Rising to the Challenge

The pressure was on.  

In a buzzing room of the Colket Center, teams of Roanoke College students had just learned the surprise prompt for the 2022 Salem Civic Challenge. The announcement set off a burst of activity as each group got down to business, working against the clock to come up with the best response. 

The bar was high, and their time was limited. But it was that pressure cooker atmosphere that business administration major Lewis Edwards ’24 would later describe as one of his favorite parts of the event. 

“In those first minutes after you get the prompt, there is this kind of rush as everyone starts talking and brainstorming,” he recalled. “There are people saying, ‘Well, we could try it this way or we could go that way with it.’ Then, we’ve got to figure out the right path and dive into it together.” 

The Salem Civic Challenge, now in its fifth year, is a partnership of the College and the city that tasks students with developing innovative solutions for a real-world issue facing Salem leaders, who write the prompt and reveal it at the start of the competition.  

Each team’s proposal is put together under a tight deadline — less than three hours is allotted for the work — and then judged by a panel of local experts. Cash prizes provided by the city are presented to the top teams, with the first-place winners taking home a check for $1,000. 

The competition, which is open to students of all majors, blends creative problem-solving and collaborative teambuilding into one fun, fast-paced event, said Betsy Parkins, director of Roanoke College’s Center for Leadership and Entrepreneurial Innovation (CLEI). 

“It’s a perfect way for students to apply what they’re learning,” said Parkins, whose center organizes the annual competition in partnership with Salem’s Economic Development Department.  

“These are real issues facing a community,” she said. “The teams need to look at it from multiple perspectives and draw on all the skills and knowledge they’ve gained in their classes. To me, it’s bridging the gap between academics and the larger world.” 

This year’s challenge centered on a question penned by Salem Economic Development Director Tommy Miller, a 15-year veteran of the field who just took the helm of the city office last spring after serving for the prior five years in a statewide post with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. 

Miller, who’s leading an effort to craft a new strategic plan for the city’s growth, asked students for ideas that could help Salem capitalize on the region’s rising reputation as a destination for outdoor recreation and attract more businesses that cater to hikers, mountain bikers and other adventurers. He specified that a strong proposal would need a realistic action plan that factored in funding, infrastructure demands and other considerations. 

The day of the competition, Miller, who also served as a judge, said he arrived not knowing what to expect from the teams. Their work impressed him. “There was a lot of creativity and a really broad range of ideas presented,” he said. “It was a great program. They had to tackle a lot in a short amount of time, but their pitches were well-done and their ideas resonated.” 

The student presentations reflected an understanding of real-world dynamics, Miller added, and many of their thoughts aligned with ideas that local leaders had also pinpointed in their talks about the city’s future. 

Moving forward, Miller said, he’d love to not only continue but expand upon the collaboration created by the civic challenge. 

“This was my first experience with one of our partnerships, but I can see the high value it has, for both the city and the college, to have that strong relationship,” he said. “I’m really excited for it. I think it can only grow from here.” 

This year’s winning team — comprised of Edwards, Zoey Nichols ’24 and Katherine Vaughan ’24 — delivered a pitch with a multi-pronged strategy that included tax credits, outdoor pop-ups and festivals, and a startup incubator that could offer microgrants and other resources for fledging businesses. 

The trio built its approach around data and case studies that tracked initiatives with proven results. They combed through city hall’s budget to flesh out their proposal, pulled in research from the World Bank and referenced projects that paid off for other Southeast U.S. cities like Asheville. 

“We’ve learned more each year that we’ve done it,” said Vaughan, who along with her teammates first started competing in the Salem Civic Challenge as a freshman. This year marked their first time clinching the top prize. 

“It’s interesting because each time, I think, our results have gotten progressively better, and I can see where we’ve gotten stronger and we know more now. That’s a really cool thing to see in action,” she said. “One thing we were better at this time was trying to anticipate questions the judges might have with our pitch. We really tried to critique ourselves and criticize every idea to make sure the things that made it in were genuinely strong.” 

Nichols said she’s also gained something in each challenge by working alongside her peers while under pressure. Leaning into the teamwork and camaraderie that demands is one of her favorite facets of the competition. 

“I also love talking with the other competitors and seeing what they do. The ideas that come out are so different. Getting to see how other people think through a situation is always really interesting,” said Nichols, a business administration major who is working toward a career in human resources. 

The team added it looks forward to the reveal of the prompt each year. Connecting to issues that matter to the local community and seeing how the diversified skillsets they’re developing — Edwards is eyeing a career in marketing, and Vaughan is gravitating toward specialties in crisis response and communications — can contribute to solutions is part of what brings them back to the event each year. 

“It’s a good experience,” Edwards said. “We get to learn more about things that are happening outside of campus and apply what we’ve been learning to ideas for the city. We have to come together and, hopefully, figure out ways to help the community.”