EVANSVILLE, IND. (10/22/2024) The University of Evansville (UE) is excited to announce the upcoming High School Changemaker Challenge, made possible by Toyota Indiana. Any high school sophomore, junior, or senior is invited to participate for a chance to win a four-year scholarship, with a top prize of full tuition to the University of Evansville.

UE believes everyone can be a changemaker, and positive change doesn’t have to wait until college. The Changemaker Challenge, created by the University’s Center for Innovation & Change, encourages the younger generation to identify and solve challenges in the world through innovation and creativity. Students will share their innovative ideas (products, services, or programs) in a pitch competition, and scholarships will be awarded to first through third place. Once they enroll at UE to continue their education, students can continue designing and implementing their ideas in the University’s signature ChangeLab program to make a lasting difference.

Interested participants can attend an online information session on Friday, November 15. Video recordings describing students’ ideas must be submitted by December 13, and the top 20 finalists will be announced on the UE website on December 20.

The UE High School Changemaker Challenge takes place over two days and includes the Top 20 round, networking, micro-ChangeLab experiences focused on creativity and innovation, and the Championship Round and Awards Celebration, a catered event celebrating all the Top 20 teams.

The top 20 competition will be held on UE’s campus on January 24, 2025, after which the Top 6 teams will be selected to move on to the Championship Round. The Championship and Awards Celebration will take place on January 25, 2025.

The competition is open to any high school junior or senior, and they may compete individually or in teams of up to three. Home school and club entries (e.g. Scouts, Boys and Girls Club, 4-H) will also be eligible. To qualify for a scholarship, competitors must also attend the in-person competition on campus in Evansville, Indiana.

All ideas are welcome! Special bonus points may be available if your idea fits one of these four categories:

• Increase girls’ access and exposure to science fields (e.g. a summer camp for girls interested in physics)
• Address or mitigate climate change (e.g. decreasing air pollution, rooftop gardens)
• Increase access to physical activity or health options (e.g. more dance classes or recess in schools, fitness trails, creative outdoor play options)
• Provide creative ideas to improve quality of life in Evansville’s Promise Neighborhood

The winning students who choose UE as their college destination will receive the following scholarships*:

1st place: Full tuition

2nd place: $27,000 tuition

3rd place: $23,000 tuition

The University of Southern Indiana has become an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program, designed to marshal the strengths of educational campuses for the benefit of pollinators.  

This affiliation journey began with a USI Endeavor Grant of $2,500 awarded to Nolan Durham, a biology major, who worked to help the University become an affiliate of the Bee Campus USA program. “I am interested in this project since the entirety of its breadth is what I envision a career for myself looking like,” says Durham. “I want to be a wildlife biologist, and it’s my dream to be a proponent of the issue of climate change.” 

With this affiliation, USI joins many other cities and campuses across the country united in improving their landscapes for pollinators. 

“The survival of pollinators depends on the presence of native plant species. That’s why I was excited to join the effort to help USI become a Bee Campus,” says Dr. Edith Hardcastle, Associate Professor of Biology. “This designation makes our campus a living laboratory for conservation studies and provides unlimited student research opportunities. It has already fostered collaboration across disciplines, with other institutions of higher learning and our broader community.” 

USI will be bringing the campus and community together starting this Fall Semester in a beekeeping group, with a wider scope of interests including sustainability, native plants and pollinators of all types.  A bee yard or apiary is planned for a sunny hillside on the eastern part of campus with hives and bees to be installed in Spring 2025. 

“Our designation as a Bee Campus provides us a connection to a national organization with an established guide and framework to implement positive change,” says Dr. Jason Hardgrave, Interim Assistant Provost for Academic Affairs and beekeeper. “It also brings us into a group of similar people to share ideas and support these important activities.” 

Long term, the University will have to meet several requirements to maintain its affiliation. Hardgrave says the first step is establishing a committee that includes faculty, staff and students. Other work includes reviewing current policies and procedures regarding pesticide and herbicide usage and working to design and implement a plan to reduce the use of chemicals and promote natural methods of plant and insect control less harmful to pollinators, people and the environment. Education is also a key component, both on campus and extending into the wider community. Hardgrave says visiting student organizations, working with local groups and hosting conferences on campus are all on the agenda. There is a Bee City designation as well, and having Evansville work to achieve that designation is a long-term goal of the project. 

As a part of the Bee Campus project, the University has already established a garden on campus that supports a diversity of pollinators and serves as a demonstration of how to create spaces where pollinators can eat, reproduce and survive the winter. Exotic, invasive plant species have been removed and leaves and plant stems which harbor the next generation of pollinators and provide winter shelter are an integral part of the demonstration.  

“When people think of bees, the European honeybee is universally known and loved because of its importance to crop pollination and honey production. In the Bee Campus project, the honeybee serves as an ambassador for all pollinators to spread the word that Indiana is home to 420 native bee species,” says Hardcastle. “And that butterflies, moths, beetles and even flies are essential to pollination.”  

Bee City USA and Bee Campus USA are initiatives of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Oregon, with offices across the country. Bee City USA’s mission is to galvanize communities and campuses to sustain pollinators by providing them with healthy habitat, rich in a variety of native plants, and free of pesticides. Pollinators like bumble bees, sweat bees, mason bees, honeybees, butterflies, moths, beetles, flies, hummingbirds and many others are responsible for the reproduction of almost 90% of the world’s flowering plant species and one in every three bites of food we consume.