About a month after the fall 2023 Impact Competition at Culver Academies, we received an inspiring implementation update from the IC Coordinator at Culver Academies, J.D. Uebler.
Once the competition ended, students from the winning team immediately got to work bringing their winning ideas to life, which included a variety of improved marketing elements designed to support the Culver Youth Club, including a new website, QR code with integrated logo, and poster, as well as providing additional on-the-ground support to the Culver Youth Club–by volunteering themselves after school. In fact, student interest post-competition was so high that Culver Academies immediately arranged to send even more students to the Youth Club throughout the week.
What an amazing impact students are having on their local community by being involved in this way! Not only are they putting their top-notch education to work by designing innovative solutions, they are then spending time in-person with the kids who are a part of the program they worked so hard to support with their ideas.
Brian Carver, the Executive Director of Culver Youth Clubs, said he never imagined how much his organization would benefit from the Impact Competition. All it took was the spark that the Impact Competition provided to encourage the connection between students and an invaluable organization doing great work right in their backyard.
Time and again, we've seen a similar outcome: by participating in the Impact Competition and the solution implementation afterwards, students not only enjoy a valuable intellectual exercise, but come to see themselves as having agency in–and deriving joy from– building a healthier world.
We can't wait to see what the spring semester students will come up with for their competition!