POV Challenge

2025 POV Challenge

Hosted by Carolina Across 100 during UNC Engagement Week: February 24-28

Top 2 teams will win $500

CLE
Approved

Register by
Feb. 14

Q&A Session
Feb. 17

Submissions Due
Feb. 23

Winners Announced
Feb. 27

On the Topic of Affordable Housing Needs and Challenges

Help us better understand and elevate awareness of affordable housing needs and challenges in North Carolina as well as the strategies communities are employing to address these challenges. Use publicly available information, like data and existing resources, to research any of the prompts below. Then get creative in sharing what you learned and what you think.

Share Your Point of View

Form a team of 2-5 students and work together to convey your findings and ideas – use any combination of research, data, personal experience, and your own expression, to answer one of the three prompts below:

  • Access to safe, stable, and affordable housing – or the lack of it – can affect individuals and communities in deeply personal ways. What does affordable housing mean to you, and how has it shaped your life or community?

  • Peoples’ views and knowledge about housing often differ based on their personal experiences, values, and priorities. How can you help others understand the complexities of affordable housing issues?

  • In North Carolina and beyond, unique local geographic, economic, and social conditions significantly impact access to housing. How would you talk about affordable housing challenges in your hometown?

Find Examples of Submissions From Previous Years

You can choose how to convey your team’s insights and ideas. For example, your submission could be an infographic, a slide presentation, a data dashboard, or an interactive data visualization. You could also choose to design a poster, create artwork, write poetry, perform music, record a podcast, or offer an interpretive dance. A goal of this competition is to be inclusive, diverse, and creative in the ways that information and data can be visualized and shared.

Your Team Could Win $500

The top two entries will receive a $500 award, with smaller prizes awarded to “honorable mentions.” While we are offering prizes, we expect that all of the submissions will prove to be invaluable to the partnerships between our campus and North Carolina’s 100 counties.

Your Work Will Inform Community Action

As part of UNC’s Engagement Week, Carolina Across 100 (CX100) offers the POV Challenge to invite undergraduate and graduate students to help analyze and visualize health, economic and/or social impacts in our state. With limited supply, rising costs, and other issues, meeting local needs for safe, accessible, and affordable housing is a challenge for community leaders across North Carolina. Submissions from this competition will be used to engage with community collaborative teams across the state through the Our State, Our Homes program to ultimately improve access to and availability of affordable housing options. Your efforts in this competition serve as an important contribution to the campus-wide CX100 commitment to help communities in each of the state’s 100 counties.

Six Steps to Participate

Pull your team together

You are required to work in teams of 2-5 people. Teams may come together within or across any majors on campus and may include graduate and/or undergraduate students.  

Register Now

Registration is now open!

Only 1 member of your team should register on behalf of your group.

Get Your Data

You may use the data that Carolina Across 100 has compiled, linked below.  

 We also encourage you to find and use other data sets that support your work. Scroll down to the FAQ section for more help with data selection.

Decide on your creative product

We’re seeking creative ways to understand these prompts. (e.g., infographics, story maps, film, paintings, drawings, data dashboards, podcasts, poetry, music, photography, dance, etc.). The options and opportunities are wide open to how you choose to showcase the data you want to share about affordable housing in North Carolina. 

Be creative! And please feel free to utilize campus resources such as the Media and Design Center (undergrad library), BeAM Makerspace, or the Morrison Art Studio to support your work.   

Attend the Q&A Session

It is strongly encouraged that at least one member of your team attends the virtual Q&A Session on Monday, 2/17 from 12-1pm. During this time, the CX100 team will provide support on your team’s questions and ensure that all teams understand the submission guidelines. The meeting invitation link will be sent after you register for the POV Challenge.

Submit your creative product

You must provide your submission by midnight, Sunday 2/23. 

Submissions must be uploaded through our Qualtrics survey.

PDFs, video files, photos, word docs, etc. are all acceptable. If your creative product is not digital, you may offer a photo or video of it (examples: submit a photo of your artwork or a recording of a musical performance).

You must also submit a link to the data set you used. Be sure the data you’re using can be shared publicly.  

Attend the Engagement Week Reception (encouraged)

Winners will be announced during a special Engagement Week reception held on Thursday, February 27 from 5:00pm until 6:00pm at the UNC School of Government (in the 2nd floor Atrium). POV Challenge submissions will be on display to help our campus and community celebrate your contributions. Refreshments will be served and you’ll have the opportunity to meet POV Challenge judges and members of the Carolina Engagement Council. Let us know if you plan to attend the Engagement Week reception – RSVP here.

FAQs

In the POV Challenge, we will invite you to explore questions related to housing issues. Through your creative submissions, we aim to promote understanding of the challenges and needs surrounding affordable housing to ultimately improve access and availability across communities.

With limited supply, rising costs, and other issues, meeting local needs for safe, accessible, and affordable housing is a challenge for community leaders across North Carolina. What does affordable housing mean to you, and how has it shaped your life or community? How can you help others grasp the complexities of affordable housing issues? What innovative ideas do you have for communicating these challenges and needs?

When reviewing data and creating submissions, we encourage participants to explore diverse experiences and perspectives within this context. By pairing your understanding of current affordable housing data with your own perspective or point of view, we will gain a deeper understanding of how available data compares to individual ideas and experiences on this topic. As the CX100 team works with collaboratives across the state in learning how to strengthen community connections and better understand how to address affordable housing needs, we’re looking forward to learning from your work and creative expressions.

We expect submissions to be based on data, research, or other evidence about the subject matter, but encourage your teams to be creative in how you apply and communicate that information in your creative products.

Yes, but with one main caveat – the data must be publicly available. This means data that is available to anyone without restrictions or special permissions. (Publicly available data does not always mean free, though all the examples linked above are both free and publicly available). Examples of these types of data sets can be found here.

  • Deadline to register: Friday, 2/14 at 5pm
  • Q&A session: Monday, 2/17 from 12-1pm  
  • Submission deadline: Sunday (2/23) by midnight 
  • Judge review: Monday 2/24 – Tuesday 2/25
  • Reception: Thursday, 2/27 from 5-6pm
  • Receive feedback from judges on your submission: about 1 week after the POV Challenge ends  

You can register to participate by signing up at this link https://unc.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7QxgEJxC8hUC84K. The form includes prompts about your team’s info and confirms your participation in the Q&A Session. 

Teams can include 2 to 5 participants, comprised of undergraduate or graduate students from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Each team is allowed to make up to one (1) entry.

In order to submit your creative product for review and judging, it will need to be uploaded using this Qualtrics link.

If your creative product is not digital, you may offer a photo or video of it (examples: submit a photo of your artwork or a recording of a musical performance).

If you have questions or experience any trouble along the way, contact Jacob Hunter at jhunter@sog.unc.edu.

If he is unable to help immediately, he will get you connected to the appropriate support.   

Submissions will be assessed based on creativity, clarity, and usefulness.  

See the rubric judges will use here: 2025 POV Challenge Judges Rubric.

Judges will be announced soon and listed here within the FAQs.

Yes. Approximately a week after the competition ends, all teams will receive feedback from our panel of experts. 

After the competition, POV Challenge submissions will be used in a variety of ways as the Carolina Across 100 initiative continues to engage with communities across the state. They will be accessible on the Carolina Across 100 website with a discussion guide and brought to community conversations about the pandemic. They will also be archived by UNC Libraries.   

 

All POV Challenge submissions will become part of the Carolina Across 100 initiative’s materials and individuals/creators will be credited by listing their names, majors, and that the content was submitted as part of the POV Challenge. They will be shared with communities to facilitate conversations about recovery aspirations and innovations.  

Help us reach a wider student audience and celebrate your contributions to this Engagement Week challenge! Include #CarolinaAcross100 and #EngagementWeek2024 in your social media posts. Tag the ncIMPACT Initiative – find our handles here: https://linktr.ee/ncIMPACT

Yes! Students who participate in the 2025 POV Challenge can earn CLE credit.

Campus and Digital Resources

Research Hub YouTube Playlists

Students have free access to many training videos through LinkedIn Learning.

  • BeAM@CAROLINA

    BeAM is a network of makerspaces where you can join the UNC maker community in the design and making of physical objects for education, research, entrepreneurship and recreation. You can participate in open studios, training sessions, workshops, host classes and group activities in spaces equipped with emerging technologies like 3D printing as well as wood and metalworking shops.

  • Makerspace @ KSL

    The Makerspace @ Kenan Science Library enables UNC students, staff and faculty to explore emerging technologies and foster a creative community of makers and making.

  • Carmichael Makerspace

    Carolina Housing has partnered with BeAM to provide a Makerspace in Carmichael residence hall to make it easy and convenient for residents on campus to start making and creating! It also provides a unique space to engage with each other and for staff to put on fun programs and events.

  • Morrison Art Studio

    The Morrison Art Studio is located on the bottom floor of the Morrison Residence Hall and provides residential students an opportunity to unleash your inner artist. The 24-seat studio features free use of all the supplies you’ll need for painting and drawing and an artist-in-residence who is a graduate student working toward their Master of Fine Arts degree. The artist-in-residence serves as a resource to all visitors.

  • Music Practice Rooms

    The Department of Music houses 32 practice rooms in the basement level of Hill Hall with a variety of configurations, resources, and instruments available for student use. Most of the rooms are equipped with an upright or electric piano, mirror, and music stand.

When is the next opportunity to get involved with Carolina Across 100?

Stay connected to Carolina Across 100 as more opportunities for student engagement are announced. Subscribe to regular e-mail updates. Submit a student interest form to explore deeper involvement with Carolina Across 100.