Cultivating rural prosperity: ECU initiative aims to reshape eastern North Carolina.

• Position: RESEARCH: EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITY

East Carolina University is levering its intellectual capabilities, research facilities, community partnerships and network of alumni to solve the region's disparities in health care, education and economic development. The university's Rural Prosperity Initiative calls for a unique approach to tackling the state's toughest problems. Students, faculty and staff are combining resources and working across multiple disciplines to advance economic development. Additionally, the university continues to work with industry partners to enhance economic growth and prepare community members for a changing technological landscape. The university's motto--servire--calls for all Pirates to serve. ECU is answering that call, using innovative strategies to maximize success in eastern North Carolina.

* From the lab to the worksite

Student internships with regional businesses are a core element of ECU's goal of preparing its students for the state's increasingly competitive workforce. Rising senior Daysha Ervin, a biology major and member of the TriBeta Biological Honor Society, has put what she's learned in the classroom to good use with Greenville's U.N.X. Incorporated. U.N.X., founded in 1958, develops chemical detergents and specialties for consumer industries. Ervin works as an intern at U.N.X., testing the company's products for quality control before they reach consumers.

"My general and organic chemistry labs at ECU have really translated to the work I'm doing at U.N.X," Ervin said. "A lot of the experiments I've conducted in my lab courses have transferred over to the real world, including pH testing, titrations and collecting and analyzing data."

U.N.X. Laboratory Director Ryan Cotroneo said the company's partnership with ECU has opened U.N.X. up to new ideas and possibilities.

"We're bringing in a variety of students from ECU (who) have learned the latest and greatest teaching tools," Cotroneo said. "Our company is being exposed to new ideas because we're working with students (who) think and work differently than we do. We're becoming healthier as an organization through the exposure we've received from working with ECU and its students."

* Faculty and staff reach out

Along with its students, ECU faculty and staff members are serving the Rural Prosperity Initiative through their work with industry partners. In 2017, ECU launched seven pan-university research clusters--with an eighth planned this fall--that provide a multi-level framework for...