The following are the proposals submitted by the students who attended the inagural Innovation Symposium..
Cayce Arnett
The premise of my project is the control of the pet population. I love animals, and my heart goes out to those that don’t have good, loving homes as they should. Spaying and neutering of cats and dogs will go a long way in controlling the populations and leave more room for these animals to have the homes they deserve. But unfortunately, it can be an expensive operation. Prices quoted around Kokomo depended on the type of animal, the age, and the sex, and not one of them came up under $100.
In order to help lessen the impact of this cost, I propose to offer vouchers to cover some of the cost to homes in need of spaying and neutering their pets. While there are still details to work out, these families should show a need for the low-cost voucher. These can then be redeemed at participating vet clinics. In order to pay for the vouchers, there will be community sales, where members can purchase a booth for $35 on a day-to-day basis. People can sell their crafts, second-hand items, or anything else appropriate for a community sale. Only the booth payments will go toward the voucher costs, while the community members keep all their profit. And while there is much to do, it’s the beginning of a feasible idea to address this problem.
Matt Russell & Jonathan Guse - Science Research Center
Our project deals with pollution and cleaning up the environment, but in a way that will help educate the public about the reasons WHY this issue needs to be addressed. Not only will our project act in an education function in this way, but also to help further environmental research being done by students in the Kokomo area.
One of the most polluted places in Kokomo is the Wildcat Creek. It is also very accessible as it runs through places such as Highland Park. In order to make this creek safer for people to be around, and help improve the environment, there will be numerous student run cleanup programs for the creek. The base of these programs will be a science education and research center, built on the grounds of IU Kokomo.
While the center will provide a base for cleanup projects, the primary function of the research center will be to educate area school students, grades 3-12 as well as post-secondary students, regarding the local environment. Using the hands-on learning approaches we saw being used at the Eden Project in Cornwall England, the center will provide a wide array of educational activities to supplement the science curriculums of area schools. It will also provide service learning projects for the high school aged students, who will lead the various cleanup projects.
The science center will also provide an opportunity for students of IU Kokomo to gain practicum work. As a research center, it will also provides opportunities for science majors at IU Kokomo to do lab work, while education majors can gain experience by leading the lessons taught to younger area school children.
Sarah Holtsclaw
For my project, the Elwood Community Garden Project will be put into practice in the hopes of educating others about the environment and using the environment in a positive way to address other issues. These other issues include bringing people together as a community in Elwood, Indiana, giving children in Elwood some positive, community-oriented activities, getting people in the community active (primarily children and the elderly) and addressing the issue of hunger in the community. The Elwood Community Garden Project will not only address one issue but a host of issues in the Elwood area.
The garden will serve educational purposes by showing school-aged children the processes of growing plants and vegetables and showing older individuals how to garden and how to use those skills to the best of their ability. The garden would also help the community of Elwood by instilling the value of “community” back into Elwood and show others that we are proud of our community and the people who live in it. The elderly in Elwood could also benefit from the garden by getting active in something productive and using what gardening skills they have to educate others.
The produce that is grown in the garden would be given to the Farmer’s Market in Elwood and sold to the community with the proceeds going to the Food Pantry to purchase dry goods for the hungry in the Elwood community. My hope is that children will get involved in this process also and gain a wealth of knowledge from seeing how giving back to the community can impact so many lives, including their own.
I really hope this garden will bring Elwood back to life and make Elwood a place that businesses want to move to and more importantly, a town that people wish to live in.
Ed Gibson - Peer to Peer
Peer to Peer is a center for stressed and troubled teens to talk about and discuss issues troubling them in positive, healthy, and comfortable settings. It would act as a positive alternative to dealing with stresses and problems, rather than alternatives such as drug and alcohol use, violence, self injury, social isolation, and even suicide. The CDC reports that suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death between the ages of 15 and 24 and the National Instituted on Drug Abuse reports that 46.8% of teens surveyed have used drugs in their lifetime. Peer to Peer’s counseling and communication center would work to help lower these rates in a local community by offering a unique and different style for teens to discuss their stresses. Nearly all volunteers at the center would be teens and young adults themselves, much closer in the age range with those who would seek the services of the center. This works to create a sense of comfort and understanding between struggling teens and their “counselors.” Teens may feel like they can readily connect to others their age rather than someone who is 10 or more years older than they are. The center would be supervised by an on site professional counselor who can act as a guiding and educating force to all volunteers at the center and any teens who seek their advice. The center has the incredible ability to partner with a local university, where volunteers could come from within the student body. If partnered with a university, a program where graduate or undergraduate students majoring or working in psychology or counseling could work at the center for credit towards classes or as part of classes could be set up, with professors in the field working as on site counselors as well.
The main goals of a Peer to Peer counseling center would be to offer an open, trusting, and comfortable channel of communication to teens struggling with any unnecessary stresses or problems in a positive manner with someone who they feel can much easier relate to and understand their problems.