About Rain It In
Rain It In is a non-profit competition that challenges post-secondary
students to create climate resilient solutions that have a specific focus on
mitigating the impacts of intense rainfall and flooding. The competition
provides a unique experiential learning opportunity for students to apply their
knowledge and skills to a real-world problem affecting our
communities. Afterwards, Rain It
In connects interested students with resources, mentors and programs to
help with the transition from an idea to entrepreneurship and product
commercialization. By doing this, Rain It In hopes to create new career opportunities and ultimately support the implementation of solutions that will positively impact our communities and the environment.
The competition tasks teams of post-secondary
students to design and present a solution meeting the requirements of a specific
challenge, provided by a project sponsor. Our fall 2022 challenge has been generously provided by The Corporation
of the City of London.
The Problem
Stormwater, its impacts, mechanisms, and mitigation strategies are
poorly understood by the public. This results in challenges for civil services
to justify large capital investments into infrastructure, or programs and
policies to protect public property and environmental health. In addition, the public is often ill-equipped to understand the impacts of
their own actions on aging infrastructure, are not informed of practices that
can protect themselves, and may contribute to the problem through their own actions . Standard public
information sessions, pamphlets, online information, and newsletters have not
been effective in enlightening the public. This knowledge-gap is seen in all
age groups and backgrounds.
From recent trials with elementary school students, hands on experiences
were found to be much better at engaging and instilling understanding than
traditional outreach methodologies. The challenge then is to create
professional, safe, cost-effective, and easily deployable
"experiences" that can educate the public on various
stormwater topics. Competing teams will design
and create "experiential" kits (similar to those by https://www.kiwico.com/) that can be manufactured by the City of London and made available
for a target audience.
Volunteer as a Mentor
Rain It In is seeking industry experts who can volunteer their time as team mentors.
Students and mentors will be invited to attend a virtual workshop on
October 15th, 2022 from 1:00-3:00 PM EST that will focus on project mentorship and networking. The first part of the workshop will be a structured, speed mentoring session and the second part will be a free space for those who would like some more time to connect. This is also a great opportunity for professionals to highlight their company and different career paths to the students. Mentors are welcome to continue mentoring student teams directly after the workshop if they would like to provide further support.
Interested in being a mentor? Help us get to know you by filling out the survey below.
Please contact us at
inquiries@rainitinsc.com if you have any questions.
