Rangos Prizes Announces Winners of Virtual Pitch Competition

The John G. Rangos Sr. Prizes have announced the winners of the Four Minutes to Win It! virtual pitch competition held March 9 to 15.

Designed to inspire students and faculty to enhance Duquesne’s curriculum, the competition invited teams to submit four-minute videos to present their ideas, which were posted on the Rangos Prizes webpage. The campus community was invited to view the videos and provide feedback via an online survey, and a panel of judges reviewed each submission.

The Rangos Prizes exemplify Duquesne’s commitment to providing a horizon-expanding education that prepares students to pursue bigger goals.

“The Rangos Prizes program is a catalyst for exciting new courses, initiatives and academic resources for our community. Year after year, we see faculty and students identify opportunities to enhance our curriculum, support student learning and professional preparation, and invest in research and scholarship,” Dr. Darlene Weaver, associate provost for academic affairs, said. “Many of the faculty projects involve students as team members and many include forms of community engagement. The Rangos prize projects exemplify our tenacious commitment to excellence.”

New winners receive a $1,000 prize per team. Advancing winners receive funds in varying amounts to support the development of their projects.

Winners of the 2021 competition include:

New Faculty Winners

  • Emotional Intelligence
    Kelly Moore

  • Establishing the Duquesne University Telehealth Patient Guild
    Sarah Manspeaker, Alison Wix, Jessica Davis, Sarah Wallace

  • A Writing Center & Community Confluence: Moving the Writing Center into the Community
    Jim Purdy

New Student Winners

  • Trauma Informed Care in the Health Sciences
    Nathan Pearson, Amy Mattila
  • The Effects of Social Media and Microtargeting on Political Polarization
    Jessica Schmitz
  • Emerging Leaders in AI and Digital Stewardship
    Anna Meurer, Amanda Altoball, Lukas Chandler, Tina Nguyen
  • Start Smart: Providing First Generation Students the Opportunity for Academic Success
    Brooke Deal, William King, Brianna Ports

Advancing Student Winners

  • Empathy in the Digital Age
    Benjamin Gaddes
  • Improving Clinical Competency for the Next Generation of Ethics Consultants and Committee Members through Consultation Simulations
    Adele Flaherty, Andrew Harrington, Elizabeth Balskus, Hillary Villarreal

Advancing Faculty Winners

  • Health Inequalities, Professional Preparation, and the Pittsburgh Region: A Multidisciplinary, Community-Engaged Course to Prepare Generation Z for the Future
    Andrew Simpson, Cathleen Appelt, Jessica Devido, Pamela Spigelmyer
  • Community-Based Research & Development: A Cross-Sector, Inter-disciplinary and Inter-Generational Program
    Rick McCown, Norm Conti                    
  • From Pedagogy to Practices
    Aleina Smith and Samantha Backstrom and student members Maura Rost, Abby Nimerosky, Maria Ortiz

The next round of the prize competition is slated for the fall, along with a ceremony to honor this year’s winners.

For more information on the Rangos Prizes, visit duq.edu/rangosprizes.