SPARK Challenge Grant to Expand 2024 Back-to-School Clinics in Poweshiek County

Five teams of students pitched social innovation solutions at the Spark Challenge on April 22, 2024.

The Spark Community-Based Social Innovation Challenge

The process for students starts in February when the Spark Challenge course begins. Groups of students pair up with organizations in the Grinnell community who have already identified a problem they want help to solve. The course instructor, J. Montgomery Roper, provides a framework for the student teams to research the issues, consult with the community partners, and come up with workable solutions. On pitch day — the last day of class in April — proposals are presented by the student teams to a panel of judges. The teams compete for cash prizes and the opportunity to win an implementation grant for their community partner or campus partner. Funding for the program is offered by the Wilson Center for Innovation and Leadership.

2024 Student Teams

This year, first place went to Anuradha Oli ’24 and Phuong Tran ’26, who won $200 each. The community partner, Grinnell Public Health, will receive an implementation grant to pilot an expanded back-to-school clinic. Their collaboration aims to improve access for a greater number of children in Poweshiek County to basic health services and back-to-school essentials.

Second place went to the team tasked with finding a sustainable source of snacks for the LINK Grinnell summer program. The team of five won $100 each: Pallavi Balivara ’27, Jack Connelly ’25, Niel Pearson ’27, Ella Reed ’27, and Kai-Li Updegrove ’27.

And third place, at $50 each, went to Nam Do ’25 and Duc Nguyen ’26 for their exploration of the use of peer mentors in the College’s First-Year Experience course to add a sense of relevance to course discussions of vulnerable topics.

Other proposals pitched to the judges included an online immigrant resource finder, presented by Toby Frick ’24, Oliver Palmer ’24, and Natalia Ramirez Jimenez ’24, who partnered with Community Support for Immigrants (CoSI); and enhancements to the Grinnell College CRSSJ Pantry, presented by Jemzy Alabi ’24, Maral Bat-Erdine ’27, and Samuel Grayson ’27, who partnered with the Center for Religion, Spirituality, and Social Justice.

You can learn more about the program and past events on the Spark Challenge website.