellow. Natalie was also just named a finalist for the 2020 Camelback Ventures Fellowship(link is external). HomeWorks Trenton was also selected to participate in the Keller Center’s eLab Summer Accelerator twice, in 2017 and 2018. 

In 2017, HomeWorks Trenton launched a pilot hosting five scholars during summer. The following year, the program expanded to ten scholars, with partnerships with five schools and 19 organizations. During the fall 2019 semester, HomeWorks is running a Semester Scholars Boarding Program with eleven scholars, partnering with six schools and over 20 organizations. 

A native of Hong Kong, Natalie majored in English and received a certificate in Teacher Preparation. 

The 2019 Tiger Entrepreneur Award was presented at Celebrate Princeton Innovation(link is external) on November 14, 2019. Read more about the Tiger Entrepreneur Award, which is designed to celebrate the value of entrepreneurship and innovation across the Princeton community and to emphasize the University’s commitment to Entrepreneurship the Princeton Way.