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Adams State Internship Program Proposes Scooters, TikTok Campaigns and Themed Events to Link Students With Downtown Alamosa
Summary
An Adams State University internship-class project presented five strategies to boost student engagement with downtown: scooters or ride options, social-media collaboration (TikTok), bilingual brochures, targeted lighting improvements, and themed student events called "Last Bridal."
Students and faculty involved in an Adams State University downtown-internship course presented a semester-long project to the Alamosa City Council outlining strategies to connect students to downtown businesses.
The class—treated as course credit while students were paid for internship work—surveyed campus and distilled responses into five opportunity areas: transportation (scooters/ride services), social media collaboration (notably TikTok), bilingual printed materials, focused lighting and safety along likely walking routes, and student-focused events (a recurring themed nightlife event called “Last Bridal” in presentations).
Presenters told council that scooters previously improved student access and safety but that companies require significant upfront investment; one company indicated a roughly $100,000 start-up threshold for the market. Students suggested a collaboration with Visit Alamosa and downtown merchants to produce short-format social media content aimed at recruiting students and visitors. The internship also recommended a low-cost “student event committee” model in which businesses buy into a small annual program (students’ estimate: about $40 per merchant) to receive marketing help and student time to promote youth-oriented events.
Councilors asked practical questions about scooters and liability and noted previous local experience with scooter vendors; staff said talks with companies including Lime and Bird had occurred and that Uber discussions had shown new progress. Visit Alamosa and Main Street committee members who observed the presentations told council the students’ work produced “useful, actionable” ideas and that some initiatives could be piloted through partnerships between the city, Visit Alamosa and downtown merchants.
The internship team said students also raised safety and lighting concerns on the routes between campus and downtown and that students favored bright, accessible corridors with targeted lighting rather than broad dark-sky changes across the city.
Clarifying details: students recommended five focus areas (scooters/transport, social media, brochures, lighting, student events); a cited barrier from private firms was an approximate $100,000 threshold for deployment in small markets; recommended merchant buy-in for a student internship marketing program was described as modest (about $40 annual contribution per merchant).
