Student From Phoenix Wins Social Impact Award From University

PHOENIX, AZ – Abigail Ihrke from Phoenix, a graduate student business administration major at Bradley University, is the university’s 2nd-place winner in its “Social Impact Challenge.” Ihrke’s “Vertigal Integration” project won the Eden Prairie High School graduate $2,000.

Vertical Integration aims to solve the problem of those in impoverished neighborhoods not being able to access fresh, affordable vegetables and fruits and not having transportation to travel to grocery stores far from home. Ihrke’s award-winning solution is to build a hydroponic community garden in a Peoria warehouse district building. The garden would be located on a bus line. Community members could then ride by bus to the garden, or they could get the fresh produce from a mobile delivery vehicle assigned to visit designated neighborhoods.

The challenge's entries could utilize either a for-profit or nonprofit organizational structure. For round 1 in the contest, entrants had to turn in a 5-page paper detailing their proposal. Seven competitors were then chosen to move on to the final round, where they each gave judges a 10-minute presentation. The judges’ scores weighed in at 70 percent while audience scores comprised the other 30 percent of the total score.

Peoria, Illinois-based Bradley University is a private university educating 5,400 graduate and undergraduate students in 185 academic programs, providing a smaller university’s personal attention with a larger university’s resources, the university reported.