March 5, 2026

During UNC-Chapel Hill's 2026 Engagement Week, the Carolina Across 100 (CX100) team expanded on previous iterations of the POV Challenge to deliver a creative learning experience that benefited both students and communities. 

About the POV Challenge 

The POV (Point Of View) Challenge is an applied learning opportunity that invites UNC-Chapel Hill students to explore publicly available data and other information, then creatively respond to a prompt, sharing their insights through art, music and dance, photography, poetry, data visualization and more. The challenge is organized by Carolina Across 100, and 2026 marked the fifth annual edition of the competition. 

Students from across the campus participated in the 2026 POV Challenge. 24 students (15 undergraduate and 9 graduate/professional) from across 18 unique majors and programs were represented. These programs included:

• Advertising and Public Relations

• Biology

• Clinical Mental Health Counseling

• Dramatic Arts

• Economics

• English & Comparative Literature

• Geography and Environment

• Health Policy

• Healthcare Policy and Management

• Information Science

• Maternal and Child Health

• Media and Journalism

• Music

• Neuroscience

• Political Science

• Psychology

• Public Policy

• Statistics and Analytics

Centering Community Knowledge

For this year's POV Challenge, the CX100 team amended the process to center community expertise and feedback. While both campus and community experts have judged student submissions in past challenges, the 2026 POV Challenge was judged exclusively by community experts participating in CX100's CARE4Youth program. These cross-sector teams are composed of representatives from health, education, government, workforce, and nonprofit entities from 18 counties across the state. These community leaders have joined CARE4Youth to improve youth and young adult mental health by implementing evidence-based interventions in their local contexts. 

CARE4Youth teams viewed and scored student submissions during their February learning forum. Team members thoughtfully reviewed student submissions, scoring them based on three categories: creativity, clarity, and usefulness to their work. Their feedback was informed by their local work and experience addressing youth mental health issues. 

CARE4Youth team members were inspired by the students' creativity. 

The technical and artistic skills of UNC students were on display for CARE4Youth team members. 

CARE4Youth team members discovered new ways to communicate data 

Seeking Community Feedback

The purpose of the POV Challenge was not just to help students develop and demonstrate their skills and creativity. By hosting a community-judged competition, we hoped to help students develop the skills of research translation and communication for diverse audiences. Our aim was for students to practice taking their training, research, and knowledge and to make it accessible and useful for local leaders across the state. 

Students who participated in the POV Challenge noted that creating products that could be used to support communities and being judged by community experts motivated them.   

"We chose to participate in the 2026 POV Challenge because we wanted to push ourselves outside the classroom and apply our in-class learning in a real-world setting. In addition to that, we got the opportunity to think critically, collaborate under pressure, and solve problems that didn't have straightforward answers." 

The opportunity to receive feedback on the usefulness of their work from dedicated community leaders was a draw to participating in the competition. 

"We wanted to receive feedback and learn from our judges regarding how else we can potentially help this cause in the future" 

A Win-Win for Campus and Community

The POV Challenge provided benefits to both students and community members. 

For campus, submissions displayed the varied range of talents and skills present within Carolina's student body. Students worked in teams of 2 to 5 to create interactive data dashboards, interviews, story maps, art projects, spoken word, music and dance products,
toolkits, and an
ecosystem map in response to prompts about youth behavioral health in North Carolina. 

Students shared that the opportunity allowed them to develop new technical skills such as website design, data analysis and visualization, qualitative interviewing, and storytelling. The challenge also helped students further develop their interpersonal skills, such as communication and collaboration. 

"Over the course of this project, we've both developed our research skills in several ways… we got more confidence conducting interviews and networking with peers and faculty. We also worked together to learn how to design a website and showcase our research in the best way."

"Through this project, we aim to raise awareness of the mental health challenges youth face and encourage individuals and communities to reflect on how best to support them. One of the most beneficial skills we gained from this experience was team collaboration and communication."

"… we strengthened our ability to translate complex data into engaging visual narratives, and communicate research in a way that is emotionally captivating. We also deepened our understanding of how creative mediums can drive policy awareness."

Communities also benefited from seeing and judging this year's POV Challenge submissions. CARE4Youth participants shared that this challenge encouraged them to think of new and creative ways of communicating about youth mental health. The teams also noted that they planned to directly share the students' work in their communities, utilizing the data dashboards, ecosystem maps, visual, and performance art pieces and other submissions to spark conversation and reduce stigma. The CARE4Youth teams also shared that a challenge like this could be an effective way to engage young people in their communities in sharing their perspectives. 

"…we appreciated the data, the reflection on rural areas, and local resources to better address issues."

"[We] plan to present to [the] school board as a tool for collaborative efforts"

"[The submission is] incredibly useful for our team and any team that shared population size and location similarities"

These reciprocal benefits between campus and community demonstrate the promise of partnerships like Carolina Across 100. Students' research abilities and creative skills were directed toward a community need, and communities' feedback in turn shaped students' learning through the process.