On November 17th, our ACRI cohort traveled to Fayette County to present our semester long project to community leaders in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. The CBA, sustainability, urban studies and political science groups spent weeks compiling our work into a presentation tailored to the Connellsville audience, an audience that worked and lived the experiences we were speaking to. Designing a community-based presentation that will be delivered to community leaders was an incredibly difficult task. As a business major, I’m accustomed to presenting information in a somewhat removed and direct way. It was a great experience to learn how to present a little less formally when speaking to Connellsville residents. Presenting with passion and genuine interest was essential to effectively communicating opportunities for improvement within Fayette County in a respectful manner that would be well received by the audience.

Another challenge the 2023 cohort faced while compiling the presentation was the fact that every group had vastly different deliverables. The urban studies group focused on creating an asset map, the CBA cohort focused on outlining entrepreneurial and educational trainings, the sustainability group analyzed the process of fostering community prosperity and finally the political science group designed a focus group survey. Creating a unified and well thought out presentation was difficult considering the number of variables we had to incorporate and align. Coordinating the logistics of the presentation, considering that 10 students were speaking, posed some unique challenges regarding transitions and limiting speaking times. After many meetings and lots of hard work, we were able to create a unified message by tying all ideas back to the ultimate goal of fostering development and innovation within Fayette County.

As soon as we finished the approximately hour and a half long presentation, rather than asking questions, the audience immediately began suggesting new ideas that could be used to improve our findings for the next cohort. It was a unique experience to finish presenting and immediately get feedback from the group. However, I appreciated it because it showed that the audience was truly engaged in the research we were developing and wanted to help us improve. Almost all of the presentations I have worked on throughout my undergraduate career have been in a classroom setting where my peers or professors ask me questions about the content I presented, rather than suggesting new ideas I had never thought of before. 

From the 11/17 presentation, we learned the importance of further surveying community members to ensure that the trainings provided would truly engage Fayette County small business owners. Providing training without effective marketing and community engagement would be a waste of time and resources. We hope that the Entrepreneurship and Educational center in Connellsville, Pennsylvania can not only allow entrepreneurs to learn and grow together but will foster the creation of a knowledge network of budding small business owners that can support one another and create long term prosperity for Fayette County. 

Attending the ACRI conference in DC was my first experience presenting at a national research conference. It was held in a large conference room in a beautiful hotel. We were joined by about a dozen other universities including: The University of Tennessee Knoxville, Glenville State University, Appalachian State University, East Tennessee State University, Seton Hill University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Muskingum University, Morehead State University, Virginia Tech, Alfred State College, Auburn University, and Frostburg State University. Each university had a cohort that was composed of students studying all different disciplines. Throughout the weekend-long conference, some nursing students presented on the limitations of fresh food accessibility within Appalachia, architecture students worked on analyzing park development, and some environmental science majors studied the effects of hiking and outdoor tourism on nature in the Appalachian region. The variety of topics was incredibly surprising; I had assumed that all of the groups were researching similar areas revolving around education and entrepreneurship, but every group managed to present something incredibly unique.

While nerve racking to present in front of about 150 people, my anxiety was eased by the culture created by ACRI as soon as the conference began. The speakers were incredibly kind and started by acknowledging how intimidating it is to present in front of such a large group. Jessica Mosley, the program manager of ARC acted as the MC for the conference, immediately broke the ice by facilitating games within each table. Getting to know the students around me from all over the country set the tone for the conference and established a disarming mood as soon as the first speeches began. It was clear that the atmosphere was encouraging of student success. I immediately felt comfortable and couldn’t wait to hear my peers’ presentations. 

I was surprised at how preparing for the DC presentation differed extensively from my preparation for Connellsville. For example, in DC I was limited to just about a minute to speak and had to consolidate all of the main points generated throughout a semester to just a sentence or two. While in Connellsville, I was able to take my time and walk the community leaders through the process of creating a Qualtrics survey and explain in detail as to why specific programs were highlighted as major areas of opportunity. One major difference between the two presentations was the tone with which we presented. In DC, we had to speak quickly and concisely, while in Fayette, we had flexibility in our presentation and the opportunity to speak genuinely with community members. 

Both the ACRI conference in Washington DC and University of Pittsburgh’s presentation in Connellsville were incredible experiences that have stood out as a highlight of my undergraduate career thus far. I’m incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to travel for a class and gain community engaged research experience beyond the confines of my analytics and finance majors. I learned more than I ever thought I would about Appalachia through this project and am passionate about uplifting rural communities by empowering residents to succeed through educational and entrepreneurship trainings.