College Connection Website - One stop location for all co...
College Connection Website - One stop location for all college students to find entertainment, events, and employment in their region.
Q1: Obviously the funding is the biggest challenge, but how do I convince the colleges that they need to participate? They do stand to benefit from increased enrollment through the website, but getting any support from local universities who usually don't want to work together is always a challenge.
Idea Description
The proposed website would effectively connect college students in a particular region, in this first case the greater Harrisburg metro area, alerting them to the best entertainment, events, discounts, internships, job openings, things to do, and places to see in the region. Part of the initiative also includes a student comprised team in charge of facilitating monthly events that will allow students from all participating schools to interact, network, and get connected to the Harrisburg area. The initiative is specifically targeting the brain drain in the region, facilitating student engagement and personal connection to the area so that they'll be more inclined to stay after graduation.
What will you do if you win $10,000 for this idea?
Meet with a local web design company to create an innovative and effective website. I have already begun meeting with all regional colleges, economic development organizations, tourism bureaus, the Harrisburg Young Professionals, chambers of commerce, and others who stand to benefit to raise support and promote the initiative.I will put together a student events team and plan to launch the whole package hopefully by August.If I can raise the funds, I'd like to start the semester off with a huge festival to introduce students to the city and really kick off our programs.If the initiative increases student enrollment & retention in Harrisburg then I'd like to scale it to other cities as well.
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Post a commentinterviewable - Students at the moment are running to bigger cities like Phila, NY, and Baltimore because they perceive Harrisburg as lacking in entertainment, attractions, and things to do. This website would effectively engage them in the community, get them off campus, show them everything that is going on in Harrisburg, and that way they can make a better informed decision about what city they'd like to pursue a job in after graduation. The website would aggregate internship opportunities, entertainment, and attractions in the area - all geared at college students. We would also organize events every month to get students from all schools together at local attractions. While there has been a lot of change recently, especially with the launch of Spotobe.com, I feel that the region is st…moreill in need of a way to communicate directly to college students all there is to do here.
So the whole idea is to get students to stay in the area after graduation? Why aren't they staying now and what is it about your website that will alter that?
Thanks for all the advice, at the moment I anticipate the whole initiative being self sustaining by year 4. The revenue stream would come from corporate sponsors for the events, and ads as well as job posting fees for the website. With the amount of traffic the site will produce from a dozen colleges and all the prospective students checking out the site I don't think the revenue will be a problem once the site is up.
Part of this idea sounds like campusmenus.com - check that out for some ideas