What is Riverzedge?
Located in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Riverzedge Arts is a community-based after school program designed to help the underserved youth population of the area. The leaders at Riverzedge strive to create a welcoming learning environment that promotes creativity, teamwork and positivity. The mission of Riverzedge is simple: “to improve lives and places through art, design and creative problem solving.” The students that attend Riverzedge are taught valuable life skills, given employment opportunities and even paid a small wage for their work. By fostering partnerships with local businesses, Riverzedge is helping not only the school community, but the local economy as well. Riverzedge students can learn graphic design, screen printing, photo and video editing, art techniques and so much more. Students also learn how to work in a group environment -- which further prepares them for their future careers.
Marketing Research
Roger Williams University has been a partner for Riverzedge through the CPC, for four years now. At the university, Professor Kathleen Micken has helped take charge of this partnership. She teaches Marketing Research at RWU, a class designed to teach students how to collect, analyze and interpret data. The class is available for all juniors and seniors in the Gabelli School of Business and is a fantastic way to learn how to gather data and decipher a meaning from it. Since the Fall of 2014, this class has centered around gathering data from Riverzedge students through a survey.
Surveying the Future
Riverzedge needed help designing a survey for its students, with the end goal of seeing how students were responding to the program. They wanted to know what was working, and what needed to be improved upon. In 2014, students constructed a survey and administered it to all Riverzedge students. In 2015, the survey was revised and re-administered. Other projects ensued from other CPC classes between 2015 and now, including both a redesigned website and some HR manuals for Riverzedge. Now, the Fall 2018 Marketing Research class is simplifying the survey for students in a way that makes it more user friendly. They have also compiled the previous semester’s survey data and presented it to Riverzedge (pictured below). Going forward, the class will be presenting a finalized survey in December, and the partnership with Riverzedge will continue into the foreseeable future.
To learn more about Riverzedge Arts, visit their website here.
written by: Adam Kelly
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