IHL Lays Out “Blueprint” Competition for Students

JACKSON, Miss. (WCBI) – Mississippi leaders are turning to the future of our state to help solve key problem areas for residents.

According to The Daily Journal, the Blueprint Mississippi Social Business Challenge is being established for students of the state’s eight public universities to compete with one another by developing projects that deal with economic and quality-of-life obstacles the state faces.

The challenge is structured to have winning teams at each campus as well as overall state winners. Rewards and incentives are being provided to the winners by The Mississippi Economic Council and other sponsors.

Blueprint Mississippi listed nine goals in 2012 that students participating in the challenge had to follow.

Those goals are:

• Increase Mississippians’ education achievement.
• Develop “a more robust workforce.”
• Develop a stronger and more expansive economy.
• Make health care an economic driver.
• Help the state’s creative economy.
• Put in place a plan to continually improve infrastructure.
• Improve access to financial capital.
• Enhance coordination among “public, private and nonprofit leaders.”
• Work on racial reconciliation and diversity issues.