News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Tennessee Tech’s Center for Rural Innovation has been honored with the 2024 Shining Example Partnership Award.
The award one of the most prestigious from the Southeast Tourism Society’s annual Connections Conference. Tennessee Tech Center for Rural Innovation Assistant Director Andrea Kruszka said the award is given to an organization for their outstanding contributions to travel and tourism in the southeast. Kruszka said the center’s partnership with the Tennessee Department of Tourism Development and other communities across the state recognized.
“That started off with providing community branding for cities and counties across the state for tourism as well as providing things like technical assistance for businesses,” Kruszka said. “We do websites, we do graphic design, we do photography and things like that as well as economic impact studies.”
Kruszka said the university’s partnership with the Department of Tourism Development has benefited multiple communities across the state.
“It shows the communities that we are working with like hey you got resources here in your corner,” Kruszka said. “We’ve got your back and we are here for you and I think it can really help the communities not feel so isolated, especially the rural communities that we predominantly work with.”
Kruszka said she and her team were excited to hear the news that they received the award. Kruszka said it is special to receive an award and to be recognized for the hard work her team and students have put in over the past several years.
“It is a great thing for the center and a great thing for us and it shows that what we are doing really does have a lot of value,” Kruszka said. “Which you know, sometimes when you are stuck in a nitty gritty situation you are like does this even matter, but this shows that someone in the industry and an organization that I really respect cares, so getting the recognition really means a lot.”
Kruszka said receiving the award could open up more opportunities for the center to partner with other organizations. Kruszka said in that case it would be a win-win situation.
