University of Iowa-based artist Emily Edwards will paint a mural at the Mutchler Community Center in Bloomfield, IA. With input from the staff and community, the artist will create a design that brings a sense of energy and excitement to the space and serves as a memorable community touchpoint.

MFA Dance candidate Marian Tejada will design and lead workshops for youth in Ottumwa that encourage self-expression, community building, and empowerment. 

As part of their Senior Design capstone project, a team of civil & environmental engineering students will provide designs, preliminary engineering reports, and cost estimates for a variety of improvements to county parks in Jefferson County. 

A team of students in the College of Law's Community Empowerment Law Project will study youth employment and child labor in the south central Iowa workforce region and help both employers and workers understand best practices as well as state and federal regulations. 

Students from the School of Library and Information Science will assist Pathfinders RC&D staff in managing, archiving, and exhibiting the vast collection of the organization's records, helping tell the story of Pathfinder's impact across the region since its formation in the 1970s. 

Participants in the student organization Iowa Community Integrated Geography Organization (ICIGO), will work with data and an existing map to make it more robust. They will add a crowdsourcing feature to the map and overlay it with census information.To increase users, ICIGO students will research platforms on which the map and its information can be shared and make recommendations for packaging. 

For their capstone projects, students in Civic and Environmental Engineering will provide designs to update a community center. They will provide design options, project timelines, and pricing to remedy some of the building's currently problematic features. This includes the entryway and the main floor gaming and weight area. Additionally, the student team will provide a redesign of the parking lot to address traffic flow.

Students in the course Policy and Persuasion will work with staff from Pathfinders RC&D and the South Central Iowa Local Workforce Development Board to develop policy directions for issues related to five focus areas: rural development, innovation, workforce, health, and community capacity.

Graduate students in the College of Nursing will partner with South Central Iowa (SCI) communities to develop and present a plan focused on enhancing high school students' access to healthcare career pathways. This project will involve:

A team of graduate students in Urban and Regional Planning will develop a comprehensive document to guide the future of downtown Oskaloosa. The Oskaloosa Downtown Master Plan will focus particularly on how use of public spaces (e.g. transportation infrastructure, public property) as well as other public support mechanisms (e.g. policies and programming) can enhance and strengthen the downtown district as the heart of the community. 

For their MPA capstone project, a group of students will conduct research (e.g. literature review, case studies) to better understand the burden to families and individuals that need to access multiple service providers. They will locate approaches that other communities have developed to make connecting with services more streamlined by offering a single point of contact. During the Spring semester, the group will focus on engaging stakeholders, analyzing existing local conditions, and tailoring recommendations to the region.