Culver students propose ways to help Marshall County Neighborhood Center

Culver Academies students pitched marketing ideas and other suggestions on how the Marshall County Neighborhood Center can better communicate with donors, improve storage and encourage others to respect people who use their services.

Fourteen teams of students from the Applications of Innovation classes taught by Ed Kelley, a master instructor at The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur at Culver, offered solutions for the Neighborhood Center, which provides basic needs to disadvantaged and low-income households in Marshall County, prioritizing values of accountability, compassion, diversity education and integrity.  

The center offers a community food pantry and clothing pantry to those in need. It seeks to reduce poverty and its causes and to serve as advocates for the disadvantaged.

Christine Garner, the Neighborhood Center’s executive director, said she was impressed by the students’ presentations.

“We could tell you took to heart what our challenges were and you looked for creative solutions,” Garner said. “I think you took interesting and diverse approaches to marketing. Everyone had a different example of how to market, and I appreciated it.

The Impact Competition, founded by stock trader and philanthropist Lance Breitstein, seeks to empower students to address real-world social issues by focusing on compounding positive change in communities.

Breitstein started the competition at his alma mater, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, in 2019 and it has grown to nearly a dozen universities, most recently adding Cornell and Notre Dame. The competition is in its third year at Culver Academies, the only secondary school in the program. View a video from last year’s competition here.

“Some of the solutions Culver students have come up with in the past have been incredible and have made really big differences in the organization and the town as a whole,” Breitstein said.

 

The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur committed $8,000 for students to implement the proposals they suggested for the Neighborhood Center.

“We know that many non-profits are strapped for cash to be able to fund new and unique opportunities,” said J.D. Uebler, director of The Rubin School for the Entrepreneur. “One of the ways we’re able to support this program is by offering funds to the non-profit to implement the solutions. Because just presenting the solution doesn’t go far enough.”

 Students had up t0 10 minutes to make their pitches and up to five minutes to answer questions from the judges.

All the teams recommended the Neighborhood Center improve its website. Many suggested using digital inventory management tools as ways of using storage space more efficiently. Many of the teams also suggested using the stories of people who use the Neighborhood Center to let the public know the struggles they are facing and how their donations are helping them recover from temporary setbacks.

Heart Alliance, a team made up of Sami Kettaneh ’26 (Washington, Connecticut), Logan McKinley ’26 (Chicago, Illinois) and Juan Woodworth ’27 (Mexico City, Mexico) was selected as the winner from the B block class. They actually created a new website for the Neighborhood Center that everyone in the audience in the Heritage Room in the Legion Memorial Building could connect to through a QR code.

The student team could tell how many people connected through the QR code and told the judges that the site could track names and how to contact people who donate through the website. The judges praised the thoroughness of the presentation, along with the positive impact of tracking these interactions.

“All your collateral material had ‘Feed the Heart,’ which speaks to the mission of the Neighborhood Center in such a concise way. It shows that you guys get it in your gut what the Neighborhood Center does and what their mission is,” said judge Angela Rupchock-Schafer, a Neighborhood Center consultant and advisor.

“You even have a tagline: ‘See how you’re helping your neighbors,’ ” Garner said.

 

 

The judges also were impressed that the team had a budget page spelling out the costs of everything they proposed. Russell Kietzman, board member for the Neighborhood Center and judge, added that this detailed path to implementation was essential for success.

The Goodness Growth Group of Kayla Rossman ’26 (Crown Point, Indiana) and Andrea Sayson ’26 (Singapore) were selected the winners for the D block class.

They suggested the Neighborhood Center partner with Humana, saying they give clients a $300 healthy living card every month that can be used for groceries and other purchases. They also suggested promoting the Neighborhood Center through Google Ads, saying they could also run promotions on YouTube.  The judges found the data for the positive impact of these ads compelling.

The team also recommended the Neighborhood Center work with Second-Harvest Food Bank in East-Central Indiana to use a simulation called Forward Steps that helps members of a community learn about poverty and how to break out of poverty.

Garner said she was impressed by the unique ways students look at what the Neighborhood Center does, such as the suggestion from the Key Convenient team of Shannon (Xiangning) Li ’27 (Qingdao, China) and Andy (Jiachen) Zhou ’26 (Ningbo, China) recommended the Neighborhood Center apply for eco-friendly grants.

She said she also was impressed by the various storage solutions the students offered and the social media suggestions, including recommendations that the center use QR codes.

“So many incredible ideas,” Breitstein said.

“It’s not lost on us that you’re in high school and you’re in a competition designed for the collegiate level,” Uebler said. “This is going to have an impact.”

 The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur is named in honor of a 1968 Culver graduate who has deep roots in the beverage industry as owner of The Republic of Tea since 1994 and as owner of the River Road Family Vineyards and the Ron Rubin Winery in Sonoma County, California, since 2011.  He endowed The Ron Rubin School for the Entrepreneur at Culver in 2009.