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Project Details

Created: 10/23/2008
Project Title: Rive for Riches
Project Category: Economic
Project Status: Proposal
 

CASE Competition

CASE Competition: University of South Dakota - University of South Dakota
Grant Winner
 

Project Snapshot

Problem: 
Solution:  
 

Student Information

College or University: University of South Dakota
State: South Dakota
Student Name: Nicole Albers
Year in College: Junior
Major: Business Management and International Studies
 

Faculty Advisor

Advisor Name:
 

Community Partner

Partner Name: Dustin
 

Student and Community

Section 2

(not more than one paragraph for your response)

What societal problem does your project solve?

The types of societal problems that we solve are that we are helping the local food pantry of Vermillion to help the needy survive through their hard times.

What would be the measurable outcomes of the partnership that you propose to create between the community and your educational institution?

We are not sure what our measurable outcomes will be considering that Rive for Riches is a new project. We are hoping that we will raise $500 in monetary donations and 600 items of food donated. Rive for Riches is a competition located only in the Beacom School of Business at the University of South Dakota. If we were awarded this grant we would hope to further this program by expanding it to the whole University, including several different schools on campus.

How  would you, with the support of your faculty advisor on campus and some one from the community, work together around this specified community issue?

The university is a huge part of the Vermillion community, but often has little or no involvement in it. Our mission is to combine student efforts with the community in an effort to help solve one of our community’s key issues.

Section 3

(not more than one paragraph for your response)

How would you envision sharing power and decision making in the partnership? In other words, instead of doing something for the community how would you do something with the community?

Rive for Riches originally started off as a subdivision within Coyoteopoly. Coyoteopololy is a student ran program that has been a part of the Business School for many years. Rive for Riches has expanded to include student programs including the E-Team. After expanding within the university we envision Rive for Riches moving into the neighborhoods of Vermillion. Resulting in the entire community competing in the program all banding our efforts into a universal goal with the community. We hope to further the program into the community in order to gain as much support as possible.

How would you collect data on what the project was doing and use it in the decision making process?

We would determine what advertising efforts would appeal most to our peers to get them involved. From there we could see what they look for in the program. The more they know about Rive for Riches, more people would be willing to participate. Looking also at the placement of the event is a very critical point. Holding Rive for Riches in a well known location will make people more comfortable in finding out what it is about. We would give surveys to the students and teachers in order to gain feedback on the program. Our efforts to involve the students and teachers participating in this event will give us an excellent resource on how to fix the problems that might arise.

Section 4

(not more than one paragraph for your response)

What would be the project activities?  Give examples of how the strengths already existing in the community will be acknowledged, built upon, and enhanced in the partnership to solve the problem.

Since Rive for Riches is known for being a subdivision of Coyoteopoly, which is already an established and well know community event, we will use this established reputation to expand into different areas of the university and community. We will try to build our reputation even further with utilizing our ties to the University and the E-Team. With these partnerships we will acquire the necessary strengths we need to reach the immense potential of our program

Section 5

(not more than one paragraph for your response)

What obstacles or challenges might you encounter in implementing your project, and how would you address them?

The problems that we might encounter throughout Rive for Riches are getting people to participate and local support. In order to get people to participate we could offer incentives including pizza parties, ice cream socials, or raffles of items donated by business. We could gain local support by getting the business to donate items for the raffles, advertise their name for helping, and explaining that the Rive for Riches is to help the less fortunate.

Section 6

(not more than one paragraph for your response)

Recruiting Volunteers:
Would you recruit additional student volunteers? If so, how?

Yes, although we have a number of volunteers already excited about our program we would always be looking to recruit more individuals; especially when the program begins to expand. By utilizing a form of fundraising that is competitive and energetic, we will attract motivated individuals dedicated to our cause. Also, with the support of the University we will work with teachers to implement extra credit opportunities to students who are involved in the program.

Enlisting Partners:
Do you envision enlisting businesses, or other organizations, etc., to help; if so, how?

We would like to have a steady business that we can strongly depend upon to help. This year Scwan’s Food Service has donated all the proceeds to help fund the ice cream social. If we can keep their donations coming each year to fund the event, we could give them the community service they might want to associate with their business. We have joined forces with the E-Team at the Business School. They will be helping with the creation of the flyers, advertising, marketing, finance, and feedback needed to keep Rive for Riches running efficiently. We would like to see more organizations join forces to help our cause.

Section 7

(not more than one paragraph for your response)

How would the award money be used here?
If your project idea is an innovation of an existing program, what are its current funding sources?

With our cleaver marketing and recruiting we were able to have 100% of the prizes donated. As we have mentioned throughout the grant we look to expanded this project to the entire university and then further to the entire community. We would use the award money for the advertising and promoting the project. We would also use the money for the prize awarded at the end of the event.

Section 8

(not more than one paragraph for your response)

What do you anticipate learning from engaging in the service project?

Rive for Riches will be similar to running a business, it will give us the opportunity to learn real world experience. We will be experiencing how to manage finances and inventory of our services project. We will also be developing our abilities to motivate others and the challenges of promoting an event.

Section 9

(not more than one paragraph for your response)

If the above questions have not enabled you to convey the essence and value of your project’s impact, use this space to supplement your answers.

This project is not only to help the community of Vermillion by helping the Food Pantry, but also to give students and the people involved a fulfilling experience beneficial to both parties. It combines the resources of the university and the community to achieve a certain goal. You are able to work with real businesses and help real people.

Section 10

(not more than one paragraph for your response)

Please submit an abstract (clear summary) of your proposed project idea.

The mission of Rive for Riches is to obtain support from the various majors within the School of Business to participate with Coyoteopoly. Coyoteopoly is a nonprofit business that helps Vermillion’s charities. This fall semester we have the Vermillion Food Pantry as our client.
We want to increase the food donations for the Vermillion Food Pantry even more than last year. The slogan for this competition would be named “Rive for Riches” meaning that the schools would be going against each other to gather food items “riches”. This will be a two week event. The first week, commencing the week of October 20-25, would to advertise the program and the second week October 27-31 is the actual competition. Why should students want to participate? A first place price of a pizza party will be given to the school that wins! The second place prize will be an ice cream social!
 
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