Six teams will present ideas at Laker Effect Challenge

Six teams will present their innovative ideas to make lasting community change before a panel of judges at the Spring Laker Effect Challenge on April 12.

The event will run from 6-8 p.m. in the Eberhard Center auditorium on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus, doors open at 5:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Teams of students, faculty and staff members, and community partners are listed below; they will compete for up to $5,000 in prize money.

• Cultivating the Garden of Eatin’: The Greenhouse Initiative – Kmystry Taylor-Jackson, Kirkhof College of Nursing; The Other Way Ministries

• DECA Blazers: Youth Empowerment through Entrepreneurship – Shorouq Almallah, Center for Entrepreneurship, Seidman College of Business; Innovation Central High School’s Academy for Business, Leadership and Entrepreneurship

• Affordable Housing and Healthy Families: Diane Miller, Bethany Housing Center, Regional Math and Science Center, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

• Ride Your Way LLC: Non-Emergent Medical Transportation: Thomas Sikkema, Kirkhof College of Nursing; Mary Free Bed Sub-Acute Rehabilitation

• Grand Rapids Racial Justice Asset Map: Cassandra Kiger, School of Social Work; Calvin College Center for Social Research, KConnect

• Harrison Park Uniform Project: Steven Sholten, Liberal Studies; Harrison Park Elementary & Middle School

Learn more about the event online at gvsu.edu/challenge.

— by Kathleen Ryan, student writer