Xavier Center for Innovation Brings Students Together to Address Social Justice Issues

Mar 16, 2022

A new event series on campus tasks students with solving some of the most pressing social justice issues facing our communities.

Xavier Center for Innovation launched the inaugural Innovation Startup Challenge event in February. Over the weekend, 28 Xavier students (undergraduate and graduate) from all 4 academic colleges spent 11 hours in 6 interdisciplinary teams to come up with practical, innovative solutions to a social justice issue. In addition, 14 Xavier faculty and staff and 3 external community members joined in this event.
 
Xavier Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Rashmi Assudani, PhD said the Center for Innovation steering committee chose the topic of food insecurity for the inaugural challenge since it impacts students at Xavier and at other academic institutions throughout the country.
 
“The theme of food insecurity is so mission-centered, so human-centered,” Assudani said. “There’s a social impact component that resonates with us at Xavier. It is a big problem that we are not only seeing on our campus, but throughout higher education as well.”
 
On Friday February 25, student participants learnt about food insecurity from community leaders who are actively working to address the issue. Faculty and staff facilitators grouped students into one of six interdisciplinary teams based on each student’s area of study and affiliation to one of Xavier’s four colleges: the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Nursing, the College of Professional Sciences and the Williams College of Business. Students returned to the Center for Innovation on Saturday to do a deep dive and critically examine this issue before creatively devising potential solutions to address food insecurity.

On Sunday, all teams returned and presented their ideas before a panel of judges, which included Xavier faculty and leaders from several of the region’s community food pantries.
 
“It was fascinating,” Assudani said of the student presentations. “Each idea was evaluated on the basis of its impact (on campus) and feasibility of its implementation.”
 
Xavier graduate student Soroya Smith, who represented the College of Professional Sciences on her team, said the Innovation Startup Challenge gave her a chance to collaborate with students she wouldn’t have otherwise worked with to tackle an issue that is near to her heart.
 
“Our studies influence the way we see the world, show up for others and approach problems,” Smith said. “There is so much we can learn from each other.”

Judges evaluated each presentation and awarded cash prizes of $1,000, $500 and $250 to the top three student groups.
 
Assudani said there are opportunities for campus leaders to discuss and possibly activate some of the ideas to address food insecurity on campus. Using educational experiences to make tangible impact in the community is an essential part of Xavier education – something Assudani said has the ability to impact transformational growth for everyone involved.
  
The Center for Innovation plans to make the Innovation Startup Challenge an annual spring event focused on social innovation. The steering committee members – Mike Halloran, Jonathan Gibson, Karen Eutsler, Jondra Long, Victor Ronis Tobin – along with Assudani are planning to take on the challenge of sustainability during Spring 2023 Innovation Startup Challenge event.

Chike Erokwu
Content Producer
Xavier University Office of Marketing and Communications