A running joke amongst my friends was that North Dakota didn’t exist in that we had never met anyone from there, nor had we met anyone who knew someone from the state. Whether you know a North Dakotan or not, I can assure you that it is both real and is thriving. For instance, the…
Being a Land-Grant university, Virginia Tech has myriad of faculty, staff, students, and resources actively working with local, regional, and statewide partners to promote shared prosperity across the Commonwealth. These engagement activities include applied research, project, studio classes, undergrad and graduate class projects, technical assistance and so much more. The exact scope or number of…
Last month I wrote “Revitalizing Virginia’s Coalfield”, on ways to propel the region’s economy forward by providing new, innovative jobs, and all-the-while protecting the region’s other most valuable asset, its natural resources. In that post, I discussed an OED project I worked on that focused on the reuse of former surface mining sites for economic…
When you were in high school who taught you what to expect in college? Or how to act in a professional environment? Maybe your parents, or a teacher, or a mentor? What about a professional development program? Urban Alliance does exactly that. My name is Zainab Yazdani and I am an intern in the Office…
Thanksgiving is a celebration of family, football, and most of all, food. However, the amount of food wasted post these celebrations is less often discussed. This post talks about some statistics on food wastage after these big celebrations. The statistics from past years suggest that food wastage around these festivities is huge and needs urgent…
During the summer, Vibrant Virginia held the first Community Conversation in St. Paul, VA, aka Southwest. The conversation convened Virginia Tech faculty and staff with community partners to discuss regional opportunities and challenges with a goal of opening channels of communication between regional partners, faculty, and staff. The topics of conversation centered on Agriculture and…
