Virginia Tech Graduate Research Student Researchers Team Up with High Schoolers to Help Cool Down Local Park

My name is Theo Lim. I'm an assistant professor in urban Affairs and planning. My students are developing a participatory parks game, which is what the high school students that are in our Hope Project who are from Roanoke we're playing today. Basically, this is a park that is in their neighborhood. It's kind of an under utilized park that the city hopes to revitalize in a certain way. But we're trying to do that completely from the grassroots. The game is a great way to do that, because over time we can build that up in Albania, lead them through the planning process. They have to take into account their own interests, community members interests, and then decide what type of strategy they want to invest in and how much they want to invest in it. Then after that, they have to pick what amenities they want, which is a much more contentious thing than you'd think. It's teaching our community to have the resilience that it needs to address any issues that it may come across. I also hope that they get an understanding of what it means to be more of a community planning and where they can actually make a difference in their community. What I hope that the students get from this program is understand the importance of higher education, because all of the students are getting a college course for this. Also understand the importance of teamwork. Understand the importance of community development and understanding that the community is important.