The Pathfinders Challenge is a national student build competition hosted by Stellic, in partnership with Claude by Anthropic and Lovable. College students 18 and older in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Australia were challenged to build a working tool that solves a real problem in the college journey. Projects fell into four categories: Degree Planning & Discovery, Overcoming Obstacles, Campus Connection, and College to Career. Earners designed and built an original project between July 20 and August 21, 2026, working solo or in teams of up to three. Each submission included a working prototype, a two-minute demo video, a 500-word write-up of the problem and solution, and a full list of tools used. More than 900 students registered, and 169 projects were submitted. Judges scored every project on five equally weighted criteria: whether it solves a real student problem, originality, potential impact at scale, design and experience, and build quality.